41 6 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



for it unbinds the clay, and makes it fit to produce crops 

 in abundance. It is also on this account that the Farmers 

 in Essex where there is no chalk to be found, even those 

 who live a long way off, come hither down to the banks 

 of the Thames, where there are chalk-pits, to buy here 

 many loads of chalk, and carry them a long way over 

 land [T. II. p. 61], to manure their arable fields with it, 

 when they consist of a stiff clay. Those who live farther 

 in Kent, and have a similar clay soil, improve it in the 

 same manner, with chalk. In sandy soil chalk is said 

 not to be of any use. 



Thus those who live both near and far away from here, 

 avail themselves of this chalk for manure for their arable 

 and grass lands. From Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, and 

 very many other places in the English Provinces which 

 either lie near the Thames, or else on the sea coast, all 

 kinds of provisions, such as wheat, barley, oats, butter, 

 cheese, &c, are carried to London in small vessels. 

 When the same small vessels return home from London, 

 they will not go back empty ; therefore they come to 

 some one of these chalk pits, ballast their vessel with 

 chalk which they can have here for a small price, and 

 carry it home, where they either burn it first to lime, 

 before they lay it on the arable fields, or lay it on the 

 fields as they get it. Foreign ships also on the home- 

 ward voyage often take from hence a great quantity of 

 chalk with them. 



The bases of the walls and banks on both sides of the 

 Thames are made of this chalk, partly because it binds 

 well, and partly because they have no other kind of stones. 

 It is arranged there both in layer and smaller pieces. 

 [T. II. p. 62]. The outhouses in different places were 

 built of bare Chalk. The principal use to which chalk 

 has been put, is, that in several places, they burn lime of 

 it— of which more a little farther on. 



