604 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



lated to give the marl a fair chance, both having 

 been cleared more than a century ago, badly 



scourged, and of course greatly exhausted of 

 vegetable matter. 



EXPERIMENT NO. 1. MULATTO LAND. 



1842. Seed Col.tou. 



Acre not marled 1111 lbs. 



Do. marled 100 bushels 846 " 



Do. do. 200 " 1003 " 



Do. do. 300 " 1318 " 



1843. 



Acre not marled 493 lbs. 



Do. marled 100 bushels 654 •' 



Do. do. 20O " 759 " 



Do. do. 300 " 841 " 



1844— Rested. 



1845. 



Acre not marled 324 lbs. 



Do. marled 100 bushels 481 " 



Do. do. 200 •' 584 " 



Do. do. 300 " 642 " 



Less than un- More than vn- 



EXPERIMENT NO. 2 



1842. 



Acre not marled 



Do. marled 100 bushels 



Do. do. 200 " 



Do. do. 300 •' 



1843. 



Acre not marled 



Do. marled 100 bushels 



Do. do. 200 " 



Do. do. ' 300 " 



1844— Rested. 



1845. 



Acre not marled 



Do. marled 100 bushels 



Do. do. 200 " 



Do. do. 300 " 



The first thing that will strike you on looking 

 at this table will be, that the crops have regu- 

 larly and excessively diminished, from the time 

 the land was marled. It might be concluded 

 that I had ruined my land by marling. Such I 

 would candidly own would have been my own 

 conclusion, if fortunately I had not kept these 

 unmarled acres to test the success of my opera- 

 tions. Disastrous as have been the three last 

 crop seasons in this section of country, I would 

 not have believed it possible that there could 

 have been such a falling off from seasons alone, 

 and I should have abandoned marl, in spite of 

 the experience of the rest of the world, as inju- 

 rious, at least to my soil. But great as has been 

 the decrea.se of production on all the acres, it 

 has been far greate.st on the unmarled ones. That 

 of the others has comparatively .steadily in- 

 creased, except the 200 and 300 bu.shel acres in 

 No. 2, both too heavily marled, but both recov- 

 ering again under the rest of 1844. In No. 1 the 

 acre with 100 bushels has increased from 30 per 

 cent, below to 48-4 per cent, above the unmarled 

 one, making an actual comparative increase of 

 78-4 per cent. The acre with 200 bushels has 

 in the same way increased 90-9 per cent. Both 

 these acres are decidedly inferior to the other 

 two in No. 1, and have, I do not doubt, pro- 

 duced this year double -what they would have 

 done without marl. The other two acres in No. 

 1 are a pretty fair te.st of the influence of marl, 

 being as nearly equal in quality as could have 

 been selected. The sandy land, in time and 

 with proper management, will, I am certain, 

 exhibit results fully as favorable a.s the mulatto 

 land. It was too far exhausted when marled. 

 1 did not reserve test acres on any other fields. 

 (I'jt54, 



but I feel sure that they have derived equal ad- 

 vantage from the marl, in proof of which I could 

 state many facts to one present on the spot, 

 which it would be tedious to mention and ex- 

 plain fully in this letter. I will onlj- state one : 

 The unmarled acre in No. 1 is one of the best 

 acres I plant. In 1842, it yielded 1,111 lbs. The 

 average of my whole crop that year was 666 

 lbs. per acre. The last year, the same acre, af- 

 ter a rest, produced 324 lbs. The average of 

 my crop was 391 lbs. per acre. Thus, the yield 

 of the unmarled acre was in one instance 66-8 

 per cent, above, and in the other, 20-6 per 

 cent, below the general average — making a 

 difference of 87-4 per cent, in favor of the 

 marled lands. Let me add, that in 1842 the 

 unmarled acre in No. 2 produced 8'S per cent, 

 less than the average of the crop. In 1843 it 

 fell to 37-6 per cent, and in 1845 to 70 per cent, 

 below the general average. If the.«e facts may 

 be assumed as data on which to base a calcula- 

 tion, had the last year been as favorable in all 

 respects as 1842, the average of my cotton crop 

 must have been over 1200 lbs. of seed cotton per 

 acre, and of my com crop over 28 bushels per 

 acre. This, however, is only a paper calcula- 

 tion, and 1842 was a fine crop year. Time will 

 reveal the truth. 



I cannot give you a better evidence of the 

 firmness of my faith in the virtue of marl, than 

 to state that, notwithstanding the discourage- 

 ments of the last three extraordinary seasons, I 

 have, at great expense, brought up from Shell 

 Bluff", within four years, over 300,000 bushels, 

 carted it out, and spread it over about 2,300 acres 

 of land : and am at this moment as actively en- 

 gaged at it as ever. Nor do I look forward to 



