72 CALCAREOUS MANURES— PRACTICE. 



somewhat more sandy, and more productive in corn, than the part next 

 to A D ; and, in like manner, it is lighter along A e, than nearer to D/. 

 The whole soil, a gray sandy acid loam, not more than two inches deep at 

 first, resting on a yellowish sandy sub-soil, from one to two feet deep, when 

 it changes to clay. Natural growth mostly pine — next in quantity, oaks 

 of different kinds — a little of dogwood and chinquepin — whortleberry 

 bushes throughout in plenty. The quality of the soil better than the ave- 

 rage of ridge lands in general, but yet quite poor. Judging from experience 

 of adjoining grounds and similar soil, this land would have produced as its 

 early and best crop, and under the best treatment, about 12 bushels of corn 

 to the acre, well ripened and fully shrunk. And if thereafter kept under 

 ordinary culture and management, the products would have gradually and 

 speedily sunk to 5 bushels to the acre. Being still less suitable to wheat, 

 that crop would have been scarcely worth being sown on the land in its 

 best natural state, (when the product might be 6 bushels, ]r and certainly 

 not at all after a few years of the usual downward progress. The effects of 

 putrescent manures were very transient, as on all such poor lands. 



Experiment 1. 



The part B C g h, about eleven acres, grubbed and the trees cut down 

 in the winter of 1814-15 — suffered to lie three years with most of the 

 wood and brush on it. February, 1818, my earliest application of marl 

 was made on the smaller part B C ml, about 2^ acres. Marl, containing 

 33 per cent, of pure calcareous earth, and the balance silicious sand, ex- 

 cept a very small proportion of clay; the shelly matter finely divided. 

 Quantity of marl to the acre, one hundred and twenty-five to two hundred 

 heaped bushels. The whole space B C g li coultered, and planted in its 

 first crop of corn in 1818. This was my earliest experiment of calcareous 

 manures. 



Results. 1818. The corn on the marled land evidently much better — 

 supposed difference, forty per cent. 



J 8 19. In wheat. The difference as great, perhaps more so — particularly 

 to be remarked from the commencement to the end of the winter, by the 

 marled part preserving a green color, while the remainder was seldom 

 visible from a short distance, and in the spring stood much thinner, from 

 the greater number of plants killed during the winter. The line of separa- 

 tion very perceptible throughout both crops. 



1820. At rest. During the summer marled all B C ^ /(, at the rate of five 

 hundred bushels, without excepting the space before covered, and a small 

 part of that made as heavy as one thousand bushels, counting both dress- 

 ings. The shells now generally coarse— average strength of the marl, 37 

 per cent, of calcareous earth. In the winter after, ploughed three inches 

 deep only, as nearly as could be ; which however, shallow as it was, made 

 the whole new surface yellow, by bringing the barren sub-soil of yellow 

 sand to the top. One of my neighbors, an intelligent and experienced 

 farmer, who saw the land when in this state, pronounced that I "had ruined 

 the land for ever, by ploughing and turning the soil too deep." 



Results continued, 1821. In corn. The whole a remarkable growth for 

 such a soil. The oldest (and heaviest) marled piece better than the other, 

 but not enough so to show the dividing line. The average product of the 

 whole supposed to have been fully twenty-five bushels of ripe and good 

 corn to the acre. 



1822. In wheat— and red clover sowed on all the old marling, and one 

 or two acres adjoining. A severe drought in June killed the greater part 



