304 SEARCHING FOR MAUL. 



out the year, at the moderate allowance of 200 working days, 

 and 100 bushels carried out for each day, the j^ar's work will 

 amount to 20,000 bushels ; or enough for the first dressing of 80 

 acres, at 250 bushels. This alone would be creating a great value, 

 and obtaining a great profit upon the outlay of expense. But, be- 

 sides, this operation would allow the profitable employment of any 

 amount of additional and available force. When, at any time, 

 other teams and labourers could be spared to assist, even if but for 

 a day or two, everything would be ready for them to go immedi- 

 ately to work. The pit is well drained, the road is firm, the bridges 

 in good order, and the ground for the marl marked off and ready 

 to receive the loads. In this manner, much work may be obtained 

 in the course of the year, from teams which would otherwise be 

 idle, and labourers whose other employment would be but of little 

 importance. Also the spreading of marl on the field is a job that 

 will be always ready to occupy spare labour (unless the marl is 

 clayey and also very wet) ; and the removing of earth to uncover 

 marl may be done when rain, snow, or severe freezing weather has 

 rendered the earth unfit for almost every other kind of work. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



DIRECTIONS FOR THE SEARCHING FOR AND TESTING OF MARL. 



IN the order of time and of operations, the searching for marl, 

 when required for any one locality, must precede the labours di- 

 rected or described in the foregoing chapter. Nevertheless, the 

 reverse order will be better for the clear understanding of directions 

 by those persons who are without any experience in this business. To 

 know how best to search for marl, it is essential to know the gene- 

 ral position, and other characters of the beds ; and the necessary 

 lights on these points were given in the preceding chapter as the 

 most suitable place. 



It is not only on farms, or in larger spaces, where no marl has 

 been seen, that the search for it may be necessary. On large farms 

 where it is most abundant, and easily accessible, in some places, it 

 is usually very important to trace the bed to some other place, 

 where the working will be more useful or convenient. The being 

 thus enabled to bring the excavations a few hundred yards nearer 

 to the fields may save twice as many hundred dollars in j&e expense 

 of carting the marl within one or two years. 



The farmer who has seen (and still better if he has worked) 

 marl in some one spot of his land, or his neighbourhood, has thereby 



