102 ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 



sure, what rains and crops are constantly removing from 

 the land. 



'• Sea-weed is collected along most of our rocky coasts, and 

 is seldom neglected by the farmers on the borders of the 

 sea. In the Isle of Thanet it is sometimes cast ashore 

 by one tide, and carried off by the next ; so that after a 

 storm the teams of the farmers may be seen at work, even 

 during the night, in collecting the weed, and carrying it 

 beyond the reach of the sea. In that locality, it is said to 

 have doubled or tripled the produce of the land. On the 

 Lothian coasts, a right of way to the sea for the collection 

 of sea-ware increases the value of the land from 25s. to 30s. 

 an acre. In the Western Isles it is extensively collected, 

 and employed as a manure; and on the northeast coast of 

 Ireland, the farming fishermen go out in their boats and 

 hook it up from considerable depths in the sea. 



" In the Western Islands, one cart-load of farm-yard 

 manure is considered equal in immediate effect, — upon the 

 first crop that is, — to 21 of fresh sea-weed, or to li after it 

 has stood two months in a heap. 



" Sea-weed is said to be less suited to clay soils ; while 

 barren sand has been brought into the state of a fine loam 

 by the constant application of sea-weed alone for a long 

 series of years." — JolmstorHs Ag. Chem. 



Swamp Earth, or Much. — This valuable fertilizer, the 

 product of the decay of leaves, twigs, and other vegetable 

 matters, is found in great abundance. The localities are 

 so numerous, and the deposits so commonly noticed and 

 so well known, that it has not been thought necessary to 

 collect a list of them. Generally they are found in all 



