110 



CALCAREOUS MANURES— PRACTICE. 



also a soil) more of medium texture, would no doubt have been as much 

 better than -the very sandy, as the latter was better than the very stiff and 

 impervious clay sub-soils. 



Besides the general benefit which marling causes equally to all crops, 

 by making the soils they grow on richer and more productive, there are 

 other particular benefits which affect some plants more than others. For 

 example, marling serves to make soils warmer, and thereby hastens the 

 ripening of every crop, more than would take place on the like soils, if 

 made equally productive by other than calcareous manures. This quality 

 of marled land is highly important to cotton, as our summers are not long 

 enough to mature the later pods. Wheat also derives especial benefit from 

 the warmth thus added to the soil. It is enabled better to withstand the 

 severe cold of winter ; and even the short time by which its ripening is 

 forwarded by marling, serves very much to lessen the danger of that crop 

 from the worst of all its diseases, the 7-icst. Wheat also profits by the ab- 

 sorbent power of marled land, (by which sands acquire, to some extent, 

 the best qualities of clays,) though less so than clover and other grasses 

 that flourish best in a moist climate. Indian corn does not need more time 

 for maturing than our summers aftbrd, (except on the poorest land,) and 

 can sustain much drought without injury , and therefore is less aided by 

 these qualities of marled land. Most (if not all) the different plants of the 

 pea kind, and all the varieties of clover, derive such remarkable benefit 

 from marling, that it must be caused by some peculiarity in the nature of 

 those plants, Perhaps a large portion of calcareous earth is necessary as 

 part of their food, to aid in the formation of the substance of these plants, as 

 well as to preserve their healthy existence. 



On acid soils, without heavy manuring, it is scarcely possible to raise red 

 clover ; and even with every aid from putrescent manure, the crop will be 

 both uncertain and unprofitable. The recommendation of this grass, as 

 part of a general system of cultivation and improvement, by the author of 

 ' Arator,^ is sufficient to prove that his improvements were made on soils 

 far better than such as are general. Almost every zealous cultivator and 

 improver (in prospect) of acid soil has been induced to attempt clover cul- 

 ture, either by the recommendations of writers on this grass, or by the 

 success witnessed on better constituted soils elsewhere. The utmost that 

 has been gained, by any of these numerous efforts, has been sometimes to 

 obtain one, or at most two mowings, of middling clover, on some very 

 rich lot, which had been prepared in the most perfect manner by the pre- 

 vious cultivation of tobacco. Even in such situations, this degree of suc- 

 cess could only be obtained by the concurrence of the most favorable sea- 

 sons. Severe cold, and sudden alternations of temperature in winter and 

 spring, and the spells of hot and dry weather which we usually have in 

 summer, were alike fatal to the growth of clover, on so unfriendly a soil. 

 The few examples of partial success never served to pay for the more fre- 

 quent failures and losses ; and a k-w years' trial would convince the most 

 ardent, or the most obstinate advocate for the clover husbandry, that its 

 introduction on the great body of land in lower Virginia was absolutely 

 impossible. Still the general failure was by common consent attributed to 

 any thing but the true cause. There was always some i-eason offered for 

 each particular failure, sufficient to cause it, and but for which, (it was sup- 

 posed,) a crop might have been raised. Either the young plants were killed 

 by freezing soon after first springing from the seed — or a drought occurred 

 when the crop was most exposed to the sun, by reaping the sheltering crop 

 of wheat — or native and hardy weeds overran the crop — and all such dis- 

 asters were supposed to be increased In force, and rendered generally fatal. 



