570 H USB , 
Let us not- fuppofe either that marl is of modern appli¬ 
cation in agriculture, or that no one before our times 
could make an experiment. That good old practical 
writer Walter Blith calls it a gallant manure ; he obferves 
that flipperinefs or greafmefs is no infallible fign ot its 
goodnefs, but that the truelt lign is its incompoundne/s ; 
“ and if it (lack immediately after a fliower, and fhortly 
after turn to duft after it is dry again, and doth not con¬ 
geal and conglutinate like to tough clay, but dilfolve, 
fear not the operation, adventure the experimenting of it, 
the fruit will be anfwerable to thy hopes.” 
He then relates an experiment of his own upon a mi- 
ferably-poor gravelly pafture with fome red marl, which 
he found in an old clay pool. On part he laid the mud 
from the pool, feme he dunged, fome he folded, the reft 
he marled, except one larid which he did not manure at 
all. He brought the whole into good tillage, and fowed 
it with wheat and rye mixed. The folded land produced 
the beft crop, the next that which was dunged, the 
mudded land came in third, and the marled land laft, 
though the crop on that was reafonably good ; but on 
that he laid nothing, he reaped nothing, not fo much as 
draw. The next year he fowed barley, and upon his 
marled land was moft gallant corn, fo was his mudded 
land, the mucked land was the worft by far ; on the un¬ 
manured land he fowed oats, and reaped nothing. Then 
he marled the lands that had been mucked, and the land 
which had not foil laid upon it; which brought forth as 
gallant corn as England yielded. After three or four 
crops, the mud decayed alfo ; he then marled it, and had 
the lame fruit as aforefaid. The marled land he feept in 
tillage nine years, without any addition of compoft or 
foil, and had as goodly corn as ever grew; and ever fmee, 
with fome {'mail addition of fold or manure, that has out- 
ftripped all the reft. 
Crag is a fort of (hell-marl, being chiefly (hells whole 
or in a decaying date mixed with calcareous earth, which 
probably "is nothing but the (hells perfectly decayed. 
The benefit of it,*in Suffolk, for turnips, on a poor fand, 
has been found equal to that of dung ; yet the greateft 
effe< 5 l was on a moory bottom. The Saodlings, a tract of 
ground in that county near Woodbridge, leems to be 
upon a foundation of this red (hell-marl, or crag. There 
are very large deep pits on every farm in this diftrict, 
whence immenfe quantities were dug for its improvement, 
when firft broken-up from its wafte ftate of heaths at 4d. 
an acre, to fields covered with fine crops of turnips, car¬ 
rots, and corn, at 5s. 10s. and 15s. an acre. The ufe of 
crag is however dropped here, except for taking in walk- 
land, as they call it, or (heep-walks. On old improved 
lands they never lay it on alone, but mix it with dung, 
earth, or oufe; thinking that it makes light lands blow 
more. 
Mr. Young, in his Eaftern Tour, fays, that crag is 
dry, and not in the leaft foapy that it does not effer- 
vefee in acids, and does not fali in water; that, notwith¬ 
standing this, ail the effects and even more, produced in 
Norfolk by ftxty, eighty, and a hundred, loads of marl, 
are gained in Suffolk by ten or twelve of this ; and that 
it lafts even longer, which they have difeovered from an 
idea, probably a falfe one, that land once cragged will 
not bear a repetition of it, except in a compoft with 
dung; and accordingly they have many fields, in which 
it has lafted, with fuch additions, fifty, (ixty, and even 
one hundred, years. The nature of the poor funds in 
that country is quite changed with it, and they gain an 
adhefion which.they retain for ever. It is alfo a great 
fertilizer, as appears from the great and 1'udden increafe 
in the crops after it. 
Sand can fcarcely be confidered as a manure; it is how¬ 
ever beneficial upon all clays, and other tenacious (tiff 
land, by feparating their parts, and deltroying their cohe- 
jive quality ; by which means the fun, air, and froft, pe¬ 
netrate them the better. Sand is likewife of great ufe 
upon rough coarfe meadows ; nothing fines the furface 
more, or produces a thicker fvvard of Dutch clover. The 
i N D E Y, 
beft fand is'that winch is walhed out of highways, or 
from hills by the rains, or that which lies in rivers. 
