( 6 } 
ful in composts, or mixtures of dung, peat and earth ; 
a mass of which, disposed in alternate layers, is no 
doubt the perfection of this branch of husbandry.(1) 
It is also applied without any accessary, and with 
great advantage, to marshy grounds, to those hav- 
ing in them the remains of shell fish,(2) to natural 
meadows, and to all soils abounding in vegetable 
mould. On those of a different character it must 
be cautiously used as to quantity, and indeed, on 
any soil, an excess of it will completely destroy the 
fertilizmg principle; an effect constantly observed 
near mortar beds. 
The time of using it, is liable to is uncertainty. 
On wheat, it should be sown as soon as the grain 
shows itself, and on meadows, late in the fall and af- 
ter the cattle have been turned off. 
_'Marle, being a compound of clay and lime, has 
the properties of the latter, and produces similar ef- 
fects, but in a smaller degree. Hence it is, that the 
quantity of it given to the acre, is much greater 
than that of lime. The English practice is, to 
gpread it over a field to the depth of three or four 
inches. This is done late in the fall, to the end, 
that frost and rain may break down and pulverise it, 
_ The properties of ashes, whether derived from 
the combustion of animals, of vegetables, or fossile 
coal, are nearly the same, and resemble those oflime 
and marl. They powerfully attract and hold mois- 
ture and carbonic acid, and they hasten the decom- 
(1) These might be formed in narrow lintals, inclining from the stable. 
(2) There is much of this description of land on the bays and creeks of the Chesa- 
peake, 
