FARMERS' REGISTER 



689 



land I suppose to be lully thirty bushels of corn 

 per acre. 



21s<. — Tlie ravages of the fly have been such, for 

 the two last years, iliat no data can be obtained 

 from the crops ol' wheat of those years. In 

 1838 1 reaped at least 14 bushels to tlie acre al- 

 ter corn ; that crop was seeded entirely on 

 marled land. I marled and manured a lot of 9 

 acres in 1839, and planted it in corn, the pro- 

 duct was 84 barrels — the corn measured in 

 June, the year after it was made. The same 

 lot was seeded last fall in wheat, and allhoutrh 

 it seemed to be destroyed in the spring by fly, 

 yet it yielded 102 bushels of wheal that weigh- 

 ed 61 lbs. 



22d. — The increa!=ed product of corn is worth fully 

 S9 per acre— ^2,000 corn crop alone. The 

 wheat, as has been ohsprved, having been too 

 unproductive to furnish any data for an estimate. 



23d. — I know of nolhin^r to contradict the " reca- 

 pituiaiioii" in the 'Essay on Calcareous Ma- 

 nures ;' but every known result corroborates the 

 deductions of that work, which gave birth to a 

 revolution in the agriculture of our country, that 

 will be ever memorable in its annals — and place 

 its author among its jireatesl benefactors. 

 November 5th, 1840. 



IV. Answers of f-Villianis Carter, in regard to the 

 applications and effects of green-sand alone, on 

 his Broad Neck farm, Hanover county. 



Brond Neck, Hanover Co., ) 

 Nov. 23J, 1840. 5 

 In answer to your queries upon the subject of 

 green-sand, I have it in my power to slate, u'ith 

 considerable accuracy, the resulis of experiments 

 made with that manure.* Four years ago, in the 

 spring of 1836, bi^fore planting, 1 carted upon a 

 bell of land, running diagonally through the field 

 designed for corn, green-sand, to the amount of 

 about 1000 bushels to the acre. The belt, 10 (eel 

 wide, was run in a diagonal direction, so as to 

 embrace three distinct varieties of soil, in order 

 that I might ascertain which it would most bene- 

 fit. At one end of the belt, the land is a coarse, 

 yellow sand, poor, and fit only for corn, and pro- 

 ducing that in but small quantities. In the mid- 

 dle, the soil is good, producing corn, wheat and 

 clover very well. The other extreme runs gradual- 



* This reference is to the queries published in 1837, 

 in connexion with the general queries on marling, 

 (recently again submitted to Mr. Carter,) and which 

 were as follow: (Far. Reg., Vol. V., p. 511.) 



"Additional queries, addressed to persons who- have 

 used green-sand earth, not calcareous, or not efferves- 

 cent with acids. 

 Query 1. In what quantities have you used the earth 



called "green-sand" per acre ? 



2. On what extent of surface, and for what length 

 of time ? 



3. On what kind of soil — and, especially, as to 

 whether naturally rich or poor, and whether marled or 

 not — has this manure been operative, or of no effect? 



4. What crops is it beneficial to, and on what has it 

 little or no effect? 



5. Is its beneficial effect durable or transi-^nt— -and 

 to what known extent ?" 



ly into a " livery," while, cold soil, producing, 

 tolerably well only, our usual crops ; much infe- 

 rior to the middle, but better than the first portion. 

 The green-sand was spread evenly over the sur- 

 face of the bell, which had been marked off dis- 

 tinctly with a plough — the corn planted overlhe 

 whole field, and all treated alike. I plough but 

 one way, drilling the corn. I also put green-sand 

 into a few hundred hills of corn in another part of 

 the field, and some time after, in planting cotton, 

 gave a good allowance to alternate rows. During 

 the whole of the summer of 1836, I watched the 

 growth of the corn and cotton in hills, drills, and 

 belt, but found no diff irence between that which 

 had, and that which had noi the green-sand. In 

 October, the field was sown in wheat. The 

 spring of '37 came, but along with il no improve- 

 (uent in the wheal; on the contrary, it was de- 

 cidedly injured— kilted out ; and the ground wore 

 the appearance of being under the influence of 

 frost, even as late as the month of April — looking 

 spongy, spewed up. From this time, I thought 

 i no niore of green-sand, till my return Irora the 

 j Springs, about the 1st October, when I discover- 

 ! ed from my house, which overlooks the field, that 

 I the carrot weeds on the afore-mentioned belt very 

 I fiir overtoj)ped their neiglibort?. Upon examina- 

 tion, I found the white clover and volunteer red 

 (having sown no clover this year) much belter 

 than elsewhere, and made up my mind that green- 

 sand was a good ihiHg for the clovers, if not for 

 grain. In the spring of 1838, the poorest and 

 most sandy parts of the belt put up a smart enr'.r,- 

 kling of the bird's loot clover ; the better, but still 

 sandy part, as it encroached upon the really good 

 : land, had a most magnificent growth of white clo- 

 j ver, (which was never seen there before) ; and on 

 ! the balance of the belt there was a very fir<e crop^ 

 ! of both white and red, varying with tlte quality of 

 ' the land— much inliirior on the whiter land, and 

 j where decideiily white and cold, no improvement 

 at all. The belt, originally but ten feet wide, had 

 now, by Irequput ploughings and harrovvings,^ 

 during the cultivation of \\u'. corn and sowing of 

 the wheat, spread out to fully 20 leei ; and seeing 

 the clovers as good at the margins as in the mid- 

 dle, I concluded I had wasted labor in putting on 

 the green-eand too thick ; therelbre in the following 

 year reduced the quantity to 600 bushels ihe acre. 

 Spring of 1839— same field in corn— carried out 

 and spread, as near as could be, 600 bushels green- 

 sand to the acre, on about 25 acres, the belt in- 

 cluded — crop fine throughout; saw no diflerence 

 in any part of the field, not even on the belt where 

 the clover was so fine, but which had been grazed 

 down with the rest of thf» field the previous au- 

 tumn. Sowed wheat in October— crop promising 

 in spring, 1840, but lost by rust— no diflierence 

 between the green-sand part of the field and other 

 parts as to rust — observed no spewing up of the 

 earths like that by frost, as formerly ; perhaps 

 owing to the smaller application of green-sand. 

 In the spring, 1840, sowed the whole field with 

 red clover seed ; the growth most wouilerful where 

 the green-sand was used, and in the strong land 

 during harvest a stroke of the cradle would take 

 in as much clover, nearly, as wheal. White clover 

 wonderfully luxuriant, and the entire 25 acres at 

 this day exhibit marks of great improvejjient, with 

 the exception of a few ends of rows rufiriing into 

 the white land. 



