1024 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK xi. 



liberally applied Provided that a good dressing of phosphates is given, 

 nitrate of soda to the extent of 3 or 4 cwt. per acre may be put on with 

 good effect, and on some soils salt is very useful. Light land, and even 

 heavy land poor in potash, should get a few cwt. of kainit. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ON THE APPLICATION OF LIME, CHALK, MARL, &c. 



WITH the object of improving soils and of bringing them more nearly 

 to resemble the typical loam, which is most generally suited to 

 agricultural purposes, various earthy matters are sometimes brought 

 upon and incorporated with soils which possess too great a proportion 

 of one ingredient, and correspondingly too little of another. A sandy 

 soil may thus be made stiffer, less porous, and more retentive of 

 moisture, by the addition of clay. A soil containing an excess of 

 organic matter a peaty soil, for example may be improved by the 

 application of lime. The effect of such substances as lime, chalk, 

 marl, and clay is partly physical and partly chemical, in any case, it 

 should be ameliorative. 



The substances of a calcareous nature which are thus used include 

 shell-sand, chalk, lime, and marl. 



SHELLY OR CALCAREOUS SAND is obtainable on many parts of the 

 sea-coast, and consists of the fine calcareous matter produced by the 

 disintegration of marine shells. This material is best adapted for 

 cold, clayey, or loamy soils, on which it will serve to increase the yield 

 of crops. The quantity applied per acre is usually 18 to 20 tons, 

 though the peculiar nature and other circumstances of the soil or 

 situation, as well as the greater or less proportion of calcareous matter 

 it already contains, will necessarily cause a modification in this respect. 

 A moderate quantity of calcareous matter, thus finely divided, will 

 produce as great an effect as a much larger dressing of marl, as it can 

 be spread more uniformly upon the land, and more intimately blended 

 with the soil. When laid on grass land deficient in lime, it speedil}- 

 improves it. The finer the grain of the shell-sand the more speedy is 

 its effect, and the shorter is the period of its duration. 



CHALK. Of this material there are two kinds : the one soft and 

 unctuous, which supplies the best dressing, in its natural state, for 

 land ; the other hard, firm, and dry, which is better adapted for the 

 purpose of burning into lime. Either kind, however, affords an excel- 

 lent application for compact clayey soils, into the pores of which it 



