FARMERS' REGISTER 



489 



years more. For a long time it had been in mar- 

 ket, bdt had attracted no buyer. At lni=t, and 

 solely on iiocoum of its marl beds, in 1838 it was 

 bouirht by Mr. Dmiel Eppes, (a young man re- 

 cently of aife,) at ^4 an acre." By iliis time 

 nearly all the old field- had grown up in younu 

 pines, and rt-quired labor in clearing i^reaier than 

 that of marlintr, nnd in advance of the latter ope- 

 ration. Siill, thouijh thus retarded, the marlinir, 

 which w;is commenced in the summer of 183^, 

 had by last spriuir extended over 120 acres. The 

 force employed lor these preparatory operations, 

 as well as lor cultivating the land as last as cleared 

 and marled, was 7 and sometimes only G hands, 

 3 horses, and with the pariial aid of 4 oxen. 



It should be obs^rveil tiiat very liiw persons 

 have kept any regular and constant marling Ibrce, 

 and that the operation ceases on almost every 

 farm (rom March uniil in Auijust. None in the 

 neighborhood have yet (August 11th) re-com- 

 menced this labor, though it is about to be begun 

 on every farm not yet marled over. 



But these and other such industrious exertions 

 of very young men, even in this formerly indolent, 

 careless, and wasieful neighborhood, are not so re- 

 markable as tlie new-born enerjjy of some others, 

 well stricken in years, and in whom age might be 

 supposed to have chilled the warmth of blood 

 which urges younger men to enterprise, and to 

 new and untried courses. The individuals who 

 will next be mentioned, are near neighbors to each 

 other, and are all old men, thoncrh amonir the 

 youngest marlers in Ihe county. Their locaiion is 

 not wiihin Ihe boundaries of the disirict to which 

 the previous observations have been confined, 

 though close adjacent, on the nearest lands which 

 drain into Blackwaier swamp. Marl was not 

 known to be there available until just before the 

 commencement of its use in the several cases that 

 will now be l)riefly slated. 



The Rev. Thomas B. Bryant, the youngest of 

 these individuals, is 62 years of ase. In the au- 

 tumn of 1836, marl was first found on his land, by 

 boring. He got out enough marl Ibr 15 acres, in 

 lime lor his next year's crop of corn, and since has 

 increased the space marb-d lo about 200 acres. He 

 has also applied litter raked up in the woods to 

 most of the poorest marled land ; and the results, 



altogether, are already such as to be entirely satia- 

 /aciory. He is proceeding with zeal and eneriry. 



Mr. Bryant's next neighbor, Mr. Francia 

 Eppes, now 67 years' olJ, encouraged t)y hie ex- 

 ample, also bored Ibr marl, and first Ibund it last 

 September. He went straight to work 5 and, lalo 

 as it was, and small as was his working force, he 

 marled 40 acres before planting his now growing 

 crop of corn. The marl was wiihin 3 leet of iha 

 surface, and very near and convenient to the field. 

 The demands of his planting and tillage left no la- 

 bor to spare for marling ; but the crop labors being 

 now finished, he is just about to recommence 

 mrirling for another year's operations. 



Mr. Jesse Heath is now between 70 and 80 

 years old, but hale and hearty as is deserved /or 

 the latter end of a lile of industry, temperance and 

 good conduct. Belbre he had hoped to find marl 

 nearer, he was so anxious lo use it, as the only 

 me.ms lo have a clover lot, that he had hauled 

 about 100 bushels 10 miles, from James River. 

 He told me that he thought this great labor could 

 be afforded for the benefit he derived. But consi- 

 dering it cheaper to buy and haul oyster shells from 

 Petersburg, also 10 miles dis'ant, as return loads, 

 when he sent wood to market, he substituted that 

 mode of supply, until he had obtained and used 25 

 hoifsheads. He has Ibund, however, the lime, 

 though very beneficial, less so than the marl. This 

 operation was stopped by his finding marl on a dis- 

 tant part of his land, by boring, after searching at 

 various limes Ibr more than a year. He has to 

 haul the marl two miles to his fields. This is the 

 Iburth year since his discovery, and he has marled 

 100 acres, and is proceeding with unabated zeal. 



Mr. John Hite, also t)etween 70 and 80 years 

 old, having no marl of his own, began to marl a 

 part of his land Irom a neighbor's pit at about 2 

 miles distance. He did not cover much extent of 

 surliice ; but even his commencing so heavy a 

 job, upon his observation of the effects obtained 

 tiy his neiirhhors, is, like their more extensive and 

 still continued operations, strong proof of the pro- 

 fits beinjT manliest and unquestionable. It is pro- 

 per to add that the three last named and oldest of 

 these individuals have but scanty means, and 

 would ceriainlyput nothing at risk in experiments, 

 or new practices ol' doubtful results. 



QUERIES TO ASCERTAIN THE ACTION AND EFFECTS OF SHELL, MARL AS MAWITRE, AND'AN- 

 SWERS AS TO THE OLDEST 3IARLED DISTRICT IN PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, VA.* 



1. When was the use of marl as manure commenced on your farm 1 



2. Whose property was the farm, and under whose directio.n was its general management, (if not 

 your own,) then, and since? 



* Within the last few weeks, the reporter visifpd all the farms concerning which information of recent date 

 will be given below, and submitted the queries to their several proprietors, and obtained and wrote down their 

 answers ; which answers were by them afterwards examined, corrected where deemed necessary, and finally 

 approved. In each case, with the queries, a copy of the ' Essay on Calcareous Manures' was presented, for 

 the purpose of enabling all to reply, with full understanding, on the subject of the 23d query ; and the several 

 answers to this last query were not taken at first, with the others, but only after time had been afforded for the 

 deliberate reading and consideration of the pages refeued to. and which are republished at a preceding page, 

 (431.) for general reference. Such a mode of personal examination was by no means necessary ; but it was 

 resorted to in this case, both because published queries had been formerly tiied in vain, and because, in the 

 first beginning of this investigation, the explanations of the reporter might be needed, to make clear his own 

 Vol. Vin.-62 



