490 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



3. What was the quantity of cleared land on the farm then ready for and subjected in its turn to 

 cultivation of any kind, exclusive of all waste ground? 



4. What is the quantity since added, by new clearings of forest land, or other waste spots brought 

 into tiilacel And, generally, was the land thus added richer or poorer than ihe present average qua- 

 lity of the farm"? 



5. What was the rate of progress in extending the marling— and, altogether, how many acres have 

 been now marled 1 



6. What was the usual strength of the mar! used, or its proportion per cent, of carbonate of lime, 

 or pure shelly matter? 



7. Was there any peculiar quality or ingredient, besides the carbonate of lime, that served to give 

 additional value to the manure— as "green sand," or gypsum, or a large proportion of fine clay, &c.? 



8. Or was there any thing that served more than usually to lessen the value, as stony hardness of 

 many shells, or of masses of marl, &c. 1 



9. What have been the usual quantities of marl applied to the acre ? 



10. Have there been made trials of any much lighter dressings of marl than the usual quantities— 

 and if eo, what were the results, compared to the usual quantities 1 



11. Have there been made trials of any much heavier dressings than the usual quantities — and 

 with what comparative results? 



12. Was the cropping and general management of the land, /or a few years immediately previous 

 to its being marled, such as might be considered meliorating or improving, (or at least ns preserving 

 its degree of fertility,) or was it impoverishing, and wasting of fertility in general? State the rota- 

 tion of crops, if known. 



13. The same question as to the few years immediately after marling, and since. 



14. What have been the usual and general results of the applications of marl, on the increase of the 

 crop next following, on land in different conditions — and afterwards to the present time? 



15. Have the earliest fertilizing effects of marl (or the increased product of the first crop, or first 

 course of crops in the rotation,) been subsequently increased or diminished by lapse of time— and in 

 either case, under, and in proportion to, what circumstances? 



16. Is it your opinion, whether founded on experience or observation, that the early increased pro- 

 duct of your marled land (say for the first three or four crops, or of any number you have yet made 

 thereon,) will be subsequently diminished, under any rotation of crops, or course of cultivation, that 

 would not have been decidedly exhausting and injurious to the land, if marl had not been applied ? 



17. Has sterility, or other damage, been caused on any part of the land, by applying marl too 

 heavily, or in any other manner — and under what circumstances of soil, tillage, &c. ? 



18. Has it been found that any other manures, either vegetable and putrescent, or mineral, are 

 more eflicacious, or durable, on poor natural soils after marling them ? 



19. What do you suppose was the average productive power, in corn, per acre, of all your now 

 arable and cultivated land, before marling? 



20. What do you suppose is the present average productive power of the same in corn? 



21. What was the usual or average quantity of the crops of wheat made annually on the farm be- 

 fore marling, and recently? 



meaning, in queries which perhaps previously had been too obscurely stated; and which queries, after being 

 thus tested by some trial, have been in part recast, and made more comprehensive, as well as more precise 

 and clear, than in their first form. The several answers were given, (and, as above stated, the purport writ- 

 ten down as soon as expressed,) by each individual, without his knowing what any other had answered ; ex- 

 cept in one instance of joint operations in marling, and also in regard to the reporter's own answers, which 

 were prepared after his being in possession of most of the others. Therefore, there was nothing of the 

 opinions or fac-ts of others furnished to serve either to guide or to test and correct any one's estimate or supposi- 

 tion of amounts and values. This, together with the circumstance that quantities and values are almost always 

 stated upon mere supposition and by guess, and without any aid of previously written statements of precise mea- 

 surements, will serve satisfactorily to account for much diversity in the estimates of products and values. 

 But such diversity, under the circumstances stated, instead of impairing the value of the testimony, would 

 •trengthen it, in regard to the good faith of the witnesses, and their intention io furnish correct answers, in the 

 mind of any judicious reader who might not know the other good and sufficient claims of these highly 

 respectable individuals to entire confidence on that score.— Ed. 



