MARL. 



559 



MARL. 



A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, GA. 



BY J. H. HAMMOND. 



We have rarely read anj' disquisition with as much pleasure as the "Letter" on Mart,, from 

 Governor Hammond, vihich enriches this Number of the Farmers' Library asd Monthly 

 Journal of Agriculture. 



To designate particular portions of it as worthy of especial regard might imply that others 

 vv'ere comparatively less so ; whereas we may safely commend the whole to the roost careful pe- 

 rusal ; but what does gratify us particularly is, tlie general impression which it cannot fail to 

 make, to the effect that our exhausted lands must now be regenerated, and the old States, if not 

 altogether abandoned, must be redeemed by the exercise and application oi mind to the pursuUs 

 of the hiishaiuhnan ! Mere brute force, however great, mere drudgery, however persevering, is 

 unetjual to the gigantic undertaking. Industry must not only be untiring, but, to be efficient., it 

 must be icell directed. As well might we expect the unwieldj' giant, altogether unskilled in 

 the use of the smallsword, to prevail against the most accomplished master in the art of fencing, 

 or the latter to avail himself, blindfolded, of that elegant accomplishment, as to expect the mere 

 stolid, nninstructed fanner to use his materials most advantageously vrithout possessing any know- 

 ledge of their nature or mode of operation. 



For readers in those districts where Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris acts, as it does in some portions 

 of Maryland, with great efficacy, ■v^^ might emphasize that passage in the letter where the author 

 says that one peck per acre, applied to the moistened seed, will probably have as much effect, 

 for one year at least, as any other quantity, adding that in the last dry season it had on his 

 land, applied in that way, double the effect of a bushel sowed broadcast. The cotton planter, 

 too, will not fail to heed the remark that gypsum applied to the cotton seed at the rale of only one 

 peck to the acre on marled land, increased the product one-third. 



We remember, on this point, to have heard Mr. Talbot, of Prince George County, Maryland, 

 a very practical planter of the soundest judgment say, that on some occasion the gypsum 

 which had been applied at the rate of a bushel an acre', being nearly exhau.sted, he ordered 

 half the quantity to be sowed on the residue of the field ; and that in the result he could per- 

 ceive no difference between that part which was sowed at the rate of one bushel, and that 

 which got but half the quantity. There is in fact yet some mystery to be solved about the 

 action of gyp.sum, which must be done by some investigating member of a class of men, 

 whom the ignorant and prejudiced find it convenient to jeer at and denounce as " Book Farm- 

 ers .'" and what arc books, but the printed conversation and disclosures of men, who instead of 

 hiding their lights under a bushel for sinister ends, choose rather to put their experience on paper 

 and let it take form, pressure and circulation for the public good ? 



Incidentally, too, we derive pleasure from this letter, seeing that it docs justice to the merits 

 and services of Mr. Ruffin, who, were it only in his illustrations of the properties and usea of 

 Marl, has rendered more benefit to the country than any five hundred mere political speech- 

 makers in it. 



At the same time, too, wc may be permitted the occasion, not knowing when another may offer, 

 to render slow and feeble justice to an old Maryland patriot, who, though it may be but little 

 known to fame, is not the less deserving the small honors which the public seems to pay so 

 grudgingly to civil worth. We allude to the agency, many years since, of the late Col. Sin- 

 gleton of Talbot County, Maryland, whose name would be as familiar as it is comparatively un- 

 known, to the general ear, if he had done a tithe as much to exemplify the art of destroying, as 

 he did to advance that of feeding his fellow men. 



Our own recollections connected with what was done to disseminate a knowledge of the 

 value of Marl as a fertilizer, are, we must confess, but ill defined ; but our earliest reminiscences, 

 nevertheless, in reference to Maryland Agriculture, and the means of recruiting her exhausted 

 fields, carry us back distinctly, among others, to Col. Si.n'gleton as perhaps, until his day, the 

 first and the only systematic marler in that respected and by us ever to be beloved old Com- 

 monwealth. 



Will some friend " of that ilk," more familiar with what be said and did, give us a sketch of i« 

 (1147) 



