SOIL. 
12 
rials for its use. As colonies increase, wants are aug- 
mented ; the woods are consumed ; the plow is intro- 
duced, division of property follows ; a total change and 
obliteration ensues, though the ancient appellation by 
which the district was known yet continues. 
The parish consists in parts of a poor, shattery gray 
clay, beneath which we find, in some places, a coarse 
lias; in others a spongy, rough, impure limestone; in 
other parts a thin stratum of soil is spread over an im- 
mense and irregular rock of carbonate of 'lime, running 
to an unknown depth : this in many cases protrudes in 
great blocks through the thin skin of earth. The rock, 
though usually stratified, has no uniform dip, but trends 
to different directions ; in some places it appears as if 
immense sheets of semifluid matter had been pushed 
out of the station it had settled in, by some other or 
later-formed heavy-moving mass, or met with an im- 
pediment, and so rolled up : that these sheets had not 
fully hardened at the time of being moved is yet made 
probable by the whole crystallization of the mass being 
interrupted ; so that no part adheres firmly, but sepa- 
rates into small shattery fragments when struck. This 
substance we burn in very large quantities for building 
purposes, and for manure, which, by the facility which 
we have of obtaining small coal, is rendered at the low 
rate of three-pence a bushel at the kiln. Our farmers, 
availing themselves of this cheap article, use considera- 
ble quantities, composted with earth, for their different 
crops, at the rate of not less than a hundred bushels to 
the acre. This is a favorite substance for their potato 
land. The return in general is not so large as when 
grown in manure from the yard ; but the root is said to 
be more mealy, and better flavored. 
The utility of lime as manure consists in loosening 
the tenacious nature of some soils; rendering them 
more friable and receptive of vegetable fibres : it espe- 
cially facilitates the dissolution and putrefaction of ani- 
mal and vegetable substances, which are thus more rea- 
dily received and circulated in the growing plant ; and 
it has the power of acquiring and long retaining mois- 
ture ; thus rendering a soil cool and nutritive to the 