Mr. Bligh advifes, for the_ increafing of foil in winter, 
•where (beep cannot be folded, to have a fneep-houfe to 
feed them in, into which he would have brought twice 
a-week feveral loads of fand out of the highways, ftreets, 
or.fund-pits, which by the fatnefs of the (lieep’s-dung and 
urine will make an excellent manure for cold clay lands. 
Sea-fand and /hells are in feveral parts of England uled 
to great advantage, efpecially in Devonfhire, where they 
are at the expence of fetching the fand and (hells on 
, hor.fes’ backs twelve or fourteen miles. The land on 
which they lay this manure, is a ftrong loam inclining to 
clay. 
Coral, and fuch kinds of ftony plants as grow on 
the rocks, are very beneficial to land ; but, as thefe bo¬ 
dies are hard, the improvement is not the firft or l'econd 
year after they are laid on the ground, becaufe they re¬ 
quire time to pulverife them before they can mix with 
the earth to impregnate it. Therefore drefiings of this 
kind are feldom ufed by tenants, who want to reap the 
fruit of their labour as foon as poftible. But thefe ma¬ 
nures are much better for cold ftrong land than for that 
which is light and fandy. In fome countries, at a great 
distance from the fea, have been difeovered great quan¬ 
tities of fofiil-lhells, which have been dug out of the 
earth, and ufed as manure, which have improved the 
ground a little, efpecially ftrong land. 
Where the land lies near the fea, fo that either fand* 
(hells, corals, wrecks, or fea-weeds, can be obtained at an. 
eafy expence, they are by far the beft kinds of manure, 
becaufe they enrich the land for feveral years; for, as 
their fal.ts are dofely locked up, they are communicated 
by degrees to the land, as the heat and cold caufes the 
bodies to pulverife, and fall into fmali parts; (o that, 
where fand and ffmaller kinds of fea-weeds are ufed, if 
they.are laid on land in proper quantities it will enrich it 
for fix or (even years ; but (hells, corals, and other hard 
bodies, will continue many years longer. 
Mortimer mentions three l'orts of fea-fand ufed in the 
weft of England for manure. That about Plymouth and 
the fouthern coafts is blue or grey like alhes. Weft- 
ward, near the Land’s End, it is very white, and in Scilly 
gliftering. On the North Sea, from about Padltow, and 
eaftward to Lundy, it is of a brown, reddilh, yellow- 
i(h, colour. In Falmouth, near St. Mayve’s, there is a 
fand, or rather coral, that lies under the oufe ; the red 
is reckoned the beft, the blue next, and the white worft. 
All thefe fands are compofed chiefly of (hells. When 
they lie near, they put on ahout lixteen tons upon an 
acre; and left., as low as one ton, as the diftance is greater. 
They fpread it as foon as it is got home; commonly take 
four crops of corn from it; and then lay the land down 
for pafture for fix or feven years before they plough it up 
again. 
Sheli-fand is very common on the eaft coaft of Scotland. 
All along the coaft of Fife, efpcially about St. Andrew's. 
On the north coaft of Aberdeenihire. In Banfflhire, 
and all along the coaft of Sutherland and Caithnefs, the 
fands upon the (hore confift almoft entirely of fnells. 
Cockle-lhells are laid on (tiff clays in the Ille of Shepey, 
- thirty cart-loads to the acre. 
Ail (hells are principally calcareous earth, and when 
burnt afford the beft of lime. In a recent ftate they are 
of little value as a manure, unlefs they are broken very 
fmali; but in a decayed ftate they refembie (hell-marl. 
Upon deep loams and (trang clays their operation is fimi- 
lar to chalk or marl; but upon light gravels or lands, lit¬ 
tle benefit is to be expected from them, unlefs they are 
previoully made into a compoft with-dung, clay, or loam. 
When fuch lands are in graft., top-dreffings of fuch a 
compoft will produce great effefts 5 and,, if jijdicioufiy 
treated afterwards with drefling of any of the different 
earths, their value will be much improved ; and the thin¬ 
ner the foil, the greater will be the profit arifing from, 
this management. On clay paftures, (hells in their fim- 
