8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This is an old device, far commoner in days gone by when labour was 

 cheap than it has been in our time. In execution it was very similar 

 to chalking, and the two were often confused under one name. Pliny 

 tells us it was known to the Gauls and was generally known as " marl, 

 ing." Walter of Henley in the thirteenth century emphatically 

 recommends it. " Know for certain," he says, " that marl lasts 

 longer than manure." " Marl the ground of the sheepfold every 

 fortnight and let it be strewn on the top, and know you shall have 

 from these more profit than if they lie in the fold." The author of 

 " Scneschaucie" of the same period is equally emphatic. Gervase 

 Markham wrote a book about it in 1625, but tells us tantalizingly 

 little. Many instances are on record in the eighteenth and early - 

 nineteenth century journals of the cost and efficacy of marling : many 

 survivals remain in names of lanes and fields. Marlpit Lane, Marlpit 

 Field and similar names — all these go back to the days when men 

 sought to control the mineral portions of the soil. 



In Belgium and Denmark marling was still being done before the 

 war : difficulties of labour and transit having been overcome by 

 large scale working and the use of light railways. An instance is 

 furnished by the intensively cultivated tract of land known as the 

 Pays de Waes in Belgium. The soil is very light : in places it is even 

 blown about by the wind. But clay lies near : it was brought in 

 tramways, and laid on to a depth of about 4 inches. The soil then 

 became very productive. Excellent results have also been obtained 

 in Denmark, where, perhaps more than anywhere, the work has been 

 put on a sound scientific and economic basis. Usually a district is 

 marled by co-operation between farmers, whereby the cost of marl 

 on the land is reduced to about 2 kroner (2s. 3^.) the cubic metre. 

 This has necessitated the construction of light railways from the 

 marl pit to the farm, and the work has been carried out by co-operative 

 associations, often working on a loan from the State, free of interest 

 and repayable in twenty-five years. Another method has been for 

 the Society to buy moveable tracks and tip-trucks and to let them out 

 to the farmer. 



In England we have now given it up, excepting only in dealing 

 with peat or moorland soils. There it is essential to secure some 

 mineral matter. In the Fen districts west of the Ouse it is customary 

 to dig down through the 5 or 6 feet of black Fen soil to the Kimme- 

 ridge clay below and haul it up to the surface. Prior to the war the 

 work used to cost about 50s. an acre., but the improvement was 

 abundantly worth while. In the Dutch and Belgian reclamation of 

 moorland it is usual to add sand, and in a reclamation that is being 

 attempted in this country where sand lies 9 inches below the 

 surface the ploughing is done sufficiently deeply to bring some of 

 it up. 



In other cases, however, neither clay nor sand is generally added 

 to the soil. Labour has become scarce and dear, and, more important 

 still, farmers and horticulturists have learnt how to manage soils of 

 the different types : they have evolved systems and methods suitable 



