THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



609 



noticing the extraordinary and cheering results, 

 which have already loUovved, and are Ukeiy to be 

 still farther produced, in a i)ortion of our own stale, 

 by the use, as a manure, of tiiose beds of fossil 

 shells, which are lound deposited, in suca large 

 abundance, throughout the tide-waier region, and 

 to which the denomination ol jnarl is now gene- 

 rally ap|)lied. And h^re we have occasion to 

 remark a striking example of that wise economy 

 of Providenne lo which 1 have already relerred. 

 The region in which these large deposites of marl 

 are found it; disiinguished, lor the most part, by 

 natural soils of an mierior fertility; but beneath 

 their surlace Nature has placed, in liberal measure, 

 the means of enriching them to any extent, thus 

 inviling the enterprise and industry of man lo 

 their improvement. It was the fortune of a public 

 spirited and intelligent Virginian, at a critical 

 moment lljr his country, to perceive the inesti- 

 raabl6 value of this hidden talent ; and, under the 

 awakening influence ol liis able wriiings and expe- 

 rimental demonstrations, lower Virgmia is now 

 undergoing one of the most remarkable transform- 

 ations of this age of improvement. I need nol 

 say that I speak of the able author of ihe '■ E.'^say 

 on Calcareous Manures" — a work that has alrea- 

 dy taken a distinguished place among the agiicul- 

 tural classics of the i^nglish language, and which 

 will transmit the name ol its author to future times 

 as a public benefactor. 



You are not unmindful, gentlemen, that Na- 

 ture has placed on either side ol' us, in ihe region 

 we occupy, one of the most efficient ofthis lamily 

 of calcareous manures. I relisr to the vein of 

 limesione which borders us on the east, running 

 parallel with, and at about a mile's distance Irani 

 the base of the Souih-wei^t mouniaitie, and the 

 broader field of it which skins us on the west, 

 running along the western base of the Blue Ridge 

 mountains. These bodies of limestone run in 

 parallel directions through the entiie wid;h ol' the 

 state, and at about an average distance of iweniy- 

 five miles Irom each other. It becomes, iherelore, 

 a matter of interest to the whole rangeof couniit s 

 lying in nil's situation, and not inappropriately 

 called the Piedmont counties of Virginia, to en- 

 quire how lar we may profitably avail ourselves 

 of this material, which Nature has placed on 

 either hand of us, lor the improvement of our 

 lands. It strikes one at first with some surprise. 

 that lime having been advantageously employed 

 from the earliest times as a manure, doubts should 

 still exsit, in various localities, as to the bencfiis 

 of its application. But when it is recollected thai 

 it belongs to the class of what are called special 

 manures, adapted to particular soils, and even on 

 the soils to vviiich it is adapted, requiring to be 

 used in different quantities, according to the condi- 

 tion of the land to which it is applied, this spirit 

 of caution is nol an unreasonable one. 



Being somewhat of a pioneer in the lime hus- 

 bandry in this portion of the state, 1 feel my- 

 self called on, gentlemen, to give you ihe results ol 

 my experienee. I have used about 12,000 bush- 

 els of it, (slaked measure,) from a quarry opened 

 (or the purpose on my own land, which has been 

 spread over about 150 acres, at an average, there- 

 fore, of 80 bushels to the acre. Some accounts 

 which I had read of its efiects elsewhere, not ex- 

 pressed with the accuracy and discrimination so 

 much lo be desired in such communications, had 

 Vol. X.— 64 



led me to expect a decided efl'ecl from it upon the 

 growing crop — by which I mean the crop, of ei- 

 ilier corn or wheat, immediately succeeding the 

 af)plication of the lime, in this, I was disappoint- 

 ed ; but the discrepancy is probably accounted for 

 by the fact, that I have not hiiherlo used lime in 

 combination with putrescent manures from the 

 farm yard or the stable, while others have most 

 probably done so, though that circumstance was 

 not noted in the communications lo which I refer. 

 My first disappoiniment, however, in regard to 

 the efiects on the growing crop, was more ihan 

 compensated by the marked, unequivocal, and 

 decuieu effect 1 have never failed to perceive from 

 the lime alone in the clover succeeding the wheat 

 crop — with which it has been my general prac- 

 tice to apply the lime at the time of seeding, 

 harrowing in the lime and wheat at one and 

 the same operation. The increased luxuriance 

 of the clover has lurnished, of course, conclu- 

 sive evidence of the improvement of ihe land, 

 Irom the application of the lime, and has, in its 

 turn, enured to ihe still further amelioration of 

 the soil. All my observations, in regard to lime, 

 would lead me to the opinion, (hat it is ihe 

 must permanent of all manure?, and lo concur in 

 the conclusion, so lorcibly slated by Dr. James 

 Anderson, one of the most copious and able of 

 all the British writers on agriculture, who, in his 

 most valuable " Essay on Lime," says, " that its 

 effects on ihe soil will be felt, perhaps, as long as 

 the soil exists'''' — and this conclusion he justifies by 

 the mode of its action, altering the nature and 

 consiiiution of the soil itself, and enduing it with 

 capacities and affinities which it never before 

 possessed. My applications of lime have been 

 almost entirely on a close, gravelly loam, of a 

 brownish or gray color — and the result of a single 

 experiment, on land of a different description, 

 would lead me lo believe, thai ii is not adapted lo 

 the red lerruginous clay soils ol the sides and base 

 of our S-juihwesi mountains. It is a proverb in 

 England and Scotland, that, 



" He that marls sand 

 Will sooa buy land : 

 Blithe that maris clay 

 Throws all away." 



The reason that Dr. Anderson suggests for the 

 comparative inefficiency of marl on clay soils is, 

 that clay forms a large proportion of marl, and the 

 addiiion ol clay to clay, iherelore, cannot be ex- 

 [)ected lo produce so good an effect. The same 

 reasoning would furnish a solution of ihe supposed 

 want of adaptation of lime to the red clay soils of 

 the Southwest mountains proper, and of its un- 

 questionable efficacy on the adjacent gray loams, 

 as a chemical analysis of the two soils has, I 

 understand, disclosed ihe existence already of 

 two per cent, ol lime in the former, and of hardly 

 anv sensib:e quantity whatever in the latter. 



Nothing can be more certain, than tlie highly 

 beneficial efiects of lime, as a manure, on a large 

 majority of our soils, in which, according to an 

 analysis by Mr. Huffiii, of as many as sixteen 

 different specimens taken from various and distant 

 parts of the state, lime is very rarely ever found 

 as an original and natural ingredient. The im- 

 portant practical question then is, whether the 

 expense of the application is justified by the bene- 

 fits of the manure ? This is a question which 

 every person must determine for himself, accord- 



