250 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



damage caused by improper applications began ^o be seen, and which will 

 be described in due order. 



Having had in view from the beginning the true action of marl, and fully- 

 believing that its good effects would be permanent, and even increasing 

 with time, under a proper system of tillage, I was no more discouraged by 

 what some deemed small profits, than I was annoyed by the incredulity and 

 ridicule of other persons. Almost all the farms in the neighborhood, except 

 mine, were regularly and closely grazed when not under a crop, and of 

 course they had not . stored up in the soil much either of inert vegetable 

 matter, or its acid product. Mine had not been grazed since 1814, and 

 had been rested two years in every four; and the poorest land three 

 years in four. And though, in truth, no increased production had been 

 obtained by this lenient treatment, inasmuch as the increase of acid coun- 

 terbalanced the increase of vegetable food, still, when marl was applied, the 

 acid was immediately destroyed, and the food left free to act. The effect 

 of marling was generally shown most plainly on the first crop of corn, and 

 the limits could be easily traced by the deep green color of the plants 

 before they were five inches high ; and the increased product of the first 

 crop on acid soils rarely fell under 50 per cent., was most generally 100, 

 and has been known to be 200 per cent. But even such increase was not 

 satisfactory to many persons, until the action of marl came to be better 

 -understood, and the permanency of the effects were credited. In five or 

 six years after my commencement, there were few if any of those of my 

 neighbors, who had marl visible on their lands, who had not begun to apply 

 it. And though it has been injudiciously as well as insufficiently applied 

 since, and not one-fourth of the full benefit obtained, still the general 

 improvement and increased products of the marl farms of Prince George 

 have been very great. The existence of marl too, which was known at first 

 but on a few farms in my own neighborhood, has been since discovered in 

 many and remote parts of the county; and wherever accessible it is valued 

 and used. The like observations will now apply to most of the other 

 counties of lower Virginia. Wherever the effects of marling could be 

 seen for a few years, the early incredulity not only disappeared, but most 

 persons were even too ready to believe in marl possessing virtues to which 

 it has no claim. Tjius, ignorant or careless of its true mode of operation, 

 they crop the marled lands more severely than before ; and if they are not 

 thereby soon reduced as low as their former state of sterility, they are 

 made to approach it as nearly as possible, and at a sacrifice of nine-tenths 

 of the profit from marling which a more lenient and judicious system of 

 cultivation would have insured. 



In 1819, the second year of my operations, my marling was increased to 

 62 acres, but most of it at too thin a rate. In 1820, only 25 acres, though 

 at 600 heaped bushels or even more to the acre. Up to this time I had 

 done as most other persons have, that is, attempted to marl " at leisure 

 times," and without making it a regular employment for a certain additional 

 force, or reducing the amount of cultivation, or of other operations on the 

 farm. No person will ever marl to much advantage who does not avoid 

 this error; and this year's labors showed the necessity of an alteration. The 

 next year, two horses and carts, with the necessary drivers and pit-men, 

 were appropriated to marling at all times when weather permitted, except 

 during harvest, thrashing, and wheat-sowing times. Viewing marling too 

 as the most profitable operation, except the saving of a crop already made, 

 it was made a fixed rule of the farm that marling was to be interrupted for 

 nothing else. My corn shift for that year was reduced in size one half— so 

 that one half could be marled while the other was under cultivation. By 



