FIRST RESULTS OF MARLING. 417 



but one-third of calcareous matter), the improvement produced was 

 greater and more speedy in showing than I had dared to hope for. 

 When the plants were but a few inches high, and before I had ex- 

 pected to see the slightest improvement (indeed none had been 

 expected to show in the first year), the superiority of the marled 

 corn was manifest, and which continued to increase as the growth 

 advanced. My high gratification can only be appreciated by a 

 schemer and projector; but such a one can well imagine my feel- 

 ings and sympathize in my triumph. The increase of the first 

 crop, corn, I stated by guess, in reporting the experiment, to be 

 fully 40 per cent., and that of the wheat which succeeded was 

 much greater. Later measurements of other products of experi- 

 ments have induced me to* believe that I had underrated the 

 amount of increase in this first application. [This experiment is 

 the first stated, and at length, at page 117 of " Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures," 5th edition. Throughout this republished article, the 

 references to the pages of the u Essay on Calcareous Manures," 

 will be changed from the previous to the present edition.] 



Great as had been the labour of this application, and small as 

 its increased product (comparing both with later operations), the 

 results served completely to sustain my theoretical views, and also 

 showed the remedy for the general evil to be far more quick, and 

 more profitable, than I had counted on. Another person would 

 probably have despised this small increase to the acre, if supposing 

 the effect to be but temporary ; and this all would have inferred, 

 whether judging by comparison with all other manures known in 

 practice, or even if by the authority of books. For the best in- 

 formed of the old writers (even Lord Kames, for example), while 

 claiming for the effects of marl great durability, still consider that 

 at some period, say twenty or a hundred years, the effects are to 

 cease. But my views were not limited within any practical expe- 

 rience, or authority, but by my own theory of the action ; and 

 that theory taught me to infer that the benefit gained would never 

 be lost, and that under proper cultivation, the increase of product 

 would still more increase, instead of being lessened in the course 

 of time. In thus fully confiding in the permanency of the im- 

 provement, I was at once convinced of the operation being both 

 cheap and profitable. All doubt and hesitation were thrown aside, 

 and I determined to increase my labours in marling to the utmost 

 extent of my views. Still the want of spare labour, and the esta- 

 blished routine of farm operations which occupied all the force, 

 retarded my operations so much, that no more than twelve more 

 acres (for the next year's crop) were marled in that year (1818). 



It forms an essential part of the character of an enthusiastic and 

 successful projector, and especially an agricultural projector, to be 

 as anxious to inform others as to profit himself. Of course I tried 



