1838] 



FARMERS- REGISTER. 



5fg7 



culiar characteristics show more strikingly on the 

 Guinea Creeks, than elsewhere, and hence it has 

 usually been called the (iuinea vein of land. It 

 is quick, Tree land, and, al'ier exhaustion, has a 

 wonderful power of resuscitation. This is 

 evinced, even to the eye of the passing slranirer, 

 by the quantity of hickory, dog-wood, red-bud 

 and walnut, interspersed among the old-field pines. 

 It is well adapted to the production of corn, to- 

 bacco, oats, nearly all the minor crops, and yields 

 wheat much better than would be supposed from 

 the sandy nature of the soil. The spots of red 

 land interspersed through this region, yield wheat 

 finely, as do most of the fields with a red clay sub- 

 stratum, i{ not too much exhausted. 



Feldspar is the most abundant rock, in the 

 bowels of the earth, in this belt of land. The 

 potash, usually found in this rock, may afford to 

 the soil its peculiar fertility when fresh, and ils 

 capability to be improved when impoverished, as 

 also its adaptation to the growth of tobacco ; for 

 this plant contains much potash in combination 

 with nitric acid. This may also account for the 

 free and improvable nature of much of the other 

 lands between tide-water and the mountains, de- 

 nied the use of lime. There is, however, gene- 

 rally a little lime in feldspar ; but hardly enough 

 to account for the fact stated. Potash, as is well 

 known, enters largely into the formation of vese- 

 table matter, and, being an alkali, may neutralize 

 the acid, in the soil. This theory is apparently 

 contradicted by the fact, that on much of our land 

 most abundantly supplied with feldspar, we find 

 the rankest growth of sorrel, and every indication 

 that the land is greatly poisoned with acidity. 

 It may readily be observed, however, that in such 

 places, the feldspar is harder than usual, and of 

 course, gives off its potash more slowly by decom- 

 position, and, lying very near the surface, when- 

 ever the interstices between its strata become sur- 

 charged with water, this must ooze into the soil, 

 and produce acidity by its putrefaction. In most 

 cases, deep and well-formed hill-side ditches, and 

 other means of preventing the stagnation of wa- 

 ter — which I believe to be the most usual cause 

 of acidity in land — would correct this evil. In 

 many places, there are marshes at heads of bot- 

 toms and on hill-sides, produced by strong bars of 

 feldspar, running across the declivity and stop- 

 ping the current of water. These may be re- 

 moved, by cutting deep channels through the 

 beds of rock, and forming blind drains for the pas- 

 sage of the water. About these ledges of feld- 

 epar, I think, there will generally be found a yel- 

 lowish-brown clay, resembling that on which the 

 lie of ashes has been spilled, which effervesces 

 freely with acids. We frequently see clay of this 

 appearance, in our roads, near beds of feldspar, 

 but I have never exposed any of it to the action 

 of acids. 



I have thought the agency of feldspar in fertiliz- 

 ing our lands, not unworthy your attention, and 

 regret that I have not given it a more satisfactory 

 investigation. As a geological fact it is certainly 

 of some importance; and in agriculture, it will be 

 pleasing, if we can ascertain, that we have, in- 

 corporated in our soils, a substitute for lime, 

 though greatly inferior to it; which, though it may 

 not bear transportation to much distance, tends 

 constantly, under proper management, to correct 

 acidity, and of course, according to Mr. Ruffin's 

 Vol. VI.— 68 



ingenious theory, prepares the land to receive 

 benefit from plaster. In all those soils, coming 

 under my observation, where plaster has failed, 

 there is a perliict destitution of feldspar, and I do 

 not now recollect a case of failure, where it exists. 

 Hut I know my observation, in this matter, has 

 been too limited, to justify my undertaking to lay 

 down rules. 



We have also, almost every where in our re- 

 rjion, the detritus of hornblende, in the form of 

 botile-grcen or black-sand, and, in many places, 

 that of green-stone, in the form of^ a light pea- 

 green siuid. A striking sample of this may be 

 observed in the Guinea road, on the hilUside 

 north-east of Felixville. Both of these are in- 

 trinsic evidences of good constitution in the soil, or, 

 at least, warrant the hope of improving by clover 

 and plaster. . 



Having consumed, perhaps, too muih time, 

 with the"foregoing remarks, connected with the 

 politics and philosophy of agriculture, I shall have 

 the less space left for remarking on the practice. 

 I have but little cause to regret this, as most of 

 my hearers are much better acquainted with this 

 department of our subject than myself. 



The practice of agriculture may be divided into 

 those processes which are intended to preserve 

 and improve the soil, and those intended to pro- 

 tect, to cultivate and to preserve the crops. Aa 

 we have no time for minute details, and as suc- 

 cess in the cultivation of crops depends so much 

 on the improvement of the land, we will attend 

 chiefly to this matter. 



In the improvement of land, manuring is (he 

 leading process. Indeed, it is the source from 

 which'all permanent success in agriculture must 

 flow. W ithout it, the lands must constantly dete- 

 riorate and the crops diminish; while both will im- 

 prove, if manuring is judiciously and diligently 

 conducted. No man, without a trial, could form 

 an adequate estimate of the quantity of manure 

 which miirht be made in one year, by a moderate 

 force, applied simply, to what may be termed the 

 main force of gathering, li-om the leaves of the 

 woods, the oHal of the crops, ashes, marsh mud, 

 and all other substances convertible into manure. 

 But when to this is added a judicious system of 

 enclosing and rotation of crops, and a skilfiil ap- 

 portionment of the quantity of land yielding cat- 

 tle food, and of the number of cattle, to the wants 

 and means of the farm, the quantity of inanure 

 and the increase of fertility— compared with or- 

 dinary attainments, in these matters -become 

 amazinff. 



A manure, pen or stereorary, in a suitable 

 place, into which the children of the family are 

 employed in accumulating weeds and other lit- 

 ter, to be rotted and enriched, by being sprinkled 

 with the dirty slop-waters from the kitchen, the 

 refuse soap-suds, and all other filthy fluids, usual- 

 ly thrown away, would produce a large and rich 

 addition to the manure of the farm. This, howe- 

 ver, micrht generate disease, unless great care be 

 taken to scatter ashes, frequently and liberally 

 over it. These would combine with and neutral- 

 ize the unwholesome effluvia, and greatly im- 

 prove the quality of the manure. 



Much of the manure, in this country, is lost, by 

 being permitted to lie in heaps during hot wea- 

 ther,'^burning with fermentation, and steaming oflf 

 its richest gases. If it be not demanded for some 



