CALCAREOUS MANUiiES— PRACTICE. | | 7 



the same means can be used, our now poor sands may also be made as 

 productive and valuable. I do not mean to assert that the most highly im- 

 proved sandy soils can produce as much wheat as the best clay soils ; but 

 they will not fell so fer short as to prevent their being the more valuable 

 lands, for wheat as well as other crops, on account of their being more easily 

 cultivated, and less liable to suffer from bad seasons, or bad management^ 



The greatest objection to the poor sandy lands of lower Virginia, as 

 subjects for improvement by calcareous manures, is not their excess of 

 sand, nor yet their poverty — great as may be both these disadvantages— but 

 it is the shalloivness of the poor and sandy soil. The natural soil of a 

 large portion of these lands, before cultivation, is not more than from one 

 to two inches deep, lying on a barren sub-soilof- sand. Now suppose this 

 very shallow soil to be doubled or even tripled in fertility by marling, or a 

 productive power of 6 or 9 bushels of corn be raised to IS bushels, still it 

 would be but mean land. And a long succession of annual vegetable 

 covers to be left on the land, or a great quantity of prepared putrescent 

 manure furnished at once, would be required to make such soil both rich 

 and deep. If the original soil had been ten inches deep, the fertility before 

 marling might have been but little more than on the shallowest soil. But 

 heavy marhng and deep and good tillage would have served speedily to 

 make a rich and productive soil, approaching in value to those rich sands 

 of Europe nientioned above. 



Another large class of the poor lands of lower Virginia are the close stiff 

 clays, of which the soil is still more shallow than the sands. Such land 

 was described at page 77 and formed the subjects of experiments 5, 6 and 7. 

 This is the very worst soil known before being marled, and also the most 

 worthless of all known marled soils. And yet a three-fold product has been 

 usually obtained on these lands by marling alone, within four or at most 

 eight years after the application of marl. Still, this land, as well as the most 

 sandy, wants only greater depth of soil and abundance of vegetable mat- 

 ter, to become fertile and valuable. 



While then calcareous manures may be counted on to produce great im- 

 provement on all soils not naturally provided with them — and to show as 

 great a per centage of increase on the worst as on better soils, and a remu- 

 nerating profit on all — still, it will be far more profitable to marl some soils 

 than others. Dung, or other alimentary manure in the best condition for 

 use, increases vegetation mainly in proportion to the quantity of the ma- 

 nure, and without regard or proportion to the previous product of the soil. 

 Thus, a wasteful application of dung might in a single year increase the 

 production of an acre of very poor land, from 5 bushels to 50 bushels of 

 -corn. But calcareous manures improve production in proportion to the 

 previous power of the soil; and if the original product be very low, the 

 addition thereto of 100 or even 200 per cent., made on the first crops after 

 marling, will show still but a poor product. These remarks and illustra- 

 tions are designed for the instruction of those beginners who deem it import- 

 ant to learn on what kinds of soil to apply their marl. In more general 

 terms I would answer, " apply it to all soils not already calcareous ;" for 

 however different may be the measure of profit, I have never known marl 

 applied unprofitably in regard to place, if applied judiciously in manner. 

 Of course I refer to soils having some previous productive power and some 

 tenacity; and not to such naked sands, drifting with the winds, as are seen 

 in parts of North Carolina,. South Carolina and Georiria. 



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