Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/65

Rh The farmers in the northern part of the isle make use of the above marls, particularly of that from B. Wodden to manure their land. According to their expressions, marling strengthens the land, whereas lime purges it, two different ways of obtaining the same end, the one by adding what is supposed to be wanting to the land to make it good, the other by getting rid of what is reckoned to be hurtful to it. Marling once in twenty years, is considered as sufficient to keep the land in good order under a proper course of crops: eight or nine of which may be taken successively immediately after the operation.

One hundred and fifty tons of marl are computed to be necessary for an acre of land. The expences, supposing the carriage not to exceed a mile, will amount to six pounds sterling. The cost of liming, a practice chiefly used in the southern part of the isle, is nearly the same. Ninety bushels of lime is the quantity allowed for covering an acre of land. Sea weeds previously made into a compost, are also much used in the south district of the island. The marl by lying at the surface sometimes becomes considerably lighter. When dung mixed with hot lime is put upon a marled ground, the fermentation that ensues produces a very surprizing effect.

It is unfortunately more as a warning against the delusive accounts that have circulated abroad with respect to the discovery of