356 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6. 



calcareous or the vegetable ingredient is the more de- 

 sirable as manure, depends on which of the two is 

 most deficient in the soil to be manured. The union 

 of the two substances is essential to durable value and 

 fertility in soil — and where both are wanting, the prai- 

 rie earth, formed principally of vegetable and calca- 

 reous matter, is a better manure than any that nature 

 or art has yet supplied.] 



MANURE FROM AND ON PRAIRIE SOILS. 



*To the Editor of the farmers' Register. 



I sent to you about two mouths past, ihree spe- 

 cimens of prairie earth, taken from under the sur- 

 face of the ground, and one of them as low as 

 four feet. They are contained in joints of cane, 

 and I fear are in two small quantities for chemical 

 analysis. My object in sending them was to ena- 

 ble you to test more fully the accuracy of the facts 

 hinted at in the communication of your correspon- 

 dent E. (p. 715, Vol. II.) that the prairies con- 

 tained more vegetable matter under, than in their 

 surface. The analyses there made, countenance 

 the idea — and the fact that some of the lime-co- 

 lored prairies are much more productive after a 

 few years cultivation without the addition of any 

 vegetable matter, seems to do the same. But they 

 are not satisfactory. Results in agriculture are so 

 often the effect of other causes than those we at- 

 tribute, them to, that it is not sate to consider a 

 fact so established as to make it a guide, until ren- 

 dered certain by repeated experiments; and as 

 the ascertainment of this fact would be a matter 

 of consequence, I should be much pleased to have 

 the benefit of your examination into it. I also 

 Bent the specimens with the desire of knowing 

 whether the prairies were such calcareous earl lis, 

 and if of such richness as to make them a valua- 

 ble manure when put on oilier kinds of land; and 

 whether those are best for that purpose that have 

 the most lime, or the most vegetable matter mix- 

 ed with the lime. The prairies lie on almost ev- 

 ery plantation in such close contiguity to the 

 sandy lands, which have in most cases a heavy 

 coat of leaves on them, that the carting on the 

 prairie would be attended with but little trouble. 

 I use the term sandy, because the usual term here, 

 but it does not mean poor lands, for they are gen- 

 erally oak and hickory lands, very free, and that 

 produce fine crops for a few years, but are not du- 

 rable. These lands work kindly under the plough, 

 and if we had any means of making them last, as 

 convenient to every body, and as easy of applica- 

 tion as hauling on prairie earth, it would do as 

 much in preventing a rich soil from getting poor 

 as vour JEssay on Calcareous Manures is doing in 

 making a poor soil get rich. The burning of the 

 lime, and hauling it on the land, T fear might be 

 too troublesome for general practice. 



Your correspondent H. (Vol. I. p. 278,) has ad- 

 duced many facts to show how beneficial to health 

 the use of lime has been. He attributes, and ap- 

 parently with much reason, the health of the city 

 of Mobile to the covering of the streets with 

 shells. If such effects have been produced by 

 such a small cause, how much more certainty may 

 be given by shelling the yards of all the crowded 

 parts of that city] May not the city of New Or- 

 leans be very much improved in health by also 

 shelling the streets and yards, and by the free use 



of lime in all such places as are usually directed 

 by the Board of Health? The objection that the 

 subsoil is too moi*t, and will not admit of stoning 

 or paving, or any other covering thai will bear 

 the conveyance of heavy burdens on them, 

 would be removed by making rail roads through 

 the business parts of the city, and restricting to 

 broad wheel carts the conveyance of heavy bur- 

 dens on the other streets. 



It is unquestionably true that the prairies are 

 the healthiest lands of the state, and probably the 

 only lands having fertility of soil sufficient to in- 

 duce the establishment of farms, that will continue 

 healthy when cleared. The first settlers put the 

 unwooded prairie, and the thin lands least wood- 

 ed, into cultivation, as easiest to clear, and the 

 prairies were healthy. At this time the richest 

 and most densely wooded forests are killed, and 

 such will be the case for a few years. The im- 

 mense number of decaying trees giving off' the 

 products of decomposition, would not make it a 

 matter of surprise if such a great cause should be 

 sufficient, for a time, to counteract, and to even 

 counterbalance the beneficial influence of the 

 lime. That this will be but for a lew years, I am 

 induced to think, from having observed the well 

 established fact that new mill ponds, while the 

 trees are rapidly decaying, make situations sickly, 

 that were healthy before, and which in a lew years 

 become healthy again. Looking a lew years in 

 advance of this time, and I think the prairies will 

 be valueless to those who abuse them; and lor 

 those who will use them properly, they will con- 

 stitute the most valuable farms of the state, and 

 furnish perfectly healthy residences on them. 



I send you herewith a communication on the 

 prairies, which is intended as acontmuation of the 

 subject before treated of in two numbers, and it 

 may be added to on some other occasion. 



A PLANTER. 



Alabama, Aug. 4, 1835. 



ON THE PRAIRIES OF ALABAMA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I sent to the Southern Agriculturist, two years 

 ago, two communications on the advantages and 

 disadvantages of locating a planting interest in 

 the prairies of this state, in which I gave, to the 

 best of my observation, a description of the red 

 and gray lands, the river swamps, and the prairies, 

 with their several peculiarities, so as to enable the 

 new settler to make his selection among them. 

 The prairies were described as a healthy, high, 

 dry, and undulating submarine soil, generally gray 

 or lime colored, and unwooded on the crowns of 

 the elevations; the woods, and with them a black 

 soil, commencing at half their declivities, and con- 

 tinuing through the intervening valleys. The soil 

 light and loose, readily absorbing water at and 

 near its surface, and impenetrable to it at any 

 depth below r , and the water never becoming pu- 

 trid. I have had the opportunity of being much 

 better acquainted with the prairies since that time, 

 and my subsequent experience induces me to think 

 that the opinions then expressed, were substan- 

 tially correct. This country has been at some 

 time the bottom of the sea, I think is evidenced 

 by the immense amount of rotten limestone which 



