Marling  or  Claying. 
40  7 
Pym  * practised  border-burning  for  seventeen  years  on  heavy- 
land  (which  I have  myself  seen),  and  increased  his  produce  of 
wheat  nearly  10  bushels  an  acre.  Another  witness,  having  heard 
at  a Bedfordshire  meeting  farmers  declare  “ that  they  could  not 
cultivate  to  any  profit  their  strongest  and  worst  lands  without 
clay-burning,”  used  it  in  Leicestershire,  where  it  answered  so 
well  that  his  neighbours  adopted  it  too.  He  says  : — 
“ A neighbouring  farmer  tells  me  that  a field  he  dressed  in  this  way 
seven  years  ago  has  ploughed,  easier  by  a horse-draught , and  has  been  like 
different  land  ever  since ; whereas  lime,  especially  if  very  caustic,  makes 
the  land  closer  and  colder  than  ever.”  f 
Yet  I know  a case  where  lime  has  just  been  vainly  applied  at  a 
great  outlay  to  an  entire  strong  clay  farm  taken  in  hand,  and  burnt 
clay  has  not.  So  slowly  spreads  agricultural  knowledge.  The 
most  striking  account,  however,  is  Mr.  Randall’s  j:  of  his  poor  clay 
farm  in  Worcestershire.  He  tells  us  of  a field  called  Roughhill, 
valued  at  7s.  6 d.  an  acre.  This  he  clod-burned  at  a cost  of  4 2s.  ; 
and  after  vetches  fed  off,  got  45  bushels  an  acre  of  wheat,  which 
sold,  at  7s.  5 d.  per  bushel,  for  more  than  the  fee-simple  of  the  land  ; 
and  he  gives  many  more  cases  which  a clay  land  farmer  will  do 
well  to  read.  He  tried  the  ashes  as  manure  against  sheep  fold- 
ing, and  found  them  equal ; and  I have  myself  found  them  so 
likewise.  They  not  only  open  the  land,  but  manure§  it  as  well. 
The  cause,  no  doubt,  lies  in  Dr.  Daubeny’s  distinction  between 
the  available  and  unavailable  parts  of  the  soil,  and  the  unavailable 
parts  must  be  decomposed  by  the  fire.  Still  the  mode  of  action 
is  uncertain,  and  chemists  would  do  well  to  examine  it;  the 
result  is  certain  on  most  soils,  and,  as  farmers,  meanwhile  we 
may  practise  without  quite  understanding  it.  Often,  however, 
instead  of  making  heavy  land  light,  we  want  to  make  light  land 
heavy,  which  must  be  done  by  marling  or  claying. 
§ 5.  Marling  or  Claying. 
I need  not  describe  the  effect  of  marling  a blowing  sand.  The 
finest  example  I have  seen  is  on  the  Duke  of  Bedford’s  home- 
farm  at  W oburn,  where  in  consequence  the  old  parish  turbary 
is  waving  with  corn.  The  glories  of  Holkham,  too,  once  a sandy- 
waste,  rest  on  this  foundation  of  clay.  The  Lincolnshire  plan, 
also,  of  digging  deep  trenches  in  peat,  and  throwing  up  the  clay 
on  the  surface,  has  been  often  described  ; but  it  will  not  be 
amiss  to  give  the  following  figures  by  a fen-farmer,  because 
people  are  scarcely  aware  how  cheap  are  our  standard  modes 
* On  Burnt  Clay  as  a Manure,  by  F.  Pym. — Journal,  in.  323. 
f Journal,  iii.  324.  J Journal,  v.  113. 
■5  In  Somersetshire,  a farmer,  near  Bridgewater,  having  some  patches  on  his  land 
where  the  crop  always  failed,  burned  the  clay,  and  cured  the  evil.  He  has  since  used 
burnt  clay  regularly  on  his  farm. 
