THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



259 



before 1816, Yet, though these farms are with- 

 in 12 or 15 miles of Williamsburg, to which place 

 1 had made visits once a year or oftener, yet 1 

 never heard an intimation of their having begun 

 such practice, until some time alter my own lirst 

 trials in 1818. At that time, when led to the 

 use, as I was, altogether by theoretical views, 

 and by reasoning on the supposed constitution of 

 the soil, as well as the known constitution of the 

 manure, it would have been to me the most ac- 

 ceptable and beneficial inlbrmation to have 

 heard that any other person in Virginia had al- 

 ready proved practically the value of marling. 

 The slow progress ol' the kncJvvledge of the mere 

 /act oi' marl having been successlully used before 

 that time, was a strong illustration of ihe then 

 almost total want of communication among farm- 

 ers, as well as of their general apathy and igno- 

 rance, in regard to the means of improving their 

 lands.* 



Much earlier than the commencement of marl- 

 ing in James City, the practice had been com- 

 menced, (in 1805) in Talbot county, Md., by 

 Mr. Singleton. His account of his practice is in 

 the 4th volume of the 'Memoirs of the Philadel- 

 phia Agricultural Society,' dated December 31, 

 1817, and first published some time in 1818. But 

 euccessful as was his practice, and also that of 

 Mr. Taylor and Mr. Hankins in connexion with 

 much worse farming, it is certain that neither of 

 these individuals had the least idea of the true 

 action of marl ; and they were indebted to their 

 good fortune, more than to any exercise of rea- 

 soning, that they received profitable returns, and 

 did no injury by marling. They all three applied 

 their putrescent manures with the marl. But 

 though this was the safest and most beneficial 

 plan, the thus uniting them prevented the separate 

 action and value of putrescent and calcareous 

 manures being known, compared, and 4u\y ap- 

 preciated.! 



My own application of marl, on Coggina Point 

 farm, Prince George county, which in 1818 ex- 

 tended only to 15 acres, (of which but 3 or 4 

 were under the crop of that year,) by 1821 had 

 been increased to atiove 80 acres a year, and so 

 continued until nearly all the then arable land on 

 that farm requiring it, (more than 600 acres,) 

 had been covered. In 1821, my earliest publica- 

 tion on the subject was made. Though the facts 

 and reasoning thus made known by that time 

 were beginning to attract much notice, and to 

 induce many persons to begin to marl, still it was 

 Borae years later before incredulity and ridicule 

 had generally given place to full confidence in 

 the value of the improvement. Even at this 

 time, when nearly 25 years of my own expe- 

 rience of marling and its benefits have passed, 

 and the results are open to public notice and 

 scrutiny, not half the persons who could marl are 

 engaged at it, or are marling to but little pur- 

 pose ; and of all who are using marl, nineteen 

 in twenty are proceeding injudiciously, without 



* See more full account at page 108, vol. i. Farm- 

 ers' Register. 



• t See Mr. Singleton's letter, p. 228, vol. iv. Phi- 

 ladelphia Memoirs, and republislied, with preliminary 

 comments, p. 89, 2d Ed. of ' Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures'. Also notices of other earlier experiments 

 St same page, and in note at page 86. 



regard to the mode of operation of the manure, 

 and therefore ar« dlher doing harm, or losing pro- 

 fit, almost as often, though in less degree, as doing 

 good. At this time, however, there are scarcely 

 any persons, however negligent in practice, who 

 do not fully admit the great value and certain 

 profit of applying marl whenever it is found. 



But with ail the existing neglect of using this 

 means of fertilization, and with all the etill worse 

 ignorance of or inattention to its manner of ope- 

 rating, there never has been a new improvement 

 in agriculture more rapidly extended, or with 

 such beneficial and profitable results. In Prince 

 George county, ihern is not one farmer having 

 marl on or near his land, who has not applied 

 it to greater or less extent, and always with more 

 or less profit— and, in most cases, largely as well aa 

 profitably. In James City county there has been 

 perhaps the next largest as well as the oldest 

 practice. In York county, as in James City, 

 some of the most valuable and profitable im- 

 provements by marling have been made. And 

 some of the liirras of both counties, adjoining 

 Williamsburg, and having the benefit of putres- 

 cent town manures, show more strikingly than 

 any others known, the remarkable power of calca- 

 reous manure to fix the putrescent in the soil, and 

 make them more efficient and far more durable. 

 In Surry, Isle of Wight, Nansemond, Charles 

 City, New Kent, Hanover, King William, King 

 and Queen, Gloucester, and Middlesex, counties 

 in the middle of the marl region of Virginia, 

 marl has been already extensively applied, and 

 the profits therefrom are annually increasing. 

 And in other surrounding counties, worse sup- 

 plied with marl, the practiee has been carried 

 on in proportion to the facilities, and to the more 

 scanty experience and degree of information on 

 the subject. It would be a most important sta- 

 tistical fact, if it could be ascertained how much 

 land in Virginia has already been marled. The 

 quantity however is very great ; and all the land 

 marled has been thereby increased in net product, 

 on the general av^jrage, fully 8 bushels of corn 

 or oats, or 4 bushels of wheat — and the land in- 

 creased in intrinsic valu« fully 200 per cent, on 

 its previous value or market price. Where th© 

 marling has been judiciously conducted, these 

 rates of increase have been more than doubled. 

 From these data, might be calculated something 

 like the already prodigiously increased values and 

 products due solely to marling, and which will 

 be still more increasing from year to year. If 

 not already reached, the result will soon be reach- 

 ed, of new value to the amount of millions of 

 dollars having been thus created. It is not de- 

 signed in this hasty sketch to enter into minute 

 details of results, nor to prescribe rules for prac- 

 tice, both of which have been given in other pub- 

 lications. The purpose here is but to state im- 

 provements and describe results in general. 



It required the improvement by marling, on 

 originally poor or middling soils, (or liming, 

 which in final and general results is the same 

 thing,) to render as generally available ^ best 

 and otherwise but rarely found benefits, of the 

 two kinds of vegetable manuring recommended 

 by Taylor. When such soils have been made 

 calcareous, by marling or liming, then, and not 

 until then, all the benefits, present and future, 

 that his readers might have been induced to ex- 



