506 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



Arabella (and calf;) 3 3-ears 7 months, 

 Blush, 2 years 9 months, 

 Emily, 2 years 8 months, 

 Victoress, 1 year 9 months. 



8875 

 $700 



THE MARL OF VIRGINIA NOW IN USE IN 

 CONNECTICUT. 



In the October No. of Silliman's 'Journal of Sci- 

 ence,' in an elaborate review of Prof. Sephard"s, 'Re- 

 port of the Geological Survey of Connecticut,' there is 

 stated, in the following words, an important agricul- 

 tural fact, the details and progress of which we 

 should be much gratified to be made acquainted with. 



"The rich marls of the Chesapeake, and its influent 

 rivers, are now beginning to be introduced into the port 

 of New Haven, as a manure to be transported by the 

 Farmington canal into the interior. It remains to be 

 seen whether the price and efficacy will sustain the 

 undertaking. If this material should enable us to re- 

 store the culture of wheat, it would be a very impor- 

 tant advantage." 



There is no doubt but that the application of marl 

 will restore, or produce, the wanting fitness of the soils 

 of Connecticut for the growth of wheat ; as their pres 

 ent general unfitness is owing solely to the deficiency 

 of lime — an essential ingredient of, and therefore spe- 

 cific manure for, that grain. Nor do we entertain much 

 doubt as to the economy and eventual profit of making 

 this improvement, by applying the richest marls of 

 Virginia, though sea-borne for so great a distance. It 

 might be put on board sea vessels, under proper ar- 

 rangement, at a total expense of 1^ to 2 cents the heap- 

 ed bushel. It will be a strange, though by no means an 

 impossible event, if the true and full value of the 

 southern marl should be taught to the farmers of the 

 south, by their enterprising brethren of the north 

 transporting it hundreds of miles by sea, to use for ma- 

 Aure. 



REPORT OF THE SOUTHERN CONVENTION 



[A convention of delegates of the merchants of the 

 southern states, and of all others interested in the com- 

 mercial prosperity of the south, some months ago was 

 invited, and accordingly was held, at Augusta, Ga., on 

 the 15th of October. The delegation was numerous, 

 and able — and there is ground for hope that their move- 

 ment will be zealously follovk'ed up, and sustained, by 

 the entire south, until our agricultural and commercial 

 interests are released from paying tribute to New York. 

 Whether the particular measures, first proposed, will 

 be of much or any effect, we know not ; but the spirit 

 which dictated them, if sufficiently diffused and active, 

 must bring about liberation from our present state of 

 commercial bondage. The southern states, and more 

 especially Virginia, formerly possessed a fair propor- 

 tion of ships, and of foreign trade : now, both have 

 almost ceased to exist : and though southern agricul- 

 ture still furnishes much the greater part of all the pro- 

 ducts exported from the United States, yet nearly the 

 whole trade of the south, both of import and export, is 

 carried on by northern merchants ; and every bale of 



^1,200 I merchandize exchanged, by a southern planter or mer" 

 ^1,015 chant, is made to pay a heavy transit toll, or tax, to 

 New York. 



If the great preponderance of bank capital, and gov- 

 ernment deposites, in the northern cities, have caused 

 this deplorable state of southern trade, the present 

 wretched state of the currency, and distressed condi- 

 tion of the people, may produce a more than compensa- 

 ting benefit, by destroying, forever, this artificial and, 

 to us, ruinous course of trade. The bubble of paper 

 money has been recently so distended as to burst ; and 

 much as the accompanying and consequent calamities 

 are to be deplored, they at least offer benefit to the south, 

 if properly availed of, in putting down the unnatural 

 and factitious advantages given to the north, by the com- 

 bined operations of banking and of government. 



The following report was prepared by Gov. McDuf- 

 fie, as chairman of the committee to which the subject 

 was referred; and was adopted without opposition. 

 The convention also passed a resolution recommend- 

 ing another meeting of delegates from all the south- 

 i em and south-western states, in Augusta, on the first 

 Monday in April, 1838, to continue the consider- 

 ation of the objects of this convention, and the inter- 

 ests of the people represented. We hope that the call 

 will be properly responded to, and that the south will 

 not lose the present opportunity to recover and main- 

 tain her lost ground. 



Numerous and respectable as was the attendance at 

 this meeting, there were no delegates except from 

 South Carolina and Georgia. The absence of all 

 others was caused, not by a want of interest in the ob- 

 ject, but by the doubt whether it would be possible to 

 reconcile the conflicting claims of various towns— and 

 the belief that it was better not to be represented in 

 the convention, than to be represented and out-voted. 

 It was therefore best, perhaps, that the first meeting 

 was so constituted as to be unanimous, and not to be 

 drawn off from the consideration of the great object, to 

 the discussion of conflicting and petty sectional interests. 

 It is hoped that the next convention will exhibit a full 

 representation of the southern people and their inter- 

 ests — and that every member will be actuated by a 

 patriotic determination to forego, if necessary, the ef- 

 fort to gain any separate and minor benefit, that may 

 conflict with the great objects of general interest to 

 the whole south. Such separate efforts would, indeed, 

 be totally fruitless ; for if the united influence of the 

 whole, cannot give a new direction to their trade, for 

 the general benefit of the south, it will be a vain and 

 hopeless attempt for any fragment of the south to urge 

 its peculiar and separate interests, in opposition to the 

 majority. Our great commercial channels and marts 

 had better be any where in the south, (on the Atlantic 

 coast,) than where they have long been fixed.— Ed. 

 Far. Reg.] 



The select committee raised for the purpose of 

 ascertaining and reporting, what measures will, in 

 their opinion most efiectually contribute to the ac- 

 complishment of the great object of this conven- 

 tion, ask leave to submit the following report. 



The committee are deeply impressed with the 



