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Show 130 AMOUNr:I.' OF EARTII CIIAl>, HI. given time. We will begin with the first method as it was first fol1owed. Near' Maer Hall in Staffordshire, quick-lime had been spread about the year 1827 thickly over a field of good pasture-land, which had not since been ploughed. Some square l10les were duO' in this field in the beginning of b October 1837; and the sections showed a layer of turf, formed by the matted roots of the grasses, ~ inch in thickness, beneath which, at a depth of 2i inches (or 3 inche from the surface), a layer of the lime in powder or in small lumps could be distinctly seen running all round the vertical sides of the holes. The soil beneath the layer of lime was either gravelly or of a coarse sandy nature, and differed considerably in appearance from the overlying dark-coloured fine mould. Coal-cinders had been spread over a part of this same field either in the year 1833 or 1834; and when the above holes were dug, that is after an interval of 3 or 4 years, the cinders formed a line of black spots round the holes, at a depth of 1 inch beneath the surface, parallel to and above the white layer of lime. Over another part of this field CHAP. III. BROUGH1' UP BY WORMS. 131 cinders l1ad been strewed, only about hal f-a~ year before, and these either still lay on the surface or were entapglod among the roots of the grasses; and I here saw tl1e commencement of the burying process, for wonn -cnstings had been heaped on several of the smaller fragments. After an interval of 4i years this field was re-exmn ined, and now the two layers of lime and cinders were found almost everywhere at a greater depth t hau before· by nea.rly 1 inch, we will say by ~~ of an inch. Therefore mould to an avera,o·e thickness of ·22 of an inch had been annually brought np by the worms, and hacl Leon spread over the surface of this field Coal-cinders had been strewed over anot11er field, at a date which could not be positively ascertained, so thickly that they forn1ed (October, 1837) a layer, 1 inch in thickness at a depth of about 3 inches from the surface. ~rhe layer was so continuous that the overlying dark vegetable mould was connected with the sub-soil of red clay only by the roots of the grasses; and when these were broken the mould and the red clay fell apart. In a third field, on which coal-cinders and burn t K 2 |
