36 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 1. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



REVIEW. 



Survey of the tide-water region of Maryland, and 

 report thereon, by J. T. Ducatel, Svo. pp. 61. 

 Document published by order of the Legislature 

 of Maryland. 



The legislature of Maryland has latterly, in sev- 

 eral important matters, exhibited a rare and lau- 

 dable degree of attention to the general improve- 

 ment of that state — and the means adopted to for- 

 ward that great end, are manifestly not planned in 

 subserviency to any narrow minded feelings ol 

 sectional jealousy, but are dictated by a liberal 

 and patriotic disposition to use the means of all. 

 for the general benefit of all. May the results be 

 fully commensurate in reward with the enlighten- 

 ed acts and liberal means employed, and with the 

 noble spirit which has prompted them. 



Among the several means for promoting "inter- 

 nal improvements" — (a term generally, and with 

 a singular degree of incorrectness confined in the 

 United States to making roads and canals — ) one 

 of the least costly, and which was probably con- 

 sidered as of least importance, was directing to 

 be made a geological survey of the territory of 

 Maryland. But it may well be doubted whether 

 the future benefits of a well conducted examina- 

 tion of the mineral treasures of the state, the 

 making known all its dormant resources of wealth, 

 and the instructing its citizens as to the man- 

 ner of reaping such rewards, might not yield a 

 richer harvest, than even the millions ot dollars 

 bestowed upon its magnificent canal and railway- 

 And even if the actual plan, and consequently its 

 execution, be defective, the benefits to be derived, 

 though produced indirectly in a considerable de- 

 gree, will nevertheless be of great value. We 

 shall make free to point out what appear to be 

 some of the defects either of plan, or of execu- 

 tion: and this freedom will be used the more rea- 

 dily because of the high value attached to the ge- 

 neral plan, and the anticipations of beneficial re- 

 sults from its execution, so far as it has been com- 

 pleted, not only to Maryland, but to her sister 

 states — to whom, in this "respect, she has offered 

 an example already followed by Virginia, and 

 which will doubtless extend farther. 



The most important and most abundant sub- 

 stance, by far, among the mineral resources of 

 wealth in lower Maryland, is the immense under- 

 lying deposite of shell-marl. Accordingly, the 

 various beds, their localities, qualities, and practi- 

 cal value as manure, constitute the greater part of 

 the matters embraced in the report. This exhi- 

 bition cannot fail to increase the zeal and industry 

 of the farmers who have already been deriving 

 profit from this manure, and to attract attention 

 from, and invite to similar efforts, the still greater 

 number who have heretofore possessed this re- 

 source of wealth without knowing or enjoying its 

 benefits: and persons elsewhere will also learn to 

 attach a more correct estimation to the great im- 

 provable value of this highly favored, and yet 

 heretofore neglected and undervalued region- 

 abused as in Virginia, both by the opinions of 

 strangers, and by the practices of its cultivators. 



The report has so far only embraced the tide-wa- 

 ter region of Maryland, and the remarks on it 

 which it is proposed to offer, will be confined to the 



most important object of investigation — the beds of 

 marl. The results of the geologist's own observa- 

 tions will be copied at length. 



"Southern limits of the shell-marl deposite onthe Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland, available for agricultural pur- 

 poses. 



"There is reason to believe, as stated in a previous 

 report, that this shell-marl deposite underlies the whole 

 of the country between the Delaware and Chesapeake 

 bays, even to its extreme limits; but, as was also pre- 

 viously observed, it evidently inclines on the Chesa- 

 peake side, from the summit level of the peninsula to 

 the water's edge. The dip of the formation is at an 

 angle of about 5° from north-east to south-west. The 

 inclination is not, however conformable to, though in 

 the same direction with that of the country; a circum- 

 stance which it is important to attend to, as a neglect 

 of it might cause fallacious expectations to be enter- 

 tained of the discovery of marl in situations at its 

 north-east extremity where it lies too deep, for pro- 

 fitable extraction; and, on the other hand, might dis- 

 suade from a justifiable research in situations at its 

 south-west extremity, where though lying low and the 

 country flat, it still may be found at a small distance 

 only below the surface of the soil. It is likewise ne- 

 cessary to bear in mind what has already been said on 

 a former occasion, that the surface of the marl depos- 

 ite undulates; so that, it not unfrequently happens that 

 the opposite banks of an inlet, present to view the 

 summits of two waves of marl, so to speak, the trough 

 of which constitutes the bed of the creek. 



"Observations so far made seem to indicate that 

 south of the Choptank, in Dorcbester county — in the 

 lower portions of the county — the marl in general lies 

 too low to be advantageously extracted. It has been 

 reached in the sinking of wells; but the only place 

 where any indications of it present themselves above 

 tide, is on the Choptank, west of Cambridge — at a 

 spot called Sandy Hill. The material alluded to is co- 

 vered by a stratum of sand from fifteen to twenty 

 feet, contains impressions of scallop, clam, and other 

 shells, and was observed in the high banks of the river, 

 from the spot just named to beyond Castle-Haven. 

 Subjected to analysis it was found to consist of carbo- 

 nate of lime 23, silica 58, alumine 13, and a small pro- 

 portion of iron. This is no doubt a continuation of 

 the shell-marl deposite of Talbot county; and as no 

 other indications of marl have been observed south 

 of the Choptank, in Dorchester county, it may proba- 

 bly be assigned as the limit of that deposite in this di- 

 rection. It is not pretended however, to exclude by 

 this assignation the upper parts of said county which 

 have not yet been examined. 



''Principal location of the shell-marl deposites between 

 the Choptank and Chester rivers. 



"These deposites are in Caroline, Queen Ann's and 

 Talbot counties, and will be most conveniently indica- 

 ted under the head of each county. 



"Caroline county. — At the head of the navigation of 

 the north-west fork of the Nanticoke, at Federalsburg, 

 there is a deposite of marl which lies high, and in a 

 veiy accessible position; it owes its formation to an ac- 

 cumulation of fossil oysters, and other small marine 

 shell-fish, some of them extremely delicate, giving ev- 

 idence by the integrity of their parts that they have 

 originated and died where their testaceous coverings 

 are now discovered, and appear to have been subse- 

 quently enveloped in a deposite of clay. The material of 

 this deposite may emphatically be called shell-marl: the 

 enveloping clay contains from fifteen to twenty per 

 cent, of calcareous matter, and the chief constituent of 

 the fossils is the same fertilizing agent. The soil of 

 the surrounding country is principally a light sandy 

 loam; so that the marl which has just been described 



