FARMERS' REGISTER— BORED WELLS— BURNING GYPSUM. 



631 



— the deeper that is, the less the quantity and the 

 ■warmer the water, but it is easily cooled by dig- 

 ging acislern close to the bored well into the lime- 

 stone rock — which soon makes the water as 

 cool as the best springs in V^irginia. The quan- 

 tity I am told varies from the same cause, from 

 500 to 2090 gallons in twenty-four hours. I have 

 heard of no instance in which complaint is made 

 of there not being water enough for all jjlantation 

 purposes. The bored wells cost from .92-30 to 

 S500, and even .9600. I have only heard of two 

 instances in which this m;m failed to get the wa- 

 ter over the top of the surface, and they are both 

 very close to me. In one of them, Avhich is 

 560 leet deep, he states there was a split in the 

 rock sixteen feet from the surface and the water 

 would rise no higher. But by digging a common 

 well a lew feet from the bored one, and inserting a 

 tube from one to the other, he succeeded in 

 getting into the dug well a plenty of water: but 

 it does not run over — yet there is jjlenty of water, 

 and the gentleman who employed liim paid the 

 full amount. In the other case, he bored 625 

 feet, and said he had to prepare other fixtures, &:c. 

 before he could go deeper. In this well water 

 rose to within fifteen feet of the top: but for this 

 he will not be paid, until he gets the water to flow 

 out — which he says he will yet do. His fixtures, 

 augers, &c. are ingenious, but simple. 



They have invariabl)' to bore through the soft 

 lime-stone rock before the water rises, and into 

 free-stone, coarse sand, and sometimes through 

 several strata of flint-rock, before enough flows 

 up: but generall}', after the sand is well cleaned 

 out, enough comes up to satisfy the owner, and 

 they give up the job as finished. No seasons 

 seem to have any effect upon the quantity — and 

 the water is invariably "free-stone," and transpa- 

 rent as crystal. But it seetns that where the well 

 is close to the river there is a saline taste. This I 

 have heard of in two instances at least — and they 

 are the only ones that I have heard of being bored 

 close to it — for near the river the land is sandy, 

 and they generally have springs. It appears also 

 there is no calculatincj ilom experience what the 

 dei)tli of the well will be before it is bored, as they 

 often vary very much in a short distance. It only 

 seems certain that they are deeper near Demopo- 

 iis, in this county, than any that have been boredin 

 Greene county. It is the opinion of the borer 

 that I have mentioned, (and I can ussure you he 

 is a smart fellow) and it is also mine, that the free- 

 stone, sand and rock where the water flows from, 

 was the bottom of the ocean when the marine de- 

 posites, the shells, and other matters that now 

 form the lime-stone rock were made upon it: but 

 this you know must be conjecture. 



I must inform you that the prairies in Greene 

 county are much larger than in this immediate 

 neighborhood, where the immense rich cane 

 lands abound — and they lie from fifteen to twenty 

 miles higher up the river; there, I understand, the 

 wells are not so deep by several hundred feet as 

 here. 



The diameter of the auger that the man whom 

 I have spoken of uses, is about three inches — and 

 it is my opinion no more water would rise by using 

 a larger one: but this is only opinion. In boring, 

 they often encoimter sulphur balls, which are so 

 hard as to almost resist any tool they can make: 

 and in one instance, (that of the deep well I have 



mentioned,) the man informed me, he encountered 

 and went through a stratutn of hard load-sione. 

 I must inform you also, that this tract of rich lime- 

 stone land is but of small dimensions — not, I am 

 sure, in one way more than from fifty to sixty 

 miles, and the other, twenty or thirty; and even in 

 that, there are spots of sandy land that have fine 

 springs on them, which are always of free-stone 

 water, or most generally so. Even in the strong 

 lime-stone lands near the creeks, where the land 

 is broken, there are some good springs. 



GYPSUM REDUCUD TO POWDER BY POUND- 

 liVG OR BURAIA'G. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Broo/ffield, (Henrico,) lOih Feb., 1885. 



On the farm which I sui)crintcnd, it is in con- 

 templation to use a large portion of gypsum, both 

 on the ensuing crop of corn and grasses; not hav- 

 ing a machine for breaking it, we are under the 

 necessity of performing this operation with mal- 

 lets or wooden pcslles shod with iron, which ren- 

 ders it both tedious and laborious. By heating 

 gypsum to a red heat, its watery portion is dissi- 

 pated, and it readily falls into a powder. I should 

 be glad to know from )'oursclf, or any of your nu- 

 merous readers, whether gypsum, to be applied as 

 a manure, andheated to an extent sufficient to dis- 

 pel the water which it contains, would lose any of 

 its good qualities as a manure? It' none of its 

 good qualities would be lost by being thus heated, it 

 \vouId be an immense savmg of labor to reduce it 

 to a powder by this means, over the mode just al- 

 luded to. 



That sulphate of lime or gypsum is a valuable 

 manure, is generally admitted, ];articularlj^ on clo- 

 ver and grasses, and I think, also on corn, as by 

 examination, it will be found to exist in the stalk, 

 and to a large extent, in the cob of corn. In cases 

 where it has been applied without any apparent 

 benefit, the probability is, that there was a suffi- 

 cient portion of it already existing in the soil, it 

 beinof contained in the dung of all animals fed on 

 grass, and consequently, furnished by the manure 

 in the common course of cultivation. The diffi- 

 culty, in ordinary cases, of getting it reduced to a 

 powder, deters many from availing themselves of 

 the important benefits usually resulting from its 

 use. 



A. N. 



[The remarks made previously at page 603, in re- 

 gard to the effect of heat on gypsum will serve in part 

 to answer the inquiry presented in the foregoing letter, 

 since received. A red heat will notafTect the chemical 

 union of the sulphuric acid and lime, and will serve 

 only to drive off the water, which forms the third com- 

 ponent part of gypsum. A much lower degree of heat 

 will dispel the water either partially or totally, and so 

 far afiect the texture of the stone as to render its pul- 

 verization comparatively easy. It is a very important 

 question, which could soon be solved by careful ex- 

 periments, whether burning lessens the fertilizing 

 power of this substance — important, not only to save 

 labor, if it is not thus injured, but to avoid being cheat- 

 ed by gypsum being burnt by salesmen, if that mode 

 of reducing it is indeed injurious. We again request 



