104 ON THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY FORMATIONS 



that most of them contain less than a common flour ban'el, and 

 that three bushels and a half is probably near the average measm*e 

 of theu" contents. Their large size is made up by enormously 

 thick staves, and heads about an inch thick, and frequently large 

 empty spaces remain in the cask. Yet for this meagre amount 

 of lime, the people of South Carolina are willing to pay a sum 

 for wliifh they themselves might make full eig-ht times as much ; 

 and by thus rendering it cheap, the labor lost to their favorite crop 

 would not be missed, when thereby a bale of cotton to the acre 

 would not be considered a maximum product, nor two ears 

 of corn to each of the widely separated hills a subject worthy 

 of remark. 



The prejudice of workmen — their not liking to use a different 

 material from what they have been accustomed to — is one reason 

 why the Thomaston lime has successfully competed with all 

 other lime made on the Atlantic coast. The name of that is 

 favorably known and deservedly so, and it will sell when another 

 equal to it from another locality will not bring even a very infe- 

 rior price. There was a remarkable instance of this a short time 

 since in New York, some excellent lime from Rhode Island 

 hardly finding a market at any price. Most of the Pennsylvania 

 lime contains magnesia, and yet celebrated as is the Philadelphia 

 mortar for whiteness and durability, and as are the fine farms of 

 Chester and Lancaster counties, which ai'e enriched almost en- 

 tirely by lime, there is a universal prejudice against magnesian 

 limestones. But this cannot last ; and now that the Tide-water 

 canal is opened, the Susquehanna river lime must soon rival 

 that from Thomaston in our southern ports ; and the home-made 

 lime must here come into extensive use, though prejudice and a 

 want of enterprise may long koej) it unused and unknown. This 

 rock belongs to the same formation, and precisely resembles much 

 of that which I have seen in the western part of New Jersey. Its 

 composition is no doubt the same, and this is seen in Professor 

 Rogers's Geological Report of that State, to vary as to the propor- 

 tion of carbonate of lime from seventy-five to eighty-eight per 

 cent., the residue being chiefly silica, with a very small amount 

 of carbonate of magnesia, iron and alumina. This too corres- 



