86 NATURAL HISTORY 
and fertilizing, the firft or feco^d year at far theft : In place of that 
which will not turn to account till after fome years diftance, we 
had better fubftitute the prefent, eafily acquired manures of land, ore- 
weed, ftraw, and animal faces > unlefs in fuch places where the lord 
of the land chufes to form a new foil ; there a great depth of marie is 
neceffary, and the inheritance will juftify the meafure. Marie both 
ftony and clayey, may eaftly be diftinguilhedfrom other foftils, by dif- 
folving readily in water, and by the fait it contains crackling in the 
fire. Marie has been difcovered and tried with fuccefs on the lands 
of Sir Richard Vyvyan, Bart, near Trelowarren. There is a yellow 
fandy marie, found in the fame field with a newly difcovered quarry 
of ftone, in the lands of Mr. Scawen, about half a mile from the 
borough of Michel, which being laid on the grafs there, much 
improved the vegetation ; but the marie which anfwers beft as far 
as I have yet heard, is that difcovered by a farmer of St. Allen 
parifh, near Truro ; it is a ftony grit, eafily bruifed between the 
fingers, ferments not with acids, foon permeated by water, but 
gives it no tafte, is of a brown-ochre colour, and fo full of yellow 
micaceous talc, that the farmer having thereby found much fuccefs 
in his crops, called it his gold-duft. Some marie of the fame kind 
nearly, I have feen, found in the parifh of Conftantine ; and fome 
I have from the parifti of Pheock, where it is laid by nature in 
great quantities, but negle&ed by the inhabitants. Some other forts 
of marie, of a differ clay, and whiter colour, I have received from 
the Rev. Mr. Buckland, Vicar of St. Allen, which he has ufed to 
good effect, in improving coarfe grounds. Of lime and marie 
therefore, we make not much ufe, but if other manures were to 
fail, it is not unlikely but more marie and lime-ftone might foon 
be difcovered. 
Sea manures. In Cornwall, our chief manures are from the fea, and the fea is very 
Oreweed. bountiful in this refpedt ; not only fea-fand is ufed by every one who 
has it in his reach, but after ftorms we find the Alga marina, Fucus, 
Conferva, or oreweed fcattered in great plenty on the fhore, and tho’ 
the Italians neglecfted it', yet it deferves a place among the beft ma- 
nures which nature affords us. Some diligence and caution however, 
muff; be ufed, for being a fubmarine plant, the wind and fim will foon 
exhale all it’s moifture. The fooner therefore it is taken from the 
fhore, the better, and being fpread on old or ftiff earth, then co- 
vered with fand, it foon diflolves into a fait oily flime, which con- 
tributes much to fatten and meliorate the other manures, and this 
is the moft approved way of applying it. Some lay it naked, and 
* Alga littus inutili — — Proje&a vilior Alga. 
Demifla tempus ab Euro Virg. Eclog. 7* 
Sternet. Hor. Od. lib. 3 . f See chap, preceding. 
frefh 
