130 CALCAREOUS MANURES-PRACTICE. 



perhaps conveyed by water as far as it may be needed, A bushel of such 

 marl as the bed on James river, described page 92, is as rich in calcareous 

 earth alone, as a bushel of slaked lime will be after it becomes carbonated, 

 and the greater weigiit of the first is a less disadvantage for water car- 

 riage, than the price of the latter. Farmers on James river, who have 

 used lime as manure to great extent and advantage, might more cheaply 

 have moved rich marl twenty miles by water, as it would cost nothing but 

 the labor of digging and transportation. 



Within the short time that has elapsed since the first publication of the 

 foregoing passages in the first edition of this essay, the transportation of 

 marl by water carriage has been commenced on James river, and has been 

 carried on with more facility and at less expense than was anticipated. 

 The farmers who may profit by this new mode of using marl will be in- 

 debted to the enterprise of C. H. Minge, esq., of Charles City, for having 

 made the first full and satisfactory experiment of the business on a large 

 scale. 



Since the publication of the last edition, the transportation of marl by 

 water-carriage has been carried on much more extensively. But very re- 

 cently another source for obtaining calcareous manures has been opened to 

 the farmers of lower Virginia, which they think cheaper than either trans- 

 porting marl or burning shells, and they are availing of it to great extent. 

 This is northern stone-lime, which is brought in bulk, ready slaked, and 

 sold by the vessel load at prices varying from 8 to 10 cents the bushel. 

 Slaked lime, even if pure, from its extreme lightness, cannot be as much to 

 the bushel as rich marl contains of pure lime, even though the marl may 

 have 30 per cent, of other earths. Therefore the lime is much the most costly, 

 as marl may be procured and transported at from 3 to 5 cents the bushel. 

 Still, the lime is so much more readily obtained in large quantities, and a farm 

 can by that means be so much more speedily covered, that the purchase of 

 lime is often the more desirable and also the more profitable operation of 

 the two. 



In making this improvement, more than in any other business, " time is 

 money." Marling is usually effected by the farmer's labor, whereas the ex- 

 pense of liming is mostly in the purchase. By the use of water-borne mai'l, 

 few farmers could dress a fourth of their tillage field in a year, whereas by 

 purchasing lime the whole field might be limed, and the whole farm cover- 

 ed in one-fourth of the time required for marling. If then the lime were 

 even thrice the cost of marl, (for equal quantities of pure lime,) it would 

 still be the cheapest mode of improvement, because yielding its products 

 in one-fourth of the time required for marling. The difference of amount 

 of net product in the first crop, between an acre marled or limed, and 

 another acre not so improved, would usually pay the cost of marling or 

 liming the acre. Therefore, on every acre cultivated by any farmer, and 

 not marled or limed until afte7- making the crop, there is as much loss of 

 crop suffered by the delay, as would have paid for making the improve- 

 ment. 



The objections to carrying marl unusual distances, admitted above, 

 apply merely to improvements proposed for field culture. But it would be 

 profitable, even under existing circumstances, for rich marl to be carried 

 five miles by land, or one hundred miles by water, for the purpose of being 

 applied to gardens, or other land kept under i^erpetual tillage, and re- 

 ceiving frequent and heavy coverings of putrescent manure. In such 

 cases, independent of the direct benefit which the calcareous earth might 

 afford to the crops, its power of combining with putrescent matters, and 

 preventing their waste, would be of the utmost importance. If the soil 



