56 On the Shell Marl and Coal regions of Virginia, Ses 
disclosure of marl in numerous places frowi 
Long Island to the Mississippi, verifies a suggestion I made 
in a communication on the marl of New-Jersey, published in 
Vol: VI. of the Journal of Science, that this valuable manure 
would probably be found throughout the southern sea board. 
Enriched by clover crops, fostered by gypsum, and by 
marl dressings, the impoverished plantations of Virginia may 
be rendered v oductive. A considerable part of the low 
country of Virginia, particularly in the district between the 
appahannoc and Potomac, called the Northern neck, ori- 
ginally presented a good soil that sustained forests of diversi- 
fied timber ; but when exhausted by tobacco and other crops, 
much of it was abandoned, and its barrenness confirmed by a 
growth almost exclusively pine. 
In the Northern neck where marl abounds, the soil is in 
general a compact argillaceous loam ; enriched, it would be 
well adapted for wheat and tobacco. In many of the eastern 
counties, sand predominates in the surface soil, generally 
resting on clay, and would be greatly benefitted by marl, en- 
bling the ters to resume the cultivation of their old and 
profitable staple tobacco, little of which is now raised in Vir- 
ginia, within 200 miles of the sea. Under the present sys- 
tem of agriculture, the soil will continue unproductive, and 
the planters be progressively impoverished. Wheat has been 
within a few years a precarious crop in many counties, from 
the ravages of the hessian fly and the chintz bugs ; they often 
destroy whole crops. Many parts of the southern sea board 
are unhealthy for cattle, and not well adapted for profitable 
grazing. ‘Though good crops of cotton have been produced 
the past summer on York and James river, and in several 
forlorn hope to the planters. The summer of 1825 was pe- 
culiarly warm and protracted, and cotton might have been 
raised in the states north of the Ohio ; but in ordi 
a hardy plant, might be cultivated advantageously in Virgi- 
nia. Sister and gypsum have been found eens to the soil 
