CALCAREOUS MANURES-PRACTICE. \4Q 



that -the practical application is not to be looked for soon ; and that the 

 scheme of using marl in towns is more likely to be met by ridicule, than to 

 receive a serious and attentive examination. Notwithstanding this an- 

 ticipation, and however hopeless of making converts, either of individuals 

 or of corporate bodies, I will offer a few concluding remarks on the 

 most obvious objections to, and benefits of the plan. The objections will 

 ail be resolved into one — namely, the expense to be encountered. The 

 expense certainly would be considerable ; but it would be amply compen- 

 sated by the gains and benefits. In the first place, the general use of marl 

 as proposed, for towns, would serve to insure cleanliness, and purity of the 

 air, more than all the labors of their boards of health and their scavengers, 

 even when acting under the dread of approaching pestilence. Secondly, 

 the putrescent manures produced in towns, by being merely preserved 

 from waste, would be increased ten-fold in quantity and value. Thirdly, 

 all existing nuisances and abominations of filth would be at an end ; and 

 the beautiful city of Richmond (for example) would not give offence to our 

 nostrils, almost as often as it oflFers gratification to our eyes. Lastly, the 

 marl, (or mild lime,) after being used until saturated with putrescent matter, 

 would retain all its first value as calcareous earth, and be well worth 

 purchasing and removing to the adjacent farms, independent of the enrich- 

 ing manure with which it would be loaded. If these advantages can indeed 

 be obtained, they would be cheaply bought at any price necessary to be 

 encountered for the purpose. 



The foregoing part of this chapter was first published in the Farmers' 

 Register, (for July, 1833,) as supplementary to the previous edition of this 

 essay. That publication drew some attention from others to the subject, 

 and served to elicit many important facts, of which I had been before 

 altogether ignorant, in support of the operation of calcareous earth in 

 arresting the effects of malaria, or the usual autumnal diseases of the 

 southern states and other similar regions. These facts, together with the re- 

 sult of my own personal experience, extended through two more autumns, 

 (or sickly seasons, as commonly called here and farther south,) since the 

 first publication of these views, will now be submitted. Most of the facts 

 derived from other persons relate to one region, the "rotten lime-stone 

 lands" of southern Alabama; but that region -is extensive, is of remarkable 

 and well known character and peculiarities, and the evidence comes from 

 various sources, and is full, and consistent in purport. The facts will be 

 here presented in an abridged form. The several more full communica- 

 tions, from which they are drawn, may be referred to in the Farmers' Regis- 

 ter, vol. i., pp. 152, 214 and 277. 



The first fact brought out was that, in the town of Mobile near the 

 Gulf of Mexico, the streets actually had been paved or covered with shells 

 — thus presenting precisely such a case as I recommended, though not with 

 any view to promoting cleanliness or health. The shells had been used 

 merely as a substitute for stones, which could not be so cheaply obtained. 

 Nor had the greatly improved healthiness of Mobile, since the streets were 

 so covered, (of which there is the most ample and undoubted testimony,) 

 been attributed to that cause, until the publication of the foregoing opinions 

 served to connect them as cause and effect. This can scarcely be doubted 

 by those who will admit the theory of the action of calcareous earth ; and 

 the remarkable change from unhealthiness in Mobile, to comparative healthi- 

 ness, is a very strong exemplification of the truth of the theory. But 

 it is not strange, when so many other causes might (and probably did) 

 operate to arrest disease, that none should have considered the chemical 

 operation of the shelly pavement as one of them, and still less as the one 



