PQyes) ae See ree as i ae ~ re 333 
Fit bite OHaaTY te UE / ui : 
acre, so that the surface of the fields is covered. Weeds are said 
to be killed the first year, but to come up luxuriantly afterwards, 
and clover appears spontaneously where none would grow be- 
fore. In Caroline and Hanover counties, on land that would 
yield only three barrels of corn (fifteen bushels) to the acre, from 
ten to fifteen barrels have been obtained after one generous appli- 
cation of the marl... On the Pamunkey river is a beautiful plan- 
tation, regenerated: from the old and exhausted tobacco lands; 
an example of what the Virginia soil once was, and what it may 
be again, if treated with the skill and enterprise which charac- 
terize Mr. William Wickham, the proprietor of this place. He 
has used the marl for eighteen years, applying it once profusely, 
800 bushels to the acre. The bed here varies from ten or 
twelve feet to: not. more than two or three. It is often cut 
atone as, if bya stream, and the space afterwards filled up by 
lies the marl bed. 
neem oy oem Seale: by aunt streams, 
Get Ee aero 
Pr oie inedu tly ll STATE eotie i: 
eannot be kept out ated isi 
great demand, the planters’ digging it in the winter: : 
when their hands are least occupied, and then carting it over the 
fields, where it lies in heaps ready to be spread in the spring. 
‘The lands in this county are generally: stiff and clayey, and 
would be benefitted by a free application of common sand, as 
well as of the marl. From these heaps I collected a great variety 
of fossil shells, enough to show that the epost: sbelonge: to the 
4: North 
same ctanine with that which ard gh Nortt 
the town stands, and have distinctly d the marl ; while from 
the bed they have. washed out aie of fossil shells, chiefly 
Pectens and Ostresx: Not far above the marl is a stratum of stiff, _ 
red clay, alternating with layers of sand. A bed of this character 
I have noticed in-a similar position throughout a great part of the 
southern states; at Richmond, Vaz, it is very conspicuous near the 
summits of. the hills, as well as in the southerm part of Sumpter 
district, S.-C. ; esas deep in Georgia, Georgia, near the Savan- 
nah river, it is well exposed. It is accompanied by white clay, 
