1S39] 



F A R iM E K S ^ REGISTER. 



665 



Small applications were indeed made hy two of 

 Ihem only, in (he next, year afier my lirsi trial. 

 Bui either because the land had been kept too 

 much exhausted of its vegetable matter by graz- 

 ing as well as cropping, or because the experi- 

 menters could not think ofthe operation ofthe ma- 

 nure as different It'om that of dung, or lor both 

 these reasons, it is certain that they were not en- 

 couraged by the results to persevere. They stop- 

 ped marling with this one trial, until several years 

 after, when both recommenced, then lolly con- 

 vinced of the benefit, and were alierwards !\mong 

 the largest and most successful marlers. One of 

 these persons was the, late Edward Marks, of Old 

 ■ Town, and the other my old friend Thomas Cocke 

 — who though he had led me to find the disease, 

 could not be speedily convinced of its true nature, 

 or of the value of the remedy. As late as 1822, 

 when he walked with me to an enormous exca- 

 vation which I was then making in carrying out 

 marl, he said to me, that, "In future time, if marl- 

 ing shall then have been abandoned as unprofita- 

 ble, this place will probably be known by the name 

 oi" 'Hiiffiii's JF'olly.'' '''' For some years, my marl- 

 ing was a subject for ridicule with some of my 

 neighbors ; and this was renewed, when in after- 

 time the great damage caused by improper appli- 

 cations began to be seen, and which will be de- 

 scribed in due order. 



Having had in view from the beginning the true 

 action of marl, and fully believing that its good ef- 

 fects would be permanent, and even increasmg 

 with time, under a proper system of tillage, 1 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 

 (he 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 

 cither of inert vegetable matter, or its acid product. 

 Mine had not been grazed since 1814, and had 

 been rested 2 years in every 4 ; and 3 years in 4 on 

 the poorest land. And thouiih, in (ruth, no in- 

 creased production had been obtained by this le- 

 nient treatment, inasmuch as the increase of acid 

 counterbalanced the increase of vegetable food, 

 still when marl was applied, the acid was imme- 

 diately destroyed, and the food left free to act. The 

 efftictof marling was generally shown most plainly 

 on the first crop of corn, and the limits could be ea- 

 sily traced, by the deep green color of the plants 

 before they were five inches high ; and the in- 

 creased product of the first crop, on acid soils, 

 rarely fell under .50 per cent., was most generally 

 100, and has been known to be 20C per cent. But 

 oven such increase was not satisfactory to man}^ 

 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 iriy com- 

 mencement, (here 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 insulficiently ap- 

 plied since, anii not one-lburth of the fill benefit 

 obtained, still the general improvement and in- 

 creased products of the marl fivrms of Prince 

 George have been very great. The existence of 

 marl, too, which was known at first but on a lew 

 farms in my own neighboi'hood, has been since 

 discovered in many and remote j^arts ofthe coun- 

 ty; and wherever accessible, it is valued and used. 

 Vol. VI 1-8 i 



The like observations will now apply to most of 

 the other counties of lower Virginia. Wherever 

 the effects of marling could be seen fi^r a few 

 years, the early incredulity not only disappeared, 

 but most persons were even too ready (o believe in 

 marl possessing virtues to which it has no claim. 

 Thus, Ignorant or careless of its true mode of ope- 

 ration, they crop the marled lands more severely 

 than before ; and if they are not thereby soon re- 

 duced as low as (heir former sta(e of sterility, they 

 are made to approach it »s nearly as possible, and 

 at a sacrifice of nine-tenths of" the profit from 

 marling which .a more lenient and judicious sys- 

 tem of cultivation would have insured. 



In 1819, the second year, my marling was in- 

 creased to 62 acres, but most of it at too thin a 

 rate. In 1S20, only 2-5 acres, though at 600 heaped 

 bushels or even mo.-eto (he acre. Up to this time 

 I had done as most other persons have, that is, at- 

 tempted to marl "at leisure times," and without 

 making it a regular employment lor a certain ad- 

 ditional force, or reducing the amount of cultiva- 

 (ion, or of other operations on the fiirm. No per- 

 son will ever marl to much advantage, who does 

 not avoid (his 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 pf^rmitted, except during har- 

 vest, thrashing, and wheat-sowing times. View- 

 ing marling too as the most profitable operation, 

 except the savmg 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 un- 

 der cultivadon. By these means, I marled 80 

 acres this year, 1821, (and too heavily,) and had 

 all the lessened corn-field on marled land. The 

 product of" the half was equal to what the whole 

 liad brought before, and I was enabled thereafter 

 to have every field marled over in advance of its 

 next cultivation. In 1822, the land marled was 

 93 acres, 100 in 1823, and 80 in 1824, which served 

 (o cover nearly all of (he then cleared land requi- 

 ring marling. The next three years" marling 

 amounted respectively to 50 acres, 24 acres, and 

 27 acres, being principally upon land subsequently 

 cleared and brought into cultivation. Since (hen, 

 there has been no marling on the farm, except on 

 wood-land, not yet cleared, and on small spots for- 

 merly omitted, and of which no account was taken. 

 With the exception of such spots, (and some such 

 still remain, because of their inconvenient po- 

 sition,) all the land which was not naturally calca- 

 reous, or loo wet or too steep lor carting on, had 

 been marled by 1827 ; and none has required any 

 additional dose, though some of (he thinnest cover- 

 ed places had been re-triarlcd long belore (hat time, 

 so as to brinir them to a proper constitution. 



In 1824, I first observed, (and had never before 

 suspected such effect,) the injury caused by bav- 

 ins' marled acid soil too heavily. To show my first 

 irriprcssion?!, I will cojiy the words of my farm jour- 

 nal, written on the very day on which the discove- 

 ry was fully made. 



".June 13th, 1824. Observed anew and alarming 

 disease in a large proportion of my corn — and 

 what makes the matter much worse, the evil is 

 certainly caused by marling. The disease seems 



