154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



soil abounds in humus, the effects of lime are at once visible ; 

 but Avhere this is not present, its place must be supplied by car- 

 bonaceous manures. The more humus there is in a soil, the more 

 lime will it bear. When land has been too heavily limed, the appli- 

 cation of manure or swamp mud will supply the remedy, and enable 

 the lime to perform its proper oiSce. Lime is especially eflBcacious 

 in the cultivation of clover and turnips, and of almost all kinds of 

 fruit. Lime and potash are necessary to the perfection of apples, 

 hence a good granite or limestone soil is the best suited for apples." 



Bog iron ore is extensively deposited in Anson and Skowhegan. 

 At the latter place something was formerly done at the manufac- 

 ture of iron. A large proportion of the ore was in the state of fine 

 powder, or yellow ochre and brown oxide of iron. It was unsuit- 

 able for bar iron, being too brittle or short, but was of sufiiciently 

 good quality for ordinary purposes. 



Pyritiferous slate, so rich in sulpheret of iron as to be worth 

 working for copperas, occurs in Anson. Dr. Jackson recommended 

 the manufacture of coperas from this rock, as a profitable branch 

 of domestic industry, but I am not aware of its ever being 

 undertaken. 



Eoofing slate is found near the Kennebec river in Moscow. The 

 disruption seems to be in a different line from the Piscataquis 

 county quarry, but without doubt it belongs to the same formation. 

 No quarry has been opened, but it is thought that slate from three 

 to six feet square could easily be split out. Slate is also found in 

 Bingham, but of a quality not suitable for roofing purposes. It is 

 intersected by veins of quartz, so that the strata break out in 

 pyramidal blocks, one foot wide at the top and six feet at the 

 bottom. Slates have been split off ten feet square and six or eight 

 inches thick. 



Considerable quantities of a species of marl, made up of car- 

 bonate of lime, argillaceous matter and silex, together with some 

 other materials in small quantities, occurs in St. Albans. It is 

 derived from the decomposition of argillaceous limestone, and 

 appears in a loose, pulverized state, full of fragments of lime rock. 

 It effervesces strongly with acids, and would form a most valuable 

 dressing for light soils, particularly that upon which wheat is to be 

 sown. This leads me to say, that farmers who live in districts 

 where there are deposits of argillaceous or clayey limestone, should 

 carefully examine the localities and see if the same species of marl 

 may not be found in sufficient quantities for manurial purposes. It 



