THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



4-20 



eranules totrether : so that il is difficult to dig a \ falsi, or merely the more usual and cautious and 



*'■••■ " • • -111-.- :->,„« -...„no„ equMy i^ilecuve sitppressio veri. 



As I ' ijerieral results, I also could tell of many 

 wonderful eiiccis, and i^ieat profiis, and of such 

 (in iheir visible etiects) as I have personally wit- 

 nessed the prooli Sundry such results I have 

 even this day seen and of many more have 1 

 heard, upon authority as saiislaciory lo me as 

 would have been my own personal viewing. But 

 the exceptions to ihe operation of each parti- 

 cular kind ot earih, or found on each one soil, and 

 in each man's praciice, were siated lo be not less 

 numerous, and as remaikrible, tind inexplicable. 

 For my facts lo be slaied in regard to this 

 neighborhood 1 shall be entirely indebted to the 

 lour persons beloie named, and in whose intelli- 

 gence, sound judiztnent, and experience and op- 

 poriuniiy lur ubservation, as well as veracity, I 

 have every reason to rely fully. All of them have 

 been raised and have long lived in tliis neighbor- 

 hood ; all have been, and two oftheni siill are, 

 acuve and praciical culiivaiors and users of this 

 manure — and all are fully convinced of its great 

 benefit and profii. 



This earth is mostly applied in winter, when 

 tliere ia most leisure lime ; and on grass land, and 

 as lop-drefsing. The.quan'.ily is seldom less than 

 10 tons, or as many 20-bushel loads of a two- 

 horse wagon. The weight of the earth is 120 

 Ibe. to Ihe bushel when just dug, and more than 

 100 lbs. even aller remaining and drying some 

 moniht) in large heaps. Tlie usual price for 

 Nevertheless, when proceeding I Ihe best siraium is 37^ cents ihe load, (of 20 



bushels,) if ready dug, or Irom §10 lo §16 the 

 square rod, (16^ leel, j the buyer to uncover and 

 dig lor hiaisell, and to go as deep as he may 

 choose. Tiie uoual depth obiained of the lower 

 and best siraiuni is 8 to 12 feet, below which it be- 

 comes 100 wet 10 be dug. 



The surlace ot this part of Gloucester is gently 

 and generally undulating. There are numerous 

 shallow basm-shaped depresoions, of moderately 

 close soil, ul which the subsoil is sometimes a 

 hard pan of clay, but more usually sandy, and, 

 at a Iti/W leet deej-, wet, so that ditching is required, 

 lo make aranle or even good grass land, which is 

 the general mode ofoccupation of all such places. 

 The sandy sub-soil, li-om its wetness, often caves 



eolid lump and prevent iis crumbling into a^coarse 

 powder of the separate grains. Marshall's, He- 

 ritage's and Bee's cirihs, all of which have been 

 regularly and largely dut; lor sale, agree in 

 character. The several u[)per strata diller. Ol 

 Marshall's, Ihe upper part is grayish, and iliongh 

 less prized; is bought at a lower price (12\ cents 

 the load) by farmers who have lo carry it only a 

 mile or so. Of Heritage's and Bec'^, the upper 

 eirala seem poorer, and more like ihe poor earth 

 of Cooper's. Still these are also used by the farm- 

 ers who buy ihe earth by ihe superficial measure, 

 and who thus get the poorer upper part for no- 

 thing but the labor of digt'ing. 



Bee's earth (that is, its lower and best stratum) 

 is reputed to be of somewhat less value as manure 

 than the two preceding. Yet it appears as rich 

 in green-sand to the eye, and has been so reported, 

 (within an inappreciable fraction,) by the geolo- 

 gical surveyor. 



The seventh body examined is very near the 

 last, and also appears to the eye to be nearly orqnile 

 as good. Yet it has been used largely, by persons 

 entertaining at first no question of its equal value, 

 and Ibund to be totally ineffective. 



As to the high and jtist appreciation of the best 

 of these earths as manures, there can be no ques- 

 tion. The very general use made ol them, the 

 prices at which they are [)urchased, and the dis- 

 tances to which they 'are transported by very 

 mnny farmers, liirnish full and satisfactory proo' 

 on these points 



to inquire into details, and to endeavor to ascer- 

 tain and fix correct general rules by comparing par- 

 ticular facts, the inquirer will be surprised and con- 

 founded at the apparent opposition of the opinions 

 of respectable and experienced r'ersons and of 

 the best autheniicated lacis. The cause and 

 manner of the action of iliis earth as manure 

 seem indeed to be incomprehensible in all respects. 

 The agricultural public have been egregionsly 

 deceived by the general purport of the published 

 reports of the use and efiects of this manure. 

 Even if all the paiticular statements were true in 

 themselves, (which it is not my desiiiii in the least 

 to call in question,) still they led readers to very 

 false deduciions, because they were merely state- 

 ments of success, and generally of ihe greatest 

 known success, and of unusually small dress- 

 ings of earth, without being accompanied by 

 even so much as a hint of the existence of the 

 numerous exceptions and opposite results. !f 

 these writers, had told of ihe cases of entire 

 failure, or of mininum effects, in company with 

 the maximum products to which they confined 

 iheir testimony, or if ihe heaviest applications 

 had been presented as prominently as ihe 

 lightest, their readers might have ai least had 

 o chance to guess at sonieihiniT lilie the tnith. 

 As it is, every thing that has been published, 

 from the ambitions and dignified reports of geolo- 

 gists, down to the most unpretending and concise 

 communications to an agricultural paper, have 

 served to mislead rather than to inform, as to ge- 

 neral results, and to spread as much of error 

 as of truth. The well established and unques- 

 tionable benefits of this manure are so great that 

 they need not the aid (even if such aid could be 

 ever desirable or excusable) of deception, whether 

 to be effected by the bolder course of the assertio 



in as the ditches are dug, so as to make the ope- 

 ration difficult. The higher and dry intervals be- 

 tween all these depressions, are of all shades of 

 texture, Irom sandy loam to almost pure sand. 

 There is but liille of this that could be called stiff 

 soil, and nunt- is at all clayey. Both the higher 

 and lower lands are supposed to have been ori- 

 ginally poor ; and certainly so they seemed to me, 

 judging t)y Ihe parts not yet cultivated and im- 

 proved, even though sometimes separated but by 

 a lence from other ground highly enriched by the 

 use of green-sand earth. Tlie depressions known 

 as "quiik sandy bottoms," and also those on 

 hard-pan subsoil, are kept mostly in grass, and 

 as long as fit (or either mowing or grazing. 



The manuring earth most valued (the so-called 

 "gunpowder marl") produces its best effects on 

 the stifler soils, and especially on the lower-lying 

 grounds, whether having a stiff clay, or a quick- 

 sand subsoil. On these lands, (which Ibrm a 

 large proporiion of every farm in this part of 

 Gloucester county,) the effect of the "gun-pow- 

 der marl," or lower green-sand stratum, is almost 



