514 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



removal ; and it is only in connexion with marling, 

 that this, or any other mode of brmgin<; poor 

 wood-land into cultivation, is advisable, or will re- 

 turn any profit. 



Tile beiiefiis of ihia practire are mos5t ptriUiiif; in 

 regard to lands formerly cultivated and exhauGied, 

 anTl afterwards It'll to be covered by a second 

 growth of pines, of say 30 or more years old, and 

 from six (o twelve inches in diameter. There is 

 plenty of such land in every part of lower Virginia: 

 and as lonjjf as the heretolbre and siill usual ex- 

 hausting system of tillage is pursued, (wilhoui 

 marlinS)) there is no likelihood of there not being 

 a still increasing succession of such secondary 

 growl hs. The proprietors, as a matter of course, 

 would cut down and clear such land. The wood 

 ("old-field pine") was worthless for any purpose, 

 and was burned on the ground, with much difficul- 

 ty. The thick cover of pine leaves, the dropping 

 of several previous years, being known to be hurt- 

 ful to the growth of crops, was carefully raked up 

 and burnt, to get rid of if. No one thought of 

 using this litter as manure lor other irround. The 

 land, thus effectually cleaned, was then cultivated 

 in corn ; and alter two or three years of beiier pro- 

 duction, it waa reduced to its former stale of ex- 

 haustion. 



Such was the former mode in Prince George 

 of bringing " pine old fields" into cultivation ; and 

 Buch is still the practice in many places where 

 marling has not yet been introduced. The oppo- 

 site mode, as practised by myself, and which is 

 either fuHy or partially conformed to now by all 

 persons similarly situated, was, to marl the land 

 first, (merely opening narrow passage-; (or the 

 carts to drop the loads,) spread the marl carefully 

 and equally on the litter ; next cut down all pines 

 under 6 or 8 inches through, and belt all above 

 that size, by merely cutting through the tiark effec- 

 tually. Any other and smaller growth than pines 

 (of which, of course there would be but little) 

 would have been previously grubbed up. August, 

 both as a leisure time, and for other reasons, was 

 the best time for all these operations ; and pines 

 then and thus slightly cut around will not begin to 

 die until the latter part of the next year. In the 

 spring thereafter all will be dead, and the land 

 ready to yield its first crop. Not only the previous 

 deposile of dead leaves will then have been con- 

 verted to manure, by combination vviih the marl, 

 and in a great degree fixed in the land, but two 

 subsequent crops of leaves will have been furnish- 

 ed to increase this improvement. In addition, the 

 gradual decay and dropping of first the smaller, 

 and next the larger boughs, and finally of the 

 trunks, ail go to give manure to the land. The 

 injury to crops, and obstruction to tillage, caused 

 by the fall of branches and of trunks, will not be 

 considerable during the two first crops ; and if the 

 land is then rested for two years, during ihat time 

 most o( the wood will fall witho'it doing harm. 

 The subsequent cutting up and removal (or burn- 

 ing on the ground) of the fiillen trunks will indeed 

 be a considerable labor ; but not to be compared to 

 a general clearing, by cutting down and heaping 

 and burning, at first. So different in cost are the 

 first year's operations, that fifiy acres may be 

 brought under tillage by belting, as quickly and 

 as easily as five acres by cutting down. 



A less profitable course than the above described 

 18 more usual ; that ie, the land is generally not 



marled until after the trees are dead, and the land 

 aho'Jt to be cultivated. This is an enormous 

 wasie of the vegetable material lor fertilizaiion. 

 A much butter mode than even ihe preceding 

 would he to marl the land as many years in ad- 

 vance ol'the l>eiiing and cultivation, as the propri- 

 etor could ail'ord to wait for the return of ihe 

 accumulaied value. Then the manure cro[), (ihe 

 pine trees) would continue to grow, arrd every 

 year to give, in ihe successive dcposites of leavfs, 

 new coverings of manure, and the marl would re- 

 gularly combine with and store up ihe producis,a»d 

 fix them in ihe soil, instead of all beingeuccepsively 

 and regularly wasted, as is tlie case without ihe 

 marl. ! have no experience of such long advanced 

 inveelmenis of capital in improvement, and there- 

 liire can but state opinions, insipnd of facts. 

 Bui I enterlnin but little doubt that such a process, 

 if allowed 12 years between a good and equally 

 spread marling, and ihe after belling and cuiiiva- 

 lion, would raise to a permanent production of 10' 

 barrels of corn per acre, land which could not long 

 continue to yield two barrels, if tilled^ without 

 marling or belting. 



BURNING COAL MINES. 



From ttie Mining JoornaT, 

 In our last numher we gave exiracls from letter? 

 received of the progressive conflagraiion of the 

 coal mines in the department of the Allier, which^ 

 since ihe year 1816, had not heerr eubjecied lo so 

 direful a resuli as that embodied in ilie (bllowing 

 description, extracted from the jJthenoium. The 

 laie accounts, however, siaie that consideral)le 

 progress was being made in turning the waters of 

 the river Gauge inio the workings, and thus slop- 

 ping the progress of deslruclion. The loss, how- 

 ever, must, in any case, be considerable : 



"Leiters and papers from the department of the 

 Allier, bring accounts of a remarkable conflagra- 

 tion which lately broke out in the coal mines of 

 Coramentry, and had been burning for a week 

 wiih daily increasing fLiry. It appears that this 

 fire, which, for the last twenty-lour years, has 

 been silently smouldering in the bowels of the 

 earth — revealing its existence by perpetual smoke 

 and occasional outbreaks olflame, which, however 

 had always been confined within the limits aban- 

 doned to its dominion — had, at length, made ila 

 way through some breach into one ol the vast 

 galleries of ihere extensive workings; and there, 

 meeting with the air-current so long denied it, 

 had spread through all the subterranean chambers 

 and passages with a rapidity before which resis- 

 tance became utterly powerless, showing itself at 

 every crevice and outlet of the vast labyrinth, and 

 flinging its points and columns of fire far up into 

 the air, through all the shafts that led into the 

 wide field of the rich deposit. Luckily the solem- 

 nities of the d;iy, it being Sunday, had emptied 

 the workings of their human tenants, (or no mortal 

 aid could have availed them against the sudden- 

 ness with which the fiery flood swept over all 

 things. The authorities of the district were early 

 on the spot, but have hitherto been little more 

 than idle and awe-struck spectators. Neither 

 Vesuvius, nor any other eruption, say the account?, 

 can give a notion of the dreadful and Eublime 



