134 



CALCAREOUS MANURES-PRACTICE. 



are allowed for every day in the year — and when grass is part of his food, 

 more than as much in value is saved in his dry food. No charge is made 

 for stable or litter, as the manure made is supposed to compensate those 

 expenses. 



It may be supposed that the prices fixed for corn, and fodder or hay, are 

 too low for an average. Such is not my opinion. The price is fixed at 

 the beginning of the year, when it is always comparatively low, because it 

 is too soon for purchasers to keep shelled corn in bulk, and the market is 

 glutted. Besides, the allowance for waste during the year's use (10 per 

 cent.) makes the actual price equal to two dollars and twenty cents on 

 July 1st. The nominal country price of corn in January is almost always 

 on credit— and small debts for corn are the latest and worst paid of all. 

 The farmer who can consume any additional portion of his crop, in employ- 

 ing profitable labor, becomes his own best customer. The corn supposed 

 to be used, by these estimates, is transferred on the first of January, with- 

 out even the trouble of shelling or measuring, from A. B. corn-seller, to A. 

 B. marler, and instantly paid for. Two dollars per barrel at that early 

 time, and obtained with as little trouble, from any purchaser, would be a 

 better regular sale than the average of prices and payments have afforded 

 for the last eight years. 



Cost of marling; founded on the foregoing estimates of the cost of labor. 



From the beginning of November, 1823, to the 31st of May, 1824, a re- 

 gular force, of two horses and suitable hands, was employed in marling on 

 Coggins Point, on every working day, unless prevented by bad weather, 

 wet and soft roads, or some pressing labor of other kinds. The same two 

 horses were used, without any change, and indeed they had drawn the 

 greater part of all the marl carried out on the farm, since 1818. The best 

 of the two was seventeen years old— both of middle size, and both worse 

 than any of my other horses, which were kept at ploughing. 



The following estimates were made on a connected portion of this time 

 and labor, and upon my own personal observation and notes of the work, 

 from the beginning to the end. It was very desirable to me to know the 

 exact cost of some considerable job of marling, attended with certain 

 known ditficulties, and on any particular mode of estimating the expense ; 

 for although the same degree of difficulty, and of cost of labor, might never 

 again be met with, still, any such estimate would furnish a tolerable rule 

 to apply, in a modified form, to any other undertaking of this kind. These 

 estimates may be even more useful to other persons ; as they will serve 

 generally to prove that the greatest obstacles to the execution of this im- 

 provement are less alarming, and more easily overcome, than any inexpe- 

 rienced persons would suppose. 



Both these jobs were atteruled with uncommon difficulties, in the unusual 

 thickness of the superincumbent earth, compared to that of the fossil shells 

 worth digging, and on account of the distance, and amount of ascent, to the 

 field. The first job was so much more expensive than was anticipated, 

 that it may perhaps be considered as a failure— but as the account of its 

 expense had been kept so carefully, it will be given just as if more success 

 and profit had been obtained. This work was commenced April 14th, 

 1824. The bed of marl for the upper six feet of its thickness is dry and 

 firm, though easy to dig, and rich. It has an average strength of 45 per 

 cent, the shells mostly pulverized, and the remaining earth more of clay 

 than sand. After being carried out, the heaps appear, to a superficial ob- 

 server, to be a coarse loose sand. Below six feet, the marl became so 



