238 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



scription of marl that answers exactly to it ; but Mr. Tench Tilghman informed me he 

 had seen adesfiiplioii ot iiiiirl used in Scotland, exactly sirnilai- to what I use on the farm 

 on which I reside, aiid- which is the improved land you mention. 1 have not seen the 

 account myself. However, this, and all mixtures of broken marine shells, ot which 

 there is a great vaiiety, are now denominated marl, here. What I consider the best, 

 and which I most use, is composed of small parts of marine shells, chiefly scallop snell, 

 about one eighth of an inch square, or somewhat longer or smaller, with scarce any sand 

 or soil with it ; some of it seems to be petrified, and is dug nj) in lumps, like stone, 

 from four or five, to forty or fifty pounds in weight, hard to break even with tne edge of 

 an axe, and will p^main lor years, tumbled about with the plough, before it is entirely 

 broken to pieces, and mixed with the soil ; indeed you may observe it in some parts of 

 the bank, where the soil has-been washed from it, appearing like rock stone ; but if 

 broken and pulverized a little, it effervesces very much with acids. * « * « « 

 " I have api>lied it to all the soils on my farm, some of which is a cold white clay, and 

 wet ; others a light loam, and sandy. I find it useful to each kind, and manure my land 

 all over with it, without distinction, and to advantage ; putting a smaller quantity upon the 

 looser Sails. I have applied it as a top dressing on clover, and also where clover has not 

 been sown, with a view to improving the grass, and also to be satisfied whether it would 

 not be best for the ground, to let it lie spread on the suiface, for a year before the ground 

 was put into cultivation. But it has not answered my expectation. I could not perceive 

 any advantage from that mode of application. I now constantly apply it to the ground 

 cultivated in corn ; carting it out in the winter and spring, and putting on from twenty to 

 forty cartloads per acre, according to the ground, and the previous quantity that had been 

 put on, in former cidtivations, dividing each load into from four to eight small heaps, for 

 the greater ease in spreading, according to the size of the load. Some is put on before, 

 and some after the ground is broken up, but it is all worked into the soil by the cultiva- 

 tion of the corn, and it never fails of consid>^rably improving the crop of corn, as also the 

 ground wherever the marl is, especially in largest quantity. There is a small green moss, 

 and black moist appearance, on the surface of ;he ground, when not cultivated ; as you 

 perceive about old walls, and in strong ground. Though the preceding is the common 

 mode in which I use the marl, I do not think it the best ; 1 mix some in my farm yaid, 

 with the farm yard and stable manure ; and would prefer mixing and applying all that I 

 use thus mixed, but for the labor of double cartage which I cannot as yet accomplish, 

 manuring so largely as I do. I cultivate one hundred acres yearly, and constantly man- 

 ure the whole ot what 1 cultivate; employing only four carts, and four hands with the 

 carts, whicli do all the manuring and carting on the farm. 



" Your next question is, 'what has been my rotation of crops, and mode of cultivating, 

 since I have used this manure ?' 



" Since I began to use the marl, and bend my attention to improvement by manure, I 

 have cultivated only corn and wheat, sowing my ground in clover, and using the plaster. 

 Instead of cultivating all my ground in corn, and sowing wheat on it as herelolbre, I 

 divided my cultivation into two parts, of fifty acres each, putting one part into corn, 

 which 1 was able to accomplish manuring tune enough for the corn, and making a fallow 

 of the other part, manuring as much of it as I could accompli-h bel'ore the time for sow- 

 ing wheat; and disregarding, in a degree, all smallercrops, which I could not attend to, 

 as an object, without increasing my number of hands, and interfeiing with the main 

 business. I went on in this manner, till 1 found I could easily accomplish manuring one 

 hundred acres and upwards, per annum. Having got my ground to that slate ttiat 1 tan 

 risk making a crop without manure, I am now about discaiding fallow, being able to 

 manure my whole hundred acres time enough lor cropping in the sjiring, by beginning to 

 manure for the next year as soon as the spring manuring is finished. I shall m future 

 have no wheat in fallow, but sow it after corn and other crops, from which I am satisfied 

 I can make more from my ground than by naked tallow, wliich I always considered un- 

 profitable, though yon made more wheat, except for the advantage of having more time 

 to manure. « * * * * * * * 



Y In saving my corn crop, I cut it up without pulling it from the stalk as usual, and cart 

 it in all togethei, tiien^liusk it out, leaving the husk to the stalk : I lay these near my 

 feeding yard, and ttirow them into it twice a day : this gives us a large quantity of strong 

 healthy food for the cattle, which serves them all winter, and keeps them in good condi- 

 tion without any other food ; makes a large quantity of excellent manure, and a fine dry 

 feedingyard. As opportunity can be found, we cail marl, fuller's earth, clay, and any 

 good soil that is convenient, into this yaid, which being mixed with the stalks, and 

 straw, or any thing else, penning the cattle on it through the winter and summer, instead 

 of penning on the field, in the common way, we have a large quantity of manure to go 

 out in the fall, and next winter ; it is put into the field, in the intermediate rows, be- 

 tween the rows of marl, as far as it will go, and they will get mixed in the cultivation. 

 We also convert the scouring of our ditches, the head-lands of the fields, and all waste- 

 ground that we can, into manure, by carting litter, from the woods, yard manure, or 



