366 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 11 



to have commenced when the corn was from 6 to 

 10 inches high, and to have Btopped its growth. 

 lis general color is a pale sicUly green, and the 

 leaves appear so thin as lo be almost transparent : 

 next they be;'.onie streaked with rusty red, and 

 then begin to die at the upper ends. Several pulled 

 up, showed no de'ijct, or injury from insects, 

 among the roots. All the land marled li-om pits 

 Nos. 7 and 9 (both yellow) Irom 1820 to 1822, is 

 so much diseased as to promise not more than half 

 a crop. The corn is twice as large as on the spaces 

 left tor experiment without marl, yet looks much 

 worse ; though 3 weeks ago its superiority in color 

 and vigor was even more than in size. With 

 but few exceptions, the land newly marled from 

 the same pits, and the old marling from Nos. 1 and 

 8, (both blue) as well as that not marled, are free 

 /i-om this disease. The parts most affected are 

 those which were dryest and poorest, and of course 

 were least covered with vegetable matter. Yet 

 though the corn on this old marling is generally 

 so bad, it is yet evident that the land is more bene- 

 fited by the manure than at first: flourishing stalks 

 of corn, 18 to 24 inches high, are seen iCrequent'y 

 within a lew feel ofthose most hurt by this disease." 



Subsequently, when the whole extent of injury 

 could be seen, the following remarks were written 

 in the journal, at the date below. 



" October 15th. The damage caused by marl 

 lo this crop I suppose to be about one-third of 

 what the land would otherwise have made, judg- 

 ing from the present and former measurements 

 of the same land, where experiments -were made. 



" Nearly all the heavy marling in Finnies (at 

 800 bushels,) about 20 acres,* suffered by it ; the 

 the poorest and lightest most injured, here and in 

 Court-House Field. The fiiw rich spots escaped, 

 as did most of the piece plastered (on the heavy 

 marlmg) in 1820. The marks of this experiment 

 were destroyed^ and the superiority was not so 

 regular as to enable me to trace the outlines of the 

 gypseous earth — but an acre of corn might be 

 taken v/hich certainly was plastered, better than 

 any other acre in the old land. This at least proves 

 that gypsum contained [if any] in the marl has 

 not caused the disease. The poor land lightly 

 marled in 1819, showed but little of the disease, 

 and none was found in the piece not marled, nor 

 in any marled since the last crop [or now first cul- 

 tivated since being marled.] 



"In Court Plouse Field, the injury was confined to 

 19 acres, the poorest part of the field, which was 

 in corn in 1821, t marled and fallowed, 1822, and in 

 wheat 1823, corn 1824. The remainder of the old 

 land, which had not been cropped so severely, 

 and was covered as heavy with blue marl, brought 

 a fine crop, quite free from the disease. The new- 

 ground was mostly marled very heavy (800 bush- 

 els of y(ffj)l and this and all my former clearings, 

 (some marled equally heavy,) were also quite fiee. 

 These facts satisfy me that it was not the quality, 

 but the over quantity of marl which has caused the 

 evil ; and that the land which has escaped, owes 

 its salf'.ty to its containing more vegetable matter. I 

 forgot to state that on some of the lightest spots of 

 South Field, the wheat was much injured, though 

 blue marl was used there. 



* See Exp. 10, p. 43 Essay on Cal. Man. 



\ Exp. 1], p. 45. 



J Exp. 1 to 4, pp. 37 to 40. 



" If I had followed my ov/n advice to others, " to 

 put no more marl at first than would but little more 

 than neutralize the soil, and repeat the dressing 

 afterwards" this evil would not have lallen on me. 

 The present loss is not much; but it makes me ex- 

 pect the same on all similar land, marled as heavily. 

 1 shall endeavor to avoid it, by giving vegetable 

 matter to the soil — either by manuring, or by al- 

 lowing 1 or 2 more years of grass in the first term 

 of the rotation. JVhy the quantity of marl applied 

 should do harm in«?)i/case, is more than I can tell; 

 but I draw this consolation from the discovery — if 

 a certain quantity, (say 500 bushels per acre) ia 

 too much tor present use of the soil, it proves that 

 it will conbine with more vegetable matter, and fix 

 more fertiliiy in the soil, than 1 had supposed. That 

 the second crop should be injured, and not the first, 

 is owing to the unbroken state of the shells at first, 

 and, by their being reduced, twice as much calca- 

 reous matter is in action after a lew years." 



Thus it will be seen, from these entries made at 

 the time, that I took a correct view of this great 

 and unlooked-for evil, and was by no means dis- 

 couraged, or induced to lessen my efforts in marl- 

 ing. But in all after operations, on poor land, the 

 quantity was lessened from 500 and 600 bushels, 

 (and even more of the poorest marl,) to about 

 300 bushels. With this alteration, the operation 

 was continued with as much zeal as before ; and 

 also at a later time on another farm (Shellbanks) 

 purchased afterwards, and where I marled upwards 

 of 400 acres. 



When this injury was first discovered, about 

 250 acres of very similar land had been marled so 

 heavily that the like mischief was to be looked lor 

 in the next crop, and thencelbrward, if not guarded 

 against. For a more full account of this disease, 

 and my opinions thereon, I must refer to what has 

 been before published, (Essay on Cal. Man. p. 51.) 

 it is sufficient here to say that by pursuing the 

 means there adyised — in allowing more rest from 

 grain crops, furnishing vegetable matter to the 

 land, in its natural cover of weeds, in clover, and 

 farm-yard manure so far as the limited supply suf- 

 ficed — that no very great loss was subsesjuently 

 sufiered, except in the field where the disease was 

 first discovered, and which was marled in 1819. 

 This field was too remote and inconveniently 

 situated, to be manured fi-om the barn-yard : and 

 from that and other causes, (including the failure 

 of clover,) that field, only, still shows injury from 

 marling m the present crop (1839) ; so much 

 diminished, however, that its general average 

 product this year is fully twice as much as the 

 land could have brought before being marled. 



The results of many particular experiments 

 made during the progress of marling this farm 

 were stated in the ' Essay on Calcareous Ma- 

 nures,' and the general benefits and improved 

 products were described in a later publication, 

 (page 112 of vol. vii. Far. Reg.). It is not 

 necessary here to repeat these statements. Rut 

 as this article may come under the notice of some 

 readers who have not access to the others, the 

 general results, as produced in the whole period 

 o( twenty-two years, li'om the earliest experiment 

 to the last product, will be here very concisely 

 and generally slated. 



The many and extensive old galled parts of 

 sloping land, wherever dressed with marl, and 



