FARMERS' REGISTER 



481 



properl}' cured, will bring from five to fifteen ccnis 

 per pound. 



Tile sialic, wlien stripped of tiie leaf and seed, 

 may be burnt, and a superior alkali made irom the 

 ashes. 



The comb of the seed, or properly the filamenls 

 of the flower, is excellent feed for cattle or hogs. 



The helianthusis cultivated in the vicinity of 

 York, (Penn.) and a gentleman in 1S37, cultivated 

 one hundred acres. 



Extract from llie "Essay on Calcareous Manures." 

 RECAPITUbATIOIV OF THK EFFECTS OF CALCA- 

 REOUS MANURES, AND DIRECTIONS FOR 

 THEIR MOST PROFITABLE APPLICATION. 



Under like circumstances in other respects, the 

 benefit derived from marling will be in proportion 

 to thequantity ofvegelable oroiher putrescent mat- 

 ter given to the soil. It is essential that the culti- 

 vation should be mild, and that no grazing be per- 

 mitted on poor lands. Whereverfarm-yard manure 

 is used, the land should be marled heavily, and if 

 the marl is applied first, so much the better. The 

 one manure cannot act b}^ fixing the other, except 

 so far as they are in contact, and both well mixed 

 with the soil. 



On galled spots, from which all the soil has been 

 ivashcd, and where no plant can live, the applica- 

 tion of marl alone is utterly useless. Putrescent 

 manures alone would there have but little effect, 

 unless in great quantity, and would soon be all 

 lost. But marl and putrescent matter together 

 serve to l()rm a new soil, and thus both are brought 

 into useful action ; the marl is made active, and 

 the putrescent manure permanent. The only per- 

 fect cures that I have been able to make, at one 

 operation, of galls produced upon a barren subsoil, 

 were by applying a heavy dressing of both calca- 

 reous and putrescent manures together ; and this 

 method may be relied on as certainly effectual. 

 But though a fertile soil may thus be created, and 

 fixed durably on galls otherwise irreclaimable, the 

 cost will generall}' exceed the value of the land 

 recovered, from the great quantity of putrescent 

 matter required. Much of our acid hilly land 

 has been deprived, by washing, of a considerabe 

 portion of its natural soil, though not yet made 

 entirely barren. The foregoing remarks equally 

 apply to this kind of land, to the extent that its 

 soil has been carried off. It will be profitable to 

 apply marl to such land — but its effect will be di- 

 minished, in proportion to the previous removal of 

 the soil. Calcareous soils are much less apt to 

 wash than other kinds, from the diflerence of tex- 

 ture. When a field that has been injured by 

 washing is marled, within a few years after many 

 of the old gulleys will begin to produce vegetation, 

 and show a soil gradually forming from the dead 

 vegetables brought there by winds and rains, al- 

 though no means should have been used to aid 

 this operation. 



The effect of marling will be much lessened by 

 the soil being kept under exhausting cultivation. 

 Such were the circumstances under which we may 

 suppose that marl was tried and abandoned many 

 years ago, in the case referred to in page 37. Pro- 

 ceeding upon the false supposition thai marl was 

 to enrich by direct action, it is most probable that 



Vol. Vin.-61 



it was applied to some of the poorest, and most 

 exhausted land, lor the purpose of giving the ma- 

 nure a " fair trial." The disappointment of such 

 ill-founded expectations, was a sufficient reason 

 for the experiment not being repeated, or being 

 scarcely ever referred to again, except as evidence 

 of the worthlessnesa of marl. Yet with proper 

 views of the action of this manure, this experi- 

 ment might at first have as well proved the early 

 efficacy and value of marl, as it now does its du- 

 rability. 



When acid soils are equally poor, the increase 

 of the first crop from marling will be greater on 

 sandy, than on clay soils ; though the latter, by 

 heavier dressings and longer time, may ultimately 

 become the best land, at least for wheat and for 

 grass. The more acid the growth of any soil is, 

 or would be, if suffered to stand, the more increase 

 of crop may be expected from marl ; which is di- 

 rectly the reverse of" the effects of putrescent ma- 

 nures. The increase of the first crop on worn acid 

 soil, 1 have never known under fifty percent., and 

 more often is as much as one hundred — and the 

 improvement continues to increase, under mild till- 

 age, to three or four times the original product of 

 the land, [See Exp, 11, page 46, and Exp, 4 

 and 6.] In this, and other general statements of 

 effects, I suppose the land to bear not more than 

 two grain crops in four years, and not to be sub- 

 jected to grazing— and that a sufficient cover of 

 marl has been laid on for use, and not enough to 

 cause disease. It is true, that it is difficult, if not 

 impossible, to fix that proper medium, varying as 

 it may on every change of soil, of situation, and 

 of the kind of marl. But whatever error may be 

 made in the proportion of marl applied, let it be 

 on the side of light dressing, (except where pu- 

 trescent manures are also laid on, or designed to 

 be laid on before the next course of crops begins) 

 — and if less increase of crops is gained to the acre, 

 the cost and labor of marling will be lessened in a 

 still greater proportion, H] after tillage has served 

 to mix the marl well with the soil, sorrel should 

 still show to any extent, it will sufficiently indicate 

 that not enough marl had been applied, and that 

 it may be added to, safely and profitably. If the 

 nature of the soil, its condition and treatment, and 

 the strength of the marl, all were known, it would 

 be easy to direct the amount of a suitable dress- 

 ing; but without knowing these circumstances, it 

 will be safest to give two hundred and fifty, or 

 three hundred bushels to the acre of worn acid 

 soils, and at least twice as much to newly cleared, 

 or well manured I&nd. Besides avoiding danger, 

 it is more profitable to marl lightly at first on weak 

 lands. If a farmer can carry out only ten thousand 

 bushels of marl in a year, he will derive more pro- 

 duct, and confer a greater amount of improve- 

 ment, by spreading it over forty acres of the land 

 intended for his next crop, than on twenty, though 

 the increase to the acre would probably be great- 

 est in the latter case. By the lighter dressing, the 

 land of the whole farm will be marled, and be 

 storing up vegetable matter for its progressive im- 

 provement, in half the lime that it could be marled 

 at double the rate. 



The greater part of the calcareous earth applied 

 at one time cannot begin to act as maiiure before 

 several years have passed, owing to the coarse 

 state of many of the shells, and the want of tho- 

 roughly mixing them with the soil. Therefore, if 



