Dr. Berger on the Isle of Man, 55 



The farmers in the northern part of the isle make use of the 

 above marls, particularly of that from B. Wodden to manure their 

 land. According to their expressions, marling strengthens the land, 

 whereas Xwat purges it, two different ways of obtaining the same 

 end, the one by adding what is supposed to be wanting to the land 

 to make it good, the other by getting rid of what is reckoned to be 

 hurtful to it. Marling once in twenty years, is considered as suf- 

 ficient to keep the land in good order under a proper course of 

 crops: eight or nine of which may be taken successively immediately 

 after the operation.* 



One hundred and fifty tons of marl are computed to be necessary 

 for an acre of land. The expences, supposing the carriage not to 

 exceed a mile, will amount to six pounds sterling. The cost of 

 liming, a practice chiefly used in the southern part of the isle, is 

 nearly the same. Ninety bushels of lime is the quantity allowed for 

 covering an acre of land.f Sea weeds previously made into a com- 

 post, are also much used in the south district of the island. The 

 marl by lying at the surface sometimes becomes considerably 

 lighter. When dung mixed with hot lime is put upon a marled 

 ground, the fermentation that ensues produces a very surprizing 

 effect. 



tttt Coals, 



It is unfortunately more as a warning against the delusive ac- 

 counts that have circulated abroad with respect to the discovery of 



* Mr. Curwen's Agr. Report, p. 153. 



+ In Mr. Thomas Quayle's " General View of the Agriculture of the Isle of Man," 

 it is said tliat from 1807 to 181 1, 84,992 barrels of lime have been sold from the several 

 kilns fitted up for that purpose in the south-eastern part of the island. 



