300 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



wilh the amount of sales being known determines 

 the qnantity. How much was used by the family 

 is not known, probably not more than 300 gallons. 



In regard to the bog there is yet but little to be 

 said, a <rreater part of it being yet on the tide of 

 experiment, whether successliil ornot, lime will 

 determine. The burnt part has hitherto been most 

 productive. In 1835, 1-2 acre was pared, the 

 turf burnt, and the a!=hes spread over the surface. 

 The year following it was planted wih potatoes, 

 the crop paying lor the land at 830 per acre and 

 all expense accruinir fron) its improvement. Last 

 year nothing was taken from it, it was seeded the 

 latter part of summer, and now promises a large 

 crop of hay. 



Reepectfuliy, thy friend, 



Adam Anthony. 



Communicated to the Farmers' Register. 



ON THE USE OF MARINE VEGETABLE MA- 



KUUE. 



To Joseph Ball, esq., Ditchley, > 

 Northumberland County. 5 



Linden, Westmoreland County, July 6, 1838. 



Dear Sir, 



I duly received your favor of the last month, 

 requesting me to furnish you with such informa- 

 tion in regard to the improvement of land, by the 

 application of " marine vegetation." as my ex- 

 perience in the use of ir, will enable me to afford. 

 This call for information, on a subject which I 

 deem of vital importance to the agricultural im- 

 provement of our beautiful tide-water country, 

 affords me peculiar gratification; and it gives me 

 very great pleasure to have it in my power to an- 

 swer it in a satisfactory manner. 



My opinion in regard to the value of kelp or sea- 

 weed, as manure, was given somewhat at large, in 

 an essay on ^'■marine manures,'''' published in the 

 Farmers' Register four or five years ago.* I beg 

 leave to refer you to that essay as containing the 

 result of my experience, up to that time. 1 have 

 since applied it, wilh creek-grass, and other ma- 

 rine manuref?, upon a very extensive scale; and I 

 may say, with the most gratifying success. In 

 the course of about six years, I have restored to 

 fertility the greater part of a large farm on the 

 Potomac, that had been reduced to the lowest 

 state of sterilitv, by a long course of exhausting 

 cultivation. Upon this farm, in the course of the 

 last year, at an expense in labor, not exceeding 

 ^300, I cfu-ried out about eight thousand loads of 

 manure with single ox carts; and have now grow- 

 ing upon it, the finest corn that I have ever seen 

 upon land of any thing like the same original 

 quality. 



The " grass" which you say has become abun- 

 dant along your shores, has, of late, taken almost 

 entire possession of the small creeks indenting 

 our farms on the Potomac, and furnishes an inex- 

 Iiaustible supply of the richest manure. It is 

 more povv^erful, in its effects, than the sea-ioeed, 

 which is driven upon the river shores; and though 

 the assertion may seem extravagant, is to be pre- 

 ferred to the best stable manure. 



Parts of my fields are manured with each, and 



*See Farmers' Register, Vol. I, p. 513. — Ed. 



the most careless observer may distinguish the 

 superiority of the corn where the •' grass" haa 

 been applied. It seems to possess a peculiar 

 quickness and power, forcing the young plants 

 forward so rapidly, that they escape the depreda- 

 tions of insects, and seem to be little, if at all, af- 

 fected by the coldness ol the seasons, which for se- 

 veral years past, has retarded so much the growth 

 of the corn. In common Aviih the sea-weed, it 

 possesses the power of attracting moisture from 

 the atmosphere — keeping the corn greeu and vi- 

 gorous in the driest seasons, and justifying much 

 thicker planting, without endangering the crop, 

 than could be ventured on with any other ma- 

 nure. Last year, on a lot, which had never yield- 

 ed before more than four barrels to the acre, I 

 planted corn, after manuring with creek-grass in 

 the water-furrow, at an average distance of five 

 feet and a half one way, and two feet three inches 

 the other, leaving two stalks in a place. The 

 stalks attained the height of thirteen feet or up- 

 wards, and one acre that was carefully measured, 

 yielded nine barrels of sound corn. I have this 

 year planted a considerable part of my crop equally 

 thick, having more than double as many of stalks 

 on the land, as most of my neighbors. Such thick 

 planting as this, however, could not be recom- 

 mended in our climate, even after the application 

 of this most certain manure, except upon land 

 that had already been improved to a considerable 

 extent. 



It is difficult for me to give you a correct esti- 

 mate of the expense of manuring with the mate- 

 rials to which I have adverted. Having on my 

 land an inexhaustible supply of manures accessi- 

 ble in some form at all times, I have been able 

 to pursue the business of manuring as a regular 

 system, and to devote a considerable force exclu- 

 sively to that object. A considerable part, more- 

 over, of the labor of collecting and scattering the 

 manure and driving the carts, has been performed 

 by children and small boys who would have ren- 

 dered little or no service in any other employment, 

 The expense, therefore, of my improvements 

 may not be a fair criterion of the cost of manur- 

 ing, under difl^erent circumstances. For this rea- 

 son, I have applied to my neighbor, Mr. John T. 

 Rice, who is a successful practical farmer, for an 

 estimate of the expense of his improvements 

 made with the creek-grass alone. He has kindly 

 furnished me with a statement which you will 

 find in his letter accompanying mine. From this 

 you will perceive that an acre may be manured 

 with creek-crass, at an expense of four dollars, by 

 which the crop of corn will be more than doubled, 

 and the land to a considerable extent permanently 

 improved. 



But many of our indolent and penurious far- 

 mers would be alarmed at the idea of incurring 

 even this small expense. What ! give four dol- 

 lars for manuring an acre of land that cost only 

 six!! Permit me hereto make a slight digres- 

 sion. Have you ever read Black's Essay on the 

 intrinsic value of land? It was published in an 

 early volume of the American Farmer, and is a 

 most ingenious and able argument to prove that 

 every acre of land in the state of Delaware, is in- 

 trinsically worth five hundred dollars. His con- 

 clusion is somewhat extravagant, but there is 

 much force in his reasoning. I have reflected a 

 great deal on this subject, and I have come to the 



