FARMERS' REGISTER. 



681 



the lapse of ages, been dissolved, and washed 

 away either principally or entirely, and is only !o 

 be (bund in a lew places, and in small proporiion. 

 The green-sand, in ereater or smaller proportions, 

 is found instead. Whence its origin, what was 

 its formation, and even what its chemical con- 

 stitution, 1 pretend not to understand. But even 

 in the absence of all light on these points, the un- 

 learned farmer may yet properly use, and iirofit by, 

 this manure, and avoid falling into the gross and 

 almost unmixed errors to which he would be led, 

 if following merely the speculations and asser- 

 tions thereon of geological reports, which speak 

 of the manure in the most exalted terms, and oH(»r 

 none of the numerous and entire exceptions which 

 oppose the opinion of its universal or even gene- 

 ral eflicacy. 



The green-sand marl (that is, marl containing 

 calcareous matter in large or considerable propor- 

 tion, as well as green-sand,) is '.he only kind 

 found under the Pamunkey low-grounds, and 

 which has been thereon applied, for the 20 miles 

 from Mr. Conrade Webb's farm in New Kent, to 

 Edmund F. Wickham's in Hanover. The fer- 

 tilizing efl(3Ct8 have been very great — much more 

 60, as they appeared to mc, than merely calcareous 

 marl could have produced so early on neutral soil 

 —and I freely admit that a large share of the ge- 

 neral benefit derived, must be due to the green- 

 sand ingredient of the compound manure. Still, 

 this opinion is held in subservience to the gene- 

 ral propositions above stated as to its action ; and 

 therefore, I cannot but believe that the efll'ect of 

 Ihe green-sand has lessened with time, or, in the 

 oldest experiments, has even ceased, though no 

 Buch effect has been observed or suspected, owing 

 to the still increasing efiect of the calcareous in- 

 gredient. However, as to this, let the reader 

 judge for himself, from the answers which will be 

 presented. These circumstances and effects are so 

 peculiar, and so different in many respects from 

 the action of merely calcareous marl, that I found 

 myself on a new scene, in this green-sand marl 

 region. The circumstances both ol the Pamunkey 

 soil and the marls are so different from those of 

 the high and originally poor lands adjacent, that 

 it will be proper to present the two classes un- 

 der separate lieads, instead of regarding either 

 county or other artificial lines of division. The 

 subject of the following answers will then be ex- 

 clusively the Pamunkey low-grounds, and green- 

 sand and calcareous marl, unless any partial ex- 

 ceptions to either should be particularly named. 



Within a few days alter returning from this inte- 

 resting agricultural region, [ visited Coggins farm, 

 the scene of my own old marling labors, and was 

 struck with the raanilest inferiority of the growth 

 of the young red clover which covers all the land 

 from which wheat was reaped this year, to the 

 clover of the same age on the green-sand marl- 

 ings on the Pamunkey lands ; and the compari- 

 son was made with parts of the land of Coggins 

 farm where the greatest improvement had been 

 made by marl, and where the last crop of corn 

 was certainly equal in product to those lately on 

 the highly improved Pamunkey lands, and, as I 

 infer, to the last corn crops of the lands now bear- 

 ing clover so much superior. This difference I 

 cannot but ascribe to the action of the green- 

 sand of the Pamunkey marl (not acting alone, 

 but conibined with and) superadded to the calca- 



reous matter, which was exclusively (or nearly 

 so) the active ingredient of the marl used in the 

 cases referred to on Coggins farm. Although 

 ihere are inexhaustible beds containing full 50 per 

 cent, of green-sand, 1 had discontinued using that 

 earth as manure, several years before having 

 ceased to direct any farming operations ; yet, under 

 the impressions recently received, I would now 

 advise the renewal of experiment.?, if not of gene- 

 ral practice Ibnhwith, and the commencement of 

 trials wherever this earth can be used on clover, 

 and on neutral or calcareous soils, or intermixed 

 with, or after the application of calcareous marl. 

 I would also advise smaller but sufficient experi- 

 ments on other crops and other kinds of soils, to 

 test the value of the opinions advanced above, aa 

 to the general ineflicacy of this manure under such 

 circumstances. 



The ready answer to my denial of the general 

 efficacy of green-sand as manure in lower Virginiay 

 will be a reference to the extensive use and great 

 benefits of this manure in New Jersey. As i 

 know nothing certain of the particulars of these 

 practices, either as to the precise nature of the 

 manures, of the soils, the degree and permanency 

 of effects, and especially of the failures (which 

 are seldom if ever mentioned in published re- 

 ports — ) I will neither deny, nor receive as evi- 

 dence, any thing that I have yet seen in regard to 

 New Jersey marl and green-sand. 1 doubt not 

 that great" benefits have been there produced. 

 But in the general ignorance of the cultivators, 

 and the still more general confusion of terms as to 

 the ingredients of the manures used, and the igno- 

 rance of geologists of agricultural science and 

 truths, 1 suspend all expression of opinion, or par- 

 ticular inferences from the statements of New Jer- 

 sey marling, until better inlbrmed as to the facts. 

 My opinions of the effects of green-sand, as above 

 and elsewhere expressed, are deduced from, and 

 limited to, the operation as known by experiment 

 in lower Virginia. 



The agricultural communityhave been indebted to 

 the writings (not of farmers, but) of geologists and 

 scientific men, lor the little truth and value, and the 

 abundance of mystification, error, and false deduc- 

 tions, in regard to the action and efieets to be expect- 

 ed of green-sand. The gain derived from these 

 learned investigators would have been very far 

 greater, and the errors much less, if they could have 

 been content not to know every thing at the first 

 glance ; but, on the contrary, had submitted to con- 

 less their actual ignorance in many respects, and 

 instead of deluding their confessedly unlearned dis- 

 ciples, the agriculturists, had asked the aid of their 

 observations and experiments to dispel the great 

 existing obscurity and difficulty of the subject. If 

 geological surveyors were as much distinguish- 

 ed fbr the modesty and self-distrust which should 

 belong to seekers of knowledge in a new field, and 

 Ibr patient labor of investigation in the pursuit, as 

 they are for presumption, for the jumping to con- 

 clusions, and Ibr scientific quackery, then their re- 

 portG would have been a hundred-fold more pro- 

 fitable to the public — though possibly much less 

 so to their individual interest and early reputation. 



The operation of green-sand proper (or alone) 

 is altogether a different matter from that of marl, 

 and would not come under the queries designed 

 to elicit statements of the efiects of marl. But as 

 these two manures, even when separate, are so 



