40 



llli: FAKMEKS' REGISTER 



Hnd the average product niny (airly he supposed 

 to mark vvilh tolfrahle accuracy ihc increase of 

 ienility in the larm. 



The last crop I expected would have been at 

 least 2000 bushels, and ihiil it lell short wad en- 

 tirely Giving to lheunexani|iipd injury caus-ed thia 

 season by rust. As ii was, my loss was less than 

 on any oiher farm in the lower country iliat 1 have 

 lieard of, as but It-w made hall' a crop, and many 

 did not save eiioujrh for seed. This difference was 

 mostly owiuir to the manure 1 had u^:ed, as lime 

 hastens the ripening of all crops, and a Itjvv days 

 difference in the rijieniiig ol' a field of wheat may 

 either cause its destruciiun by rusi, or insure its 

 safety. 



None of my limed land brDuglil wheat until 

 1820, and the followini.' table shows tliai but little 

 average increase of product had taken place before. 



Years. Acres. I'roduct. Average. 



Some of the after increase is certainly due to 

 other kinds of improvement ; but I have no doubt 

 that (Lill three-fourths of the whole was caused by 

 the use of calcareous manures, on land rested two 

 years in four, and not grazed. During the first six 

 years, only about half my corn land was put in 

 wheat, the other half being so poor that even our 

 overseers admitted that seed would there be 

 thrown away. You must observe, therefore, that 

 it was the richest half of each shift that averaged 

 from 5^ to 8 bushels. During the last term, all 

 the land before left out, has been in wheat, which 

 makes the increase of average product greater 

 than would appear from the table. Even the 

 higheot rate of product above stated, may be 

 thought contemptible by a iiarmer on your fine 

 wheat lands : but through our poor and sandy 

 country, the average does not exceed 5 bushels 

 for the land actually put under wheat, and it 

 would not be 3, if all the corn land was sowed. 

 Yet the time will arrive, when by means of our 

 calcareous manures, this novv barren region, will 

 show the fields the most highly improved above 

 their natural state, and more profitable farming, 

 than any portion of Virginia. 



Your doubt whether lime will suit limestone 

 soils, arises from the supposed similar constitution 

 of soil and manure. I have not much personal 

 knowledge of limestone lands, but have always 

 supposed them, as you describe yours, "originally 

 rich," and have attributed that richness to their 

 being manured by nature with lime. It follows, 

 from the supposition, that the value of lime as a 



' manure will he lessened in proportion to the natu- 

 ral supply ; that sometimes it maybe useless or 

 even hurtlul, (as when the soil will effervesce 

 with any strong acid,) and in no case can it be aa 

 beneficial as on our pine and whortleberry lands, 

 which are entirely destitute of calcareous earth, 

 and nearly so of lime in any other (orm. But it 

 does not (bllow that lime may not be advanta- 

 geously applied to most limestone soils, though to 

 what extent and profit, experience can only show ; 

 for it IS a remarkable (iter, that but lew of those in 

 this state con'ain any portion of calcareous earth, 

 (carbonate of lime,) though they are evidently 

 aff'eded by the limestone vvilh which they are 

 mixed, or in contact with. To the question, 

 what has become of the caicareous earth which 

 the soil must have derived (rom the rock, 1 an- 

 swer, that it siill remains in the soil in another 

 form : the lime being combined with the acid 

 furnished by the d(!Compasing vegetable matter, 

 which being abundant enougli to take up all the 

 lime applied by nature, shows that more might 

 be beneficially applied. I cultivate more than 

 100 acres ot land, naturally containing a slight 

 mixture oT shells, and which, in this respec, as 

 well as in natural fertility, I suppose is nearly 

 similar to your limestone soils ; here the effect of 

 calcareous manures, in the first crop, is scarcely 

 perceptible, though I confide in the benefit increas- 

 ing with time, and accordingly shall marl the re- 

 mainder of this soil, as soon as I can finish what 

 \s less favored by nature, and where greater im- 

 provement has been derived. But others have 

 met with more; pleasing results. Your friend, 

 Benj. Harrison, (bund great benefit from fossil 

 shells, which he carried across the river from my 

 shore, and applied to some acres of the naturally 

 rich land at Berkeley. The extensive improve- 

 men's made with oyster shell lime, by George E. 

 Harrison, at Brandon, are mostly on land natu- 

 rally rich, and not more destitute of lime than 

 you will find most of your limestone soils. 



When 1 speak of limestone soils, I mean to con- 

 fine the term to such as are so intermixed with 

 limestone, or lying so near it, that the soil musl 

 necessarily have been furnished with some of its 

 component pans from the stone. If my theoreti- 

 cal opiniotla are correct, every such soil should be 

 naturally rich, durable, and, when worn by 

 cultivation, easy to restore by rest or manure, 

 compared to poor natural soils. If you know any 

 exceptions to this rule, if any real limestone soil 

 is poor (without being made so by such evident 

 causes as wetness, excess of rock, &c.) I would 

 gladly be informed of the facts, as they would 

 (iirnish the only known contradiction to the opi- 

 nion belbre stated, that a proper proportion of calca- 

 reous earth will make all soils capable of becom- 

 ing and continuing rich. But if Frederick is like 

 Augusta and the adjoining counties which 1 have 

 visited, you have soils enough, which, though (by 

 courtesy) called limestone, are not better entitled 

 to that name than the pine lands of the lower 

 counties. By most persons, the term Ztmesfone is 

 applied, not only to any land that shows a few 

 detached masses of that rock, but also to where- 

 ver there are limestone springs, or under which a 

 body of limestone lies, though forty feet beneath 

 the surface. If the soil could be made calcareoua 

 by 80 distant a aubstratufn, then the whole tide- 

 water diatrict would be so, as a body of fo«wl 



