calcakejous manures-theory. 27 



Page 61. "If these few means of fertilizing the country [corn-stalks, 

 straw, and animal dung,] were skilfully used, they would of themselves 

 suffice to change its state from sterility to fruitfulness."— " By the litter of 

 Indian corn, and of small grain, and of penning cattle, managed with only 

 an inferior degree of skill, in union with inclosing, I will^ venture to affirm 

 that a farm may in ten years be made to double its produce, and in twenty 

 to quadruple it." 



No opinions could be more strongly or unconditionally expressed than 

 these. No reservation or exception is made, I may safely appeal to each 

 of the many hundreds who have attempted to obey these instructions, to 

 declare whether any one considered his own naturally poor soils excluded 

 from the benefit of these promises— or whether a tithe of the promised bene- 

 fit was realized on any farm composed generally of such soils. 



In a field of mine that has been secured from grazing since 1814, and cul- 

 tivated on the mild four-shift rotation, the produce of a marked spot has been 

 measured every fourth year (when in corn) since 1820. The difference of 

 product has been such as the differences of season might have caused — 

 and the last crop (in 1828) was worse than those of either of the two pre- 

 ceding rotations. There is no reason to believe that even the smallest 

 increase of productive power had taken place in all the preceding fourteen 

 years. Nor has there been, since 1828, in the apparent products of this 

 ground, any manifestation that there has been any more of subsequent than 

 of previous improvement, from the vegetable manurings furnished by its 

 growth, 



A still more striking proof, because of the much larger scale, as well as 

 long continuance of the experiment, has been very recently, (in 1842,) 

 as well as in former times, mentioned to me, as confirmation of my views 

 in this respect. Col, George Blow, of Sussex, a highly respectable gen- 

 tleman, and intelligent and observant farmer, has adhered for nearly 30 ' 

 years to Taylor's "inclosing system," and with a very mild rotation, on a 

 farm of 600 arable acres, of sandy soil, and originally poor ; and has 

 taken but one crop (corn) in every three years, A few spots only of bet- 

 ter quality, (the sites of old buildings, &c.,) were put in wheat or oats after 

 the corn ; the great body of the land having had regularly two years in 

 . three to rest, and to manure itself by its volunteer growth of weeds and 

 grass. Very little grazing, and that but rarely, has been permitted. There 

 could have been no material mistake as to the genei'al products and re- 

 sults ; and the proprietor is confident that the land has not improved in 

 production in all this long time. Yet, on soil differently constituted, Col, 

 Blow has improved and increased the products, rapidly and profitably. 

 These two facts, though observed more particularly and for longer time 

 than any others known, agree with, and are but confirmatory of others 

 presented to some extent on almost every farm in the tide-water region of 

 Virginia. 



It is far from my intention, by these remarks, and statements of facts, to 

 deny the propriety, or to question the highly beneficial results, of applying the 

 system of improvement recommended by ' Arator,' to soils originally fertile. 

 On the contrary, it is as much my object to maintain the facility of restoring 

 to worn lands their natural degree of fertility, by vegetable applications, as it 

 is to deny the power of exceeding that degree, however low it may have been. 

 One more quotation will be offered, because its recent date and the 

 source whence it is derived furnish the best proof that it is still the received 

 opinion, among agricultural writers, that all soils may be profitably im- 

 proved by putrescent manures. An article in the ' American Farmer,^ of 

 October 14th, 1831, on "manuring large farms," by the editor, (G. B, 



