CALCAREOUS WITH VEGETABLE MATTER. 163 



as 1821, made this fixing operation the first of the two most im- 

 portant agencies, and though that theoretical view guided my prac- 

 tice from the beginning, still it was not until after a long time, that 

 gradually and slowly I fully and truly estimated the full value and 

 profit of this operation. My early and zealous efforts (before be- 

 ginning to marl) to improve naturally poor lands by the vegetable 

 and animal manures of the farm, had been so much disappointed, 

 and the effects had been so inconsiderable as well as so fleeting, 

 that it was long before I arrived at the conviction of the full ex- 

 tent of the opposite and new condition of the soil. But during 

 latter years, the certain and profitable operation, and durable ope- 

 ration, of every kind of vegetable or alimentary manure, no mat- 

 ter how or when applied, has been made obvious ; and now my 

 estimate of value would be, that if marling had no other operation 

 whatever than this one of making other manures much more active 

 and durable, the profit from this one source alone would amply re- 

 ward all the usual labours and expenses of the operation.*] 



On " galled" spots, from which all the soil has been washed, and 

 where no plant can live, the application of marl alone is utterly 

 useless ; at least, until time and accident shall furnish some addi- 

 tion of vegetable matter also. Putrescent manures alone would 

 there have but little effect, unless in great quantity, and would 

 soon be all lost. But marl and putrescent matter together serve to 

 form a new soil, and thus both are brought into useful action ; the 

 marl is made active, and the putrescent manure permanent. The 

 only perfect cures that I have been able to make, at one operation, 

 of galls produced upon a barren sub-soil, were by applying heavy 

 dressings of both calcareous and putrescent manures together ; and 

 this method may be relied on as certainly effectual. But though 

 a fertile soil may thus be created, and fixed durably on galls other- 

 wise irreclaimable, the cost will generally exceed the vakie of the 

 land recovered, from the great quantity of putrescent matter re- 

 quired. Much of our acid hilly land has been deprived, by wash- 

 ing, of a considerable portion of its natural soil, though not yet 

 made entirely barren. The foregoing remarks equally apply to 

 this kind of land, to the extent that its soil has been carried off. 

 It will be profitable to apply marl to such land ; but its effect will 

 be diminished, in proportion to the previous removal of the soil. 

 Calcareous soils, from the difference of texture, are much less apt 

 to wash than other kinds. Within a few years after marling a hilly 



[* Confirmatory testimony. Liming "increases the effect of a given ap- 

 plication of [putrescent] manure ; calls into action that which, having been 

 previously added, appears to lie dormant ; and though manure must be 

 plentifully laid upon the land after it has been well limed, yet the same 

 degree of productiveness can still be maintained at a less cost of manure 

 than where no lime has been applied." Johnston's Lectures, p. 391.] 



