1839J 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



663 



of product would still more increase, insteod of 

 being lessened in the course of time, fn thus ful- 

 ly confidinor in the permanency of the improve- 

 ment, I was at once convinced of the operation 

 being both cheap and profitable. All doubt and 

 hesitation were thrown aside, and I determined to 

 increase my labors in marling to the utmost extent 

 of my views. Still the want of spare labor, and 

 the established routine of farm operations which 

 , occupied all the force, retarded my operations so 

 much that no more than 12 more acres (for the 

 next year's crop) were marled in that j^ear. 



It forms an essential part of the character of an 

 enthusiastic and successful projector, and espe- 

 cially an agricultural projector, to be as anxious 

 to inform others as to profit himself. Of course 1 

 tried to bestow upon, and share my lights with, 

 all my neiiihbors ami other farmers whom my 

 veecluded lite permitted me to meet. This dispo- 

 sition also caused my earliest attempt at writing 

 for even so small a portion of the public as consti- 

 tuted a little agricultural society which I had 

 induced to be established in my neighborhood. 

 To show my earliest opinions and statements on 

 this subject, I will here (juote the material part ol 

 a communication made to that society, and which 

 •was written in October of the year of my first ex- 

 periment. I copy the extract just as it then stood, 

 and with all its defects ol' ibrm and of substance. 

 I then shrunk in fiiar from the greater publicity 

 . which the press would hav^e afforded, and liad not 

 the remotest anticipation that my first effort, then 

 made, would lead me to the extent of intercourse 

 since established and maintained with the public, 

 both by writing and printing. 



" We should be induced to infer from the re- 

 marks of those writers who have treated on the 

 improvement of land, that a soil artificially enrich- 

 •ed is equally valuable with one which would pro- 

 duce the same amount of crop from its natural 

 fertility; and that a soil originally good, but im- 

 poverished by injudicious cultivation, is no better 

 than if it never had been rich. If this conclusion 

 be just (and the contrary has not been even hinted 

 by them) it is in direct contradiction to the opinion 

 of many intelligent practical farmers, with whom 

 my own observations concur, in pronouncing that 

 soils naturally rich, (although completely worn 

 out,) will sooner recover by rest — can be enriched 

 with less manure — •and will longer resist the effects 

 of the severest course of cropping, than soils of as 

 good apparent texture and constitution, and in simi- 

 lar situations, but poor before they were brought 

 into cultivation. Should the latter opinion be cor- 

 rect, it is of the utmost importance that the subject 

 should be investigated; as the only conclusion that 

 can be drawn from it, is, that such land must have 

 some secret delect in its constitution, some princi- 

 ple adverse to improvement ; and until this is dis- 

 covered and corrected, it is an almost hopeless 

 undertaking to make a barren country permanent- 

 ly fertile, by means of animal and vegetable ma- 

 nure. 



"That inclosing has but little effect in improving 

 land naturally barren, is sutPiciently proved by 

 poor wood-land. This has had the benefit of inclo- 

 sing for, perhaps, thousands of years, and is yet 

 miserably poor. It may be said that leaves are 

 not to be compared in value to grass or weeds; but 

 surely leaves ought to improve as mucb in a thou- 



sand years, as grass or weeds in twenty. Besides, 

 it is well known, that leaves taken from this very 

 land, and applied elsewhere, have produced much 

 benefit; and the advocates of inclosing must aorree 

 with me in ascribing to this cause, the natural fer- 

 tility of the most valuable land, 



"As to manure, these are but few farmers who 

 have not, like me, experienced complete disap- 

 pointment in endeavoring to improve land so lit- 

 tle favored by nature. In the usual method of 

 summer manuring, by moveable cow-pens,the most 

 negligent farmers give the heaviest covering, by 

 suffering their pens to remain stationary soraeUmes 

 six or eight weeks. I have known the surface in 

 this manner to be covered an inch thick with the 

 richest of manures, and yet, after going through 

 the same course of crops and grazing with the ad- 

 joining unmanured land for six years, could not be 

 disliiiguished. ***** 



" If any one principle should be always found in 

 one kind of soil, and as invariably absent in the 

 other, we might reasonably infer that that was 

 the cause of fertility or barrenness. Judging from 

 my very limited observations, it appears e^/ident 

 that calcareous earth constitutes a part of every 

 soil rich in its natural stale, and that whenever 

 a soil is entirely or nearly deficient, it never can be- 

 come rich of itself, and if made so by heavy doses 

 ofdiing, will soon relapse into its former sterility. 



" Let us observe how facts coincide with this opi- 

 nion. The lower part of Virginia is generally 

 poor; narrow stripes along the rivers and smaller 

 water courses are nearly all the high lands that 

 are valuable, and in this class, exclusively, shells 

 are seen so frequently, and in such abundance, 

 that it seems highly probable that they are 

 universally present, but so finely divided as not to 

 be visible. When we know the change produced 

 by calcareous earth in the color and texture of soil, 

 and in a field of an hundred acres, all of the same 

 dark colored mellow soil, shells may be seen ia 

 only a few detached spots, yet we cannot but at- 

 tribute the same effects to the same cause, and al- 

 low calcareous matter to be present in every part. 



"Thfe durable fertility of land which contains 

 shells in abundance is so wonderful, that I should 

 not dare to describe it, were not the facts supported 

 by the best authority. The calcareous matter for 

 ages has been collecting and fixing in the soil 

 such an immense supply of vegetable matter, that 

 near two centuries of alm.ost continual exhaustion 

 have not materially injured its value. I have seen 

 fields on York, James, and Nanseraond rivers, 

 now extremely productive, which are said to have 

 been under cultivation for thirty and forty years, 

 without any aid worthy mentioning, from rest or 

 manure. 



"The same cause operates on low lands, formed 

 by alluvion, and situated on streams accustomed to 

 overflow. Such land is, with very lew exceptions, 

 of the first quality ; and it is made so by the calca- 

 reous matter which the currents must necessarily 

 convey from the strata of marl through which they 

 pass ; and which being intimately mixed with 

 sand, clay, and vegetable matter, is sufficient 

 to form the finest and deepest soil. All the rich low 

 grounds which I have had an opportunity of ob- 

 serving, have marl on some of the streams which 

 fall into them, and I have not heard of any on those 

 few which are poor. Not a solitary instance of 



