126 CALCAREOUS MANURES— PRACTICE. 



expenses of preparation, tillage, seed, harvesting, thrashing, &c., for 

 market, (or for home use,) and of superintendence and care of both the 

 corn and wheat or oat crops, be counted as being over and above the value 

 of the offal (stalks, straw, &c.) of the crops, by $ 1 for the two years. Then 

 the full statement will be as follows : 



First year, product in corn per acre, 10 bushels, at 50 cents - $5 



Second year, wheat, 5 bushels, at $1, - .- - - - 5 



Third year, no crop or profit, and no expense, .... Q 



Total product of the three-years' rotation, - - - - $10 

 Cost of cultivation, &c., of the crop, 10 



Net profit, 00 



However wretched may be the foregoing exhibition of products, it will 

 be admitted to be abundantly liberal by all persons acquainted with lower 

 and middle Virginia, for a very large proportion of the cultivated lands. 

 Yet such lands might sell at prices varying from $3 to $G the acre, and that 

 without a view to their being improved, and even before calcareous ma- 

 nures were thought of as means for improvement. Yet the conclusion 

 is evident, that such land, no matter what may be its then selling price, 

 (or speculative appreciation caused by the effects of paper-money and 

 fraudulent bank issues,) is worth not one cent for cultivation, or for the be- 

 nefit of the proprietor and cultivator. 



Next, suppose the land in question to be properly marled, and at the un- 

 usually heavy expense of $7 the acre. This rate is more than double the 

 usual expense for a full and sufficient dressing, when the marl is obtained 

 on the farm where applied. Suppose also that the increase of products, 

 as shown in the second course of the rotation, (beginning three years after 

 the application,) is equal to 100 per cent, on the production previous to 

 marling. This estimate is quite low enough, as all experience has shown. 

 Upon such land, and so treated, this degree of increase may very often be 

 obtained upon the first crop of the first course ; and, even if no auxiliary 

 means of enriching be afterwards used, the rate of increase will be more and 

 more for each of sundry succeeding courses of crops thereafter. Then let 

 us test the value of the returns by figures as before : 

 First year, product in corn per acre, 20 bushels, at 50 cents, - $10 



Second year, wheat, 10 bushels, at $1, 10 



Third year, clover most of it left as manure to the land, and no 



profit counted here, ...-.-.. 00 



20 

 Total expenses of cultivation, &c., as before, in two years, - 10 



Net product, or clear profit of cultivation in the term of three 



years, $10 



This is all so much increase of net annual product upon the previous 

 rate; and the amount, $3.33 yearly, is the interest, (at 6 per cent.,) of 

 something more than a capital of $55. And therefore, according to these 

 grounds of estimate, $55 per acre is the increase of intrinsic value given 

 to the land by marling alone, or $48 the clear gain made by the operation, 

 after deducting $7 paid for the marling of the land ; and this without regard 

 to what might have been its previous intrinsic value, or its former or its 

 present market price. The more rigidly this mode of estimate is scruti- 

 nized, the more manifestly true will be found the results. The premises as- 

 sumed, in the supposed effects and profits of marling, will not be objected to 



