180 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 3 



more than a foot. Upon the authority of a frood 

 practical farmer, Mr Simcoe, who lately died, it 

 was saiil that this yellow earth, as thrown out of 

 the ditche?, had been loiind to be a valuable fer- 

 tilizer; and hence it was supposed by some, to be 

 calcareous. But upon tesliug it, 1 found that it 

 was not in the slifjlitest degree calcareous ; nor do 

 I believe it can have any valuable effect as ma- 

 nure, unless it were desired lo furnish iron, or 

 sand, to the soil, [t was probably mixed with the 

 marl lying immediately below, and which also is 

 very often thrown out in digging ditches of not 

 more than 30 inches depth; and thus it might 

 have become a manure by that admixture. 



The low-ground consists of what is called gray 

 land, black land, and a small amount of a third 

 kind, called the chocolate-colored. 



The gray land is a clay loam, of the color in- 

 dicated by the name, close in texture, and lying 

 on a very intractable clay sub-soil, which, when 

 dug up from ditches, does not lose its barrenness 

 by time and exposure. The gray land forms the 

 larger proportion of the whole, and exclusively 

 forms the points which run down lo the rivers, 

 made by their very crooked courses, or between 

 their branches. Hence, in such places, this kind 

 is also called " point-land." These points of 

 gray land are a little the highest; and on them, 

 and close to the margins of the rivers, are most of 

 the mansion-houses of the proprietors situated. 

 Belbre being cleared, this land was covered by a 

 growth of large oaks; and though low and wet, 

 was not often covered with water. The early 

 and best product of such soil was not more than 

 20 to 25 bushels of corn to the acre. It is a better 

 rioil for wheat than for corn. Much of it is now 

 reduced to a much poorer condition, bv long-con- 

 tinued scourging tillage. But some" has been 

 much improved by manuring, and the better sys- 

 tem of farming which is now getting into use; 

 and many farmers say that this soil, when so im- 

 proved, is more productive and valuable than the 

 more celebrated black lands. 



The black lands are interspersed on the surface 

 among the gray in a very irregular manner, and 

 of which there seems to be no sufficient expia- 

 tion, except in the supposition of the original for- 

 mation of both which I shall ofii^r, however wild 

 and ridiculous such sfieculations may be consider- 

 ed. While the gray land seems to be exposed at 

 the surface in the form of long, though low and 

 wide points, narrow streaks or ridges, and circular 

 prominences, all of which are" but very little 

 liigher than the adjacent and interspersed bodies of 

 black land, the latter seems to have such outlines 

 as ponda of water might be supposed to have, if 

 bounded, or separated, by the gray land. And 

 such, I think, was the former condition of both. 

 The gray land formed the entire surface, with 

 such slight variations of level as had been 

 caused by the different currents and eddy waters, 

 when covered by the Chesapeake. VVhen the 

 highest parts were raised above the height of the 

 tide, fresh water, from the springs and rains, filled 

 the lower parts, rendering them shallow ponds, 

 gradually becoming chancred, by the growth, de- 

 cay and deposite of vegetable matter, to swamps; 

 and which now form the black lands, so celebrated 

 both for their original and very durable fertility. 

 According to these views, the original gray land, 

 should be the sub-soil of all the black land; and 



such appeared tome to be the case, notwithstand- 

 ing all the present existing differences of the two 

 sub-soils. Both are stiff, tenncious, and very 

 intractable clays; difficult to penetrate when dry, 

 and difficult to clear from the digging implement, 

 when wet. But while the sub-soil of the gray 

 land, when thrown up, remains barren, that of 

 the black land, though cuttincj like putty or pitch, 

 when moist, and fijrming very hard clods when first 

 dry, moulders down, after exposure, even though 

 but to summer weather, and becomes finely pulve- 

 rized, mellow, and fertile, bo as not to be distin- 

 guishable from the black upper soil. The cause of 

 this difference of the sub-soils, I infer to be this. 

 All, as stated before, lie over a continuous bed of 

 marl; but, according to the supposed formation, 

 that under the black soil is of much the least 

 thickness. It is. even now, penetrated by the 

 craw-fish, (orcray-fisli,) which sink their curious 

 wells and dwellings from the surface .of all the 

 black soil to the marl below, and bring up the 

 shelly earlh, to form their buildings above the sur- 

 face; and the annually renewed labors of millions 

 of these little well-diggers, continued for ages, 

 must have had no inconsiderable influence in ren- 

 dering calcareous the black soil, and also its sub- 

 soil, through which they pass. The craw-fish 

 do not bore in the gray lamis. But a still greater 

 operation of this kind has been carried on by the 

 growing trees; which, by their roots penetrating 

 the marl below, drew up lime continually, and 

 by their subsequent death and decay, deposited 

 ail the lime, thus incorporated in their substance, 

 on the surface of the earth. 



These geological speculations (if they may be 

 dignified by that name,) may appear to some as 

 foolish, and to others as idle and unnecessarily- 

 brought forward, even if true. But any plausi- 

 ble theory of the formation, and cause of the pe- 

 culiar features, of this region, is not foreign or 

 useless to an investigation of the nature of the 

 soils; and this theory seems to me in perfect ac- 

 cordance with the now existing circumstances. 

 This will be fijrther seen in the following as well 

 as the precedinij parts of the description. 



The soil of the black land, when moist, or just 

 turned up by the plough, is as black as any can 

 well be; and even when dry, is so much darker, 

 as to be easily distinguished from the gray. It 

 is mixed with a large proportion of vegetable 

 matter, even when worn by exhausting cultiva- 

 tion for many years. From its being very favor- 

 able to the growth of white and red clover, meli- 

 lot, and other products of calcareous soils, it is 

 evident that much lime must have been drawn 

 from the marl below, by the trees, or otherwise, 

 and fixed in the soil. And this lime still remains 

 in the soil, though it is not in the state of carbon- 

 ate of lime. The soil is not generally calcareous; 

 but is neutral, according to the doctrine of acid and 

 neutral soils presented in the ' Essay on Calca- 

 reous Manures.' If any of the black soil has 

 calcareous earth, exceeding the acid, and the vege- 

 table matter, with which it combines, and there- 

 fijre would show the presence of some carbonate 

 of lime, it should be such as had been among the 

 richest oriijinally, and the most retentive of fer- 

 tility under as long-continued and severe cultiva- 

 tion as any part has borne, and to which no ma- 

 nure had ever been given. From just such as 

 this, I selected for trial, a specimen, at Warner 



