410 
Chalking. 
satisfaction  of  seeing  a miserable  covering  of  pink-grass,  rushes, 
hen-gorse,  and  other  noxious  weeds  exchanged  for  a most  lux- 
uriant herbage  of  wild  clover,  trefoil,  and  other  succulent  grasses.” 
Though  much  of  the  clover  and  trefoil  may  disappear  in  five 
or  ten  years  (sometimes  they  last  fifteen  years),  an  excellent 
herbage  remains.  Draining,  the  writer  adds,  “ may  he  carried 
too  far  where  bones  are  used,  for  boned  lands  suffer  by  a dry 
summer.  The  land  should  be  kept  cool.”*  I have  found  the 
same  thing  on  water-meadows.  The  freer  the  grass  is  growing, 
the  more  it  suffers  from  drought;  and  this  is  natural,  for  a larger 
supply  of  sap  is  required.  This  writer  adds,  “ I have  known 
many  a poor , honest , but  half -broken  man  raised  from  poverty  to 
comparative  independence , and  many  a sinking  family  saved  from 
inevitable  ruin,  by  the  help  of  this  wonderful  manure.''  Indeed,  I 
believe  land,  after  boning,  will  keep  three  cows  where  two  fed 
before.  As  to  this  practice,  however,  caution  is  necessary.  It 
seems  to  belong  to  cold  clays  for  grass  in  Cheshire,  though  on 
such  soil  it  would  hardly  answer  elsewhere,  even  for  turnips. 
A Cheshire  landlord  told  me  that  he  had  tried  it  vainly  for  grass 
in  Suffolk.  I know  no  case  of  its  success  out  of  Cheshire, 
unless  in  the  bordering  counties,  and  have  heard  some  cases  of  its 
failure  even  in  those.  It  will  not  do,  therefore,  at  all  to  adopt  it 
hastily.  We  only  know  it  to  have  succeeded  about  Cheshire, 
which  is  on  the  red  marls  geologically,  and  on  the  rainy  side  of 
the  country,  and  must  remember  that  it  is  a costly  proceeding, 
striking  in  its  success,  but  as  yet  circumscribed  in  its  practice,  and 
therefore  in  the  proof  of  its  efficacy. 
§ 8.  Chalking. 
The  process  of  chalking,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a very  wide 
and  a very  cheap  one,  for  it  costs  under  31.  per  acre,  and  is  as  old 
perhaps  as  the  Heptarchy.  I have  seen  the  chalk  carried  by 
donkeys  over  the  fields  in  Dorsetshire ; wound  up  by  shafts  from 
small  mines,  and  wheel-barrowed  in  Hampshire;  worked  from 
a quarry  and  carted  on  the  Lincolnshire  hills  which  over- 
look the  Humber.  Yet  on  the  other  side  of  the  Humber,  on 
the  Yorkshire  wolds,  this  cheap  improvement  is  neglected  by  the 
farmers,  though  it  lies  under  their  feet,  and  in  riding  the  length 
of  the  Southdowns  you  may  see  much  land  that  wants  it.  No 
one  doubts  its  efficacy  if  the  chalk  be  of  the  right  kind.  I be- 
lieve, old  as  is  the  practice,  that  residents  on  southern  chalk-hills 
would  find  few  farms  where  some  field  at  least,  or  some  rough 
ground,  does  not  want  it,  and  certainly  there  is  no  lack  of  hands 
ready  to  spread  it.  Sometimes,  indeed,  you  may  plough  up  the 
Iteport  on  Cheshire,  vol.  v.  p.  9J. 
