THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



265 



hair the available returns, because of ignorance 

 or carelessness in (he application, and the sub- 

 sequent treatment of the land. Frequently, the 

 quantity applied is unsuiled lo the nature and 

 wants of the soil. Sometimes, from variation m 

 the strength o( the marl, and the proprietor being 

 ignorant of the quality, or, more olten, (rom 

 irregular spreading, injury is done, and loss sus- 

 tained, by there being too much marl on some 

 parte, and too little on other parts, ofthe same field, 

 and sometimes even of the same acre. Again, i 

 the time and manner oi' application be nevcT so 

 judicious, and the improved fertility be never so 

 great at first, half the surely available future pro- 

 fit will be lost, if the subsequent management be 

 as improper as it usually is in almost all cases. 

 Under ordinary tillage and management, and a 

 rotation merely noi exhausting, (say the three- 

 shift, without clover and without grazing, and 

 very little manuring,) marling may, and probably 

 will, give a permanent increase to the crops ol' 

 between 50 and 100 per cent. But if clover 

 be sown, and partly or wholly ploughed under as 

 manure, and if the increased supply of materials for 

 larm-yard manure be all used, (which also will be 

 due entirely to marl,) these means will in a few 

 years double the direct effects of the marl alone. 

 The whole permanently increased product, thus to 

 be made by the most judicious marling (and the 

 same, it is presumed, of liming,) and subsequent 

 operations, on the ordinary acid soil of lower Vir- 

 ginia, might be safely counted as four-lold the 

 previous gross products; and a ten-fold increase 

 of the net profit, and also of the intrinsic value of 

 the land. Yet the loss, or failure to obtain, the 

 much larger proportion of this increase of value 

 IS borne by nearly all of those who apply 

 marl, because they will not attend to the proper- 

 ties, and the mode of operation of the manure 

 which they are using. 



Having begun to marl without any guide what- 

 ever, or source of proper instruction, except my 

 own theoretical views of soils and manures, I have 

 myself committed more or less of every serious 

 error above referred to, and suHered somethin<^ 

 from every kind of loss ; as well as havincr re° 

 alized enough of every benefit promised, to know 

 what greater and more speedy general profit 

 a proper conduct throughout would surely 

 produce. My mistakes and losses, necessarily 

 caused by the ignorance and inexperience of an 

 uninstructed novice, and pioneer in a totally 

 new business, may serve to guard from the same 

 all lollowers ; and they, being so guarded, may 

 enjoy all the benefits of marling, unalloyed by 

 any ol the risks and losses of ignorant beginners. 

 Jiut It IS a subject of regret, and of great public 

 as we I as private loss, that the actual results are 

 very different. It is as if each new beginner were 

 resolved to learn nothing from the previous ex- 

 perience of others, but prefers to owe all know- 

 ledge to his own errors and losses. 



In regard to putrescent manures, there are 

 very great and very general defects of manage- 

 ment. On acid soils there is excuse for neglect of 

 manuring, for it scarcely pays the cost. But on 

 we I constituted natural soils, and on naturally acid 

 andbad soils, after being marled or limed, too 

 much labor cannot well be given to collectinrr all 

 rnrnnr"" '"^^^"^'^ 'o""' ^nd applying putrescent 

 manures. But even of the quantity of materials 

 » OL. A. — 34 



operated on, fn the farm-yard and stables, there 

 is great waste ol enriching principles permitted, 

 in various ways, but more especially by fermen- 

 tation, whether the manure be heaped, or not 

 heaped, or carried out on the fields belbre roitint'. 

 And such waste must take place, if decomposi- 

 tion of the manure proceeds, and its gaseous pro- 

 ducts be set free, when there are no growing 

 plants present, or not enough of them, to absorb 

 and put to use the fleeting fertilizing principles. 



The neglect of proper drainage is another 

 great delect of our agriculture, afiecting not only 

 the profits, but the health of 'the lower country. 

 On almost every /arm there is something of this 

 defect. But in the low and level lands of the 

 south-eastern counties, the whole region suffers 

 from excessive wetness, which might be easily 

 removed by a proper system of drainage and of 

 tillage suited to that object. Princess Anne and 

 Norfolk counties might be raised from their pre- 

 sent most wretched agricultural condition, to their 

 proper grade of fine and productive and valuable 

 farming lands ; and even the rich lands of Eliza- 

 beth City, and the now fertile and productive 

 larms of the more carefully cultivated and beauti- 

 ful low lands of Gloucester, might yet be greatly 

 improved in value, by more thorough and general 

 drainage. 



A great defect on almost every farm to some 

 extent, and entirety on most land, is the neglect 

 grass crops for hay. Even the small extent 

 of clover husbandry, admirable and profitable 

 as It is, scarcely forms an exception to this defect ; 

 lor the clover is turned in for manure, and rarely 

 converted to hay. On some of the best farms, 

 and where the benefits of clover-manure have 

 been best known by experience, as Westo- 

 ver and Brandon, the proprietors deem this use 

 so much the more profitable, that they would 

 consider the conversion of any considerable por- 

 tion of the clover crop to hay as a wasteful ab- 

 straction from the product of the field under the 

 succeeding crops. But whhout undervaluing tlie 

 worth of clover as manure, 1 doubt whether tliese 

 excellent farmers and improvers do not in this 

 respect adhere too closely to their system. Be- 

 lore forming the seeds, which is the exhaustino' 

 part of the growth, the clover has drawn nearly 

 all Its nourishment from air and water, and taken 

 very little from the enriching ingredients of the 

 soil. If then the first crop were mown for hay, 

 before the seeds had been formed, there would be 

 the following benefits derived, at very slight cost 

 to the land : 1st, the hay, for farm consumption, 

 2nd, the cutting ofi by the scythe and destroying 

 all annuals not then having seeded— and the 

 keeping down of all perennial weeds, shrubs, and 

 bushes; 3 J, the having a clean second or summer 

 growth of clover, to luruish seed if desired, or 

 otherwise thus made free from the smothering 

 and sometimes destructive cover of the dead first 

 or spring crop. Of course, the mowing should 

 be on clover of good size, and where the coarse 

 manure had not been applied. 



But putting hay from clover aside, there is o-e- 

 neral neglect of natural meadovvs, and still more 

 of artificial grasses on the low and moist spots, 

 which would be very profitable under permanent 

 grass, and are worth but little as arable land. 

 Yet hay, either for sale if near to market, or for 

 I consumption on the farm where needed, is per- 



