Shell-sand.

Shell-sand. Sand consisting in great part of fragments of shells, and often containing a small proportion of organic matter, is a very useful manure, particularly for clay soils, heavy loams, and newly-reclaimed bogs. It is also advantageously applied to any soil deficient in lime. It neutralises the organic acids which abound in peat, and forms with them compounds which serve as food for plants. Great deposits of shell-sand are found on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall, and are of much value in the agriculture of that district. Shell-sand is also found on many other parts of the British coast, and nowhere more abundantly than in the Outer Hebrides. The sand of many parts of the coast being mostly siliceous is incapable of the same use. Shell-sand is much used as a manure in some of the maritime districts of France, as Bretagne and Normandy.