MARLINO ON ACID CLAY SOIL. 127 



The remainder of the thirty acres was grubbed during the win- 

 ter of 1826-27 j marled the next summer at five hundred to six 

 hundred bushels the acre marl 40 per cent. A rectangle (A) 

 11 by 13 poles, was laid off by the chain and compass, arid left 

 without marl. All the surrounding land supposed to be equal in 

 quality with A and all level, except on the sides E and B, which 

 were partly sloping, but not otherwise different. The soil suited to 

 the general description given before j no material difference known 

 or suspected between the land on which 5th experiment was made 

 and this, except that the latter had not been robbed of any wood 

 for fuel, before clearing. The large trees (or all more than ten 

 Inches through) were belted, and the smaller cut down in the be- 

 ginning of 1828, and all the land west of the line e /, was planted 

 in corn. As usual, the tillage bad, and the crop very small. The 

 remainder lying east of e f, was coultered once ; but, as more labour 

 could not be spared, nothing more was done with it until the latter 

 part of the winter, 1829, when it was broken by two-horse ploughs, 

 oats sown and covered by trowel ploughs ; then clover sown, and a 

 wooden-tooth harrow passed over to cover the seed, and to smooth 

 down, in some measure, the masses of roots and clods. 



Results, 1829. The oats produced badly ; but yielded more for 

 the labour required than corn would have done. The young clover 

 on the marled land was remarkably good, and covered -the surface 

 completely. In the unmarled part, A, only two casts through had 

 been sown, for comparison, as I knew it would be a waste of seed. 

 This looked as badly as had been expected. 



1830. The crop of clover would have been considered excellent 

 even on good land, and was most remarkable for so poor a soil as 

 this. The strips sown through A, had but little left alive, and 

 that scarcely of a size to be observed, except one or two small 

 tufts, where I supposed some marl had been deposited by the 

 cleaning of a plough, or that ashes had been left, from burning 

 the brush. The growth of clover was left undisturbed until after 

 midsummer, when it was grazed by my small stock of cattle, but 

 not closely. 



1831. Corn on the whole field. October 20th, measured care- 

 fully half an acre (10 by 8 poles) in A, the same in D, and half 

 as much (10 by 4) in E. No more space could be taken on this 

 side, for fear of getting within the injurious influence of the con- 

 tiguous woods. No measurement was made on the side B, because 

 a large oak, which the belting had not killed, affected its product 

 considerably. Another accidental circumstance prevented my 

 being able to know the product of the side C, which however was 

 evidently and greatly inferior to all the marled land on which oats 

 and clover had been raised. This side had been in corn, followed 

 by wheat, and next (1830) under its spontaneous growth of weeds. 



