324 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 6 



inarch of civilisation, this resort may become ne- 

 cessary, if practicable, and might perhaps turn out 

 to be a proSlabie enterprise. 



Ed. Tenn. Farmer. 



From the Columbia Telescope. 

 MANURES. 



Mr. Johnston — In Ruffin's Farmers' Reixister 

 for May, 1838, p. Ill, is an extract from a letter 

 by Lardner Vanuxem, esq., formerly my aid in 

 the college here, giving a very brief account of 

 the localities of what he terms shell marl, in South 

 Carolina, viz. : at the Santee canal, Eutaw 

 Springs, Dr. Jameson's, near Orangeburgh Court 

 House, Mr. Darby's, in St. Mathew's, at God- 

 frey's ferry, on the Pedee river, on the Edisto, &c. 

 To which I have to add, a locality two miles 

 south of Darlington Court House. Marie, tech- 

 nically, is a soil composed of sand, clay, and lime- 

 stone, where the latter earth is in the proportion of 

 one-third or more. I have reason to believe that 

 all the localities consist principally of limestone, 

 with various proportions of sand, but very small 

 quantity of clay, or argillaceous earth. 



My son brought me, a short time ago, a speci- 

 men of the shells and soil from the great oyster 

 bank on the Santee, which I believe extends eight 

 or ten miles. I have also received from Judse D. 

 Johnson, a specimen of the shell marl near Dar- 

 lington Court House. I regara all these, from the 

 character of the shells in them, to belong to the 

 tertiary formation — in modern phraseology, ante- 

 diluvian. 



Of the specimen from Santee, I took 100 grains 

 of an oyster shell, (of an extinct species.) I dis- 

 solved it in muriatic acid, and about 5 per cent, of 

 sand remained undissolved. I threw down all the 

 limestone with carbonate of potash, boiling the 

 solution to drive away any excess of carbonic 

 acid, which is apt to keep limestone in solution. 

 The liquor being filtered, and the residuum dried 

 and weighed, furnished the expected proportion of 

 limestone. 



I took the earth with which the inside of the 

 shell was filled up. I dissolved it as before, pro- 

 curing about 90 per cent, of limestone. The re- 

 siduum was chiefiy sand, with but little clay- 

 earth. 



I took 100 grains of the common gravelly soil 

 furnished me by Judge D. Johnson, from 'Dar- 

 lington Court House vicinity. I rejected all the 

 larger fragments ol shells, taking what appeared 

 to be the soil. I treated it as before, with muria- 

 tic acid, which dissolved perfectly 75 percent, of 

 the gravelly soil, leaving (when dried perfectly 

 and weighed) 25 per cent, of soil, almost entirely 

 sand, undissolved. 



Here, then, in various parts of our state, are de- 

 posits of shell limestone, just as valuable for ma- 

 nure as any other whatever, to sandy, to clayey, 

 or to an intermixture of sandy and clayey soil. A 

 source of wealth that is of very great extent and 

 very great value. 



Limestone in Europe is applied when burnt into 

 lime, sometimes to the amount of 300 bushels per 

 acre. Twenty hundred weight of limestone ought 

 to be exposed to fire in the kiln, till it will yield 



but eleven hundred weight, or more accurately 

 from 43 to 41 per cent, of carbonic acid ought to 

 be driven off by the heat; else the lime is imper- 

 fectly burnt, and will not make good mortar. 

 When laid and slacked upon the land, it regains 

 fi-om the air about 30 per cent, of carbonic acid in 

 about 10 days, and is gradually changed into lime- 

 stone airam. Hence the necessity of keeping lime 

 from the air, which is to be used as a cement ; 

 hence, too, powdered limestone may be as good 

 as lime in most cases. I would, therefore, were I 

 a farmer, merely grind and screen the shell marl, 

 without burning it, and put at least 300 or 350 

 bushels of the screened earth per acre, on the 

 land. This will form a good constitution of soil, 

 and will permanently prove useful. I should 

 deem 400 bushels per acre, on sandy soils, not too 

 much, and the addition of clay will add to the 

 productive power of the mixture thus made. But 

 as I am not a practical fiirmer, I say this with de- 

 ference to the judgment of those who are. 

 I am, &c. 



Thomas Cooper, M. D. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 CAPONS. 



Auburn, Frederick Co., Md. Nov. 23, 1837. 

 I very much fear 5'ou will begin to think me ei- 

 ther an epicure or the son of an epicure, it being 

 only a short time since that I served you up a mess 

 of bacon, and now I come with a dish of fowl. It 

 has been said, it is not good for man to be alone. 

 Bacon, although good alone, is very much better 

 when accompanied with a good, round, fiit pullet. 

 But it is not a pullet that I am about to serve up 

 to you at present, but her brother, though in an 

 altered li-om, as you will learn in the sequel. It 

 is a fact known to every traveller, that there is no 

 dish presented before him half so often as that of 

 chicken, served up in every form of which it is 

 capable, broiled, fried, slewed, baked, or boiled; 

 and it is a fact equally well known, that there is no 

 dish so often turned away untasted, in conse- 

 quence of its disgusting appearance of bad culina- 

 ry preparations. I allude of course to such as we 

 too frequently meet with on our public tables and 

 watering places, (Bedford itself not excepted.^ 

 How often are the ears of the hungry and weary 

 traveller assailed the moment the stage draws up 

 to the inn, by the dying shrieks of the rooster that 

 had but the moment before been picking up a 

 scanty subsistence from the dunghill, and in a few 

 moments more graces the head of the table, look- 

 ing more like that well known waterfowl, vulgarly- 

 called a fly-up-the-creek, which is indebted alone 

 to the length of its legs and neck for a subsistence, 

 than what it really is. But I have promised to 

 give you something even better than a fat pullet, 

 and I shall now proceed to serve it up ; I mean 

 then that favorite dish of the ancient Romans, the 

 " gallas spads or capon," or more plainly, the 

 cock altered by castration, and in such high repute 

 was it, that it generally graced the board of that 

 most excellent judge of good eating, Lucullus, 

 and if Shakspea're is to be believed, it was a tit-bit 

 not only with Jack Falstafl", but whb the Justice 

 who is represented—" In fair round body with 

 good capon lined." In England, at the present 



