ll'2 MARLING! IN ENGLAND. LIMING. 



clearness or correctness, as is done with marl; but the reader at 

 least cannot be mistaken in this, that the ultimate effect of every 

 application of lime must be to make the soil more calcareous ; and 

 to that cause solely are to be imputed all the long-continued bene- 

 ficial consequences, and great profits, which have been derived 

 from liming. But excepting this one point, in which we cannot 

 be misled by ignorance or want of precision, the mass of writings 

 on lime, as well as on calcareous manures in general, will need 

 much sifting to yield instruction. The opinions published on the 

 mode of operation of lime are so many, so various, and so contra- 

 dictory, that it seems as if each author had hazarded a guess, and 

 added it to a compilation of those of all who had preceded him. 

 For a reader of these publications to be able to reject all that is 

 erroneous in reasoning, and in statements of facts or inapplicable 

 on account of difference of soil, or other circumstances and thus 



all for marling the 6 acres. 3. Another 6 acres, adjoining the last, at 75 

 rods average distance from the pit, would cost 79 4s. So that at this very 

 small distance of 412 yards only, and on even, firm, and level ground, the 

 cost of ordinary marling is about $35 the English statute acre. Of course, 

 for one or more miles, the expense would be intolerable. 



Neither is this marl (or even the poorer "clay" as there termed) in 

 Lancashire wanting in calcareous matter. Of 4 specimens stated, the 

 calcareous proportions were between 19J and 22 per cent. I infer, from 

 general notices, that others are much richer. There is no intimation in 

 the report as to whether the soils are or are not calcareous before being 

 marled. But there is other and better authority for supposing that the 

 soils are naturally calcareous. The red marl of Lancashire is of the 

 "new red sand-stone" geological formation, and so I presume is the 

 over-lying soil (Morton on Soils, p. G7). If so, this would remove all 

 chemical action from the very heavy dressings of calcareous marl in 

 Lancashire. At p. 70, the same author speaks of the great improvement 

 made by liming "on the red marl" in Somerset and Devonshire. The de- 

 servedly high 'authority of this writer is enough to establish these facts 

 of improvement which he asserts. But it requires no argument to prove 

 that when lime is found a beneficial application to a "red marl" soil, or 

 any soil before calcareous, that it must be by some other mode than that 

 chemical action which I call marling or calxing, and which always consists 

 in rendering a soil calcareous, which was not so before. We might safely 

 infer that the farmers of Lancashire do not incur the enormous expense 

 of their marlings merely to put the calcareous ingredient on their lands. 

 But the author of the "Report" leaves no doubt on that point. He says: 

 " Undoubtedly the calcareous matter contained in either marl [the clay or 

 the richer marl] is of the highest importance ; but obviating the natural de- 

 ficiencies of the soil, by adding sand to clay, or clay to sand, is of more conse- 

 quence than the mere calcareous stimulus^ which might be obtained at a much 

 lighter expense" [i. e. by using lime instead.] 



In the appendix there will be presented many more facts in confirmation. 

 But these alone will go far to prove that the marling of England is still 

 more different from the "marling" or calxing which I have recommended 

 and practised, than is our "marl" from the substances so called in Europe. 

 1851.] 



