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F A K M E R S' RE G 1 S T ii R 



I have not excavated to the extent here spoken o( 

 by Dr. Beck, but as far as I have progresseti, the 

 indicia seem to be tlie same as indicated in his re- 

 port. And vviiy should there not be salt water 

 /bund'? We are not njore than fifty miles in a 

 direct line from the ocean, this " low country" has 

 almost a uniform level from the sea, wiih no great 

 elevation above its high tides, and the deposiies 

 here found, are all of a marine character. But I 

 will not pursue this inquiry lurther, until I have 

 made some further investigations, which I con- 

 template making. Upon leaving Egypt, on your 

 way to Newbern, you will find, every now and 

 then, on the river, appearances of lime and marl, 

 until you reach the [ilantation of Isaac Taylor, 

 esq., about three miles Irom Newbern. Mr. 

 Taylor is one of our best practical farmers, and 

 has turned these limestone formations on his lands 

 to good accoutit, as is best evidenced both by the 

 appearance of his crops and quantity of corn and 

 cotton produced from them. His plantation, how- 

 ever, possesses advantages which but few others 

 enjoy. In /ront of his larm, on the river, there 

 are extensive flats or marshes, which produce an 

 inexhaustible su|)ply of coarse grass, which is 

 here used for hay, being cut and cured as the 

 other grasses which are converted into hay. Our 

 horses and cattle are very fond of it, and large 

 qiiantities are cut and sold in the town of New- 

 bern for winter forage from the marshes, in the 

 vicinity of the town. This, with the lime, af- 

 fords an abundance of manure, particularly when 

 taken from the stables, &c., after it has been 

 pulled to pieces and trodden down by the stock. 

 Four miles and a half fro.Ti Newbern, at John- 

 son's Point on the Neuse, about five feet above 

 Jow water mark, these beds of shell marl again 

 make their appearance. Here is an inexhaustible 

 quantity of niarl, lying in its native beds perfectly 

 undisturbed, and for all practical purposes utterly 

 useless, although the access lo it is as easy as na- 

 ture could make it. The lands loo on Brice's 

 creek, and the surrounding country, would be pro- 

 digiously benefited by an application of this marl, 

 being entirely made up as it is of marine sub- 

 stances, among which are scallops, oysters, clams, 

 conchs, corals and madrepores. The expense of 

 excavation and removal from this place to the 

 farms in the vicinity could not be very great, as 

 ihe water facilities are as good as they could be 

 desired. Ascending the Trent river, one of the 

 prettiest stseams in our country, you pass through 

 a district of land which affords seme of the finest 

 farnis in our state ; about three miles from New- 

 bern, you will come to the Jarm of George Wil- 

 son, esq., one of our most scientific farmeis. 

 Mr. W. has contributed largely to our agricultu- 

 ral knowledge, and is an able contributor to many 

 of our best agricultural periodicals. Here you will 

 find an abundance of limestone yielding a very 

 large per cent, of carbonate of lime. '^Mr. W. 

 converted this stone into lime by burning it in fur- 

 naces, and has sold much of it in market. The 

 beautiful episcopal church in Newbern is built 

 with lime from Mr. Wilson's furnaces. The 

 Trent river is very rich in limestone formations, 

 nearly all the way up, and at Mr. Hargeth's, three 

 or four miles above the farm of Mr. Wilson, you 

 will obtain a full view of the limestone vvhere'tlie 

 rock has been quarried for use. As this singular 

 ^nd abundant ibrmation will, no doubt, in lime to. 



come, constitute the gold mines of this section of 

 the country, 1 will give you Professor Olmsted's 

 description of it, as received and exammed by 

 him. " It n>akes its appearance on the left bank of 

 the river near its bed, and fifteen feet below the 

 surface of the ground. It has been traced a mile 

 up and down the river, and extends to an unknown 

 depth, lying in horizontal masses. This limestone 

 consists almost entirely of small convex concre- 

 tions, irreixularly aggregated, and forming nume- 

 rous cavities. The peculiar forms of these con- 

 cretions make them resemble the moulds of shells, 

 no longer preserving their organic character, but 

 now united with silex into a rock. The cavitie.g 

 contain more or less water which holds a portion 

 of the lime suspended, so that there exudes from 

 the rock when, first removed from its bed, a liquid 

 resembling milk. The color of ihe stone, when 

 first quarried, is a bluish green, ami its hardness is 

 not much greater than that of ordinary limestone ; 

 but on exposure to the air, it becomes brown, and 

 hard enough to fire with steel. It is in fact a na- 

 tural mortar, composed of about three parts lime 

 and one sand, with a little iron. To its union with 

 this sand, and to its entire freedom from clay, is to 

 be ascribed its property of acquiring such remark- 

 able hardness. The principal use of this lime- 

 stone at present, is for mill-stones, particularly such 

 as are wrought by hand, or hand mill-stones, 

 which are in common use in the neighboring 

 country. A pair of these is furnished at three 

 dollars. The large kind, or water mill-stones, bring 

 forty or fifty dollars." Six or seven miles further, 

 upon Mill Creek, a tributary of the Trent, is ibund 

 the most singular deposite of oyster sliells that oc- 

 curs in any part of the world; they are really of 

 the mammoth genus, and are found in extensive 

 beds. ProftJssor Olmsted saw and obtained many 

 of these shells measuring a foot and more in 

 length, and ol' correspondent width. JMany of 

 these shells, upon being exposed lo the air. crum- 

 ble and decompose, and form a rich deposite of 

 lime. J. Collinson Burgvvyn, Esq., of Green 

 Hill, in Jones county, whose fium lies upon the 

 Trent and this creek, in the course of the last 

 year caused quantities of these shells, which are 

 found also in great abundance on the river, to be 

 dug up and spread on his fields, the worth of 

 which he will ascertain from his coming crop. It 

 is to be hoped from Mr. Eurgwyn's known devo- 

 tion to the science of agriculture, that a liiir ex- 

 periment will now be made, in testing the value 

 of these organic remains, and that we shall be 

 favored with the practical results of his experi- 

 ment. A little farther up, another singular for- 

 mation of sIr'II marl occurs on the plantation of 

 Joseph Whilty, Esq., differing in its location from 

 other similar deposiies, as here it breaks out " on 

 the borders of one of those remarkable sivamps 

 called yjocoso/is." I do not know that Mr. Whit- 

 ty has made any use of this rich deposite on his 

 land, lor in fact although this section of country 

 afibrds such inexhaustible resources of this kind, 

 but few of our planters have yet obtained their 

 own consent to abandon even in a measure the 

 old fashioned way of manurintr, and to try an ex- 

 periment on a small scale. It was on liiis plan- 

 tation whilst it belonged to Durant Hatch, sen., 

 that a most interesting discovery was made in 

 digging a well, which is well authenticated, and 

 which we have often heard Gen. Hatch speak of 



