552 



FARMERS REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



pelled by the heat of the fire used in burning the 

 brick — while the pyroligneous acid engendered 

 from the decomposition of the wood by the fire, 

 would not have remained adhering to the bricks, 

 for which it has no chemical affinity, exposed ibr 

 twelve months to the winds, and four months to 

 the rains. If this be so, whence could this plant 

 have drawn its acid properties? The constituent 

 principles of the oxalic acid exists in the atmos- 

 phere, and it is admitted that the wood sorrel (ox- 

 alis acetocella) derives its acidity from the air; why 

 then should not the sheep sorrel get its acidity 

 from the same source? Should what I have re- 

 lated, afford ground for the belief that the sorrel 

 derived its acid properties from the atmosphere in 

 that one instance, my faith must necessarily be 

 shaken in the very important evidence which you 

 have brought forward in proof of the existence 

 of acid soils, from the growth of acid plants there- 

 on. It is not my intention to attempt to controvert 

 your theory concerning acid soils, as I think it 

 placed on incontestable ground; my only object, is 

 to excite attention to the subject, so that all the 

 facts existing in relation to it, may be made known. 



My second fact is, that on a piece of land late- 

 ly purchased by Mr. Thomas Roane, there is a 

 marl bank, with large pines and broom-grass 

 growing on it — while the marl is so near the sur- 

 face as to be seen without removing die superin- 

 cumbent earth, of which in fact there is little or 

 none. I will not attempt to theorize on this subject 

 for fear that I may expose myself to the getting of 

 a rap over the knuckles similar to that which the 

 unfortunate correspondent of the Genessee Farm- 

 er got, whilst wielding the pen against your "ideas 

 about sour soils," by assuming that the "lime and 

 gypsum, with the otherpeculiarities found in vege- 

 tables" were derived from the atmosphere. 



Whilst my pen is in hand I feel constrained to 

 give you a few facts in testimony of the truth of 

 the principles divulged in your Essay on Calca- 

 reous Manures. In 1833, I first read the essay, 

 and being convinced by it that farming in Virginia, 

 with the means of marling, was not so desperate 

 an undertaking as I had been led to believe it was, 

 from witnessing the small crops of my country- 

 men in general; and not wishing to leave my na- 

 tive land, unless driven forth by the hand of dire 

 necessity, I purchased a farm of 405 acres, at $5 

 per acre. To this I have since added about 600 

 acres more, at $8. (I mention the price of the 

 land, that my fellow citizens of the north may 

 know the cost of a farm with us — which by the 

 way, may be bought 50 per cent cheaper now 

 than when I purchased.) Both of these tracts 

 superabound in excellent shell marl, which I com- 

 menced hauling out, with some vigor, on the 1st 

 of April 1834, and by the 1st of October 1835, 

 I marled between 430 and 450 acres, at the aver- 

 age rate of 350 heaped bushels to the acre. But 

 the facts which I shall detail as coming under my 

 observation, will be confined to about 50 acres of 

 the most worthless land on the farm. Its natural 

 growth, as I infer from similar and adjoining land 

 in wood, is red and white oak, with a few pines 

 and black-jacks, now and then a stunted willow- 

 oak, with an uudergrowth of whortleberries; 

 there are slight indentations or basins frequently 

 occurring, which hold water throughout the win- 

 ter, a great part of the summer, and after every 

 rain. There seems to be no soil at all; but the 



ground is of a whitish color — very miry in winter, 

 and bakes after every shower; it is very stiff, and 

 difficult to cultivate. The fencing had been taken 

 from around the greater part of this land; young 

 pines had commenced showing their heads, while 

 the intervening spaces were covered with a mea- 

 ger growth of poverty grass. In the fall of 1833, 

 I sowed fifteen bushels of wheat in about as 

 many acres of land; twenty acres were ploughed 

 up for corn — eleven for oats — while in the spring, 

 four was marled, at 400 bushels per acre, manured 

 and put in cotton. In August following on mea- 

 suring my wheat, it turned out thirty-one bushels 

 and a traction — being very little over two bushels 

 per acre; my corn measured eighteen and a half 

 barrels of nubbings. I was absolutely astonished 

 to find that the product of land could be reduced 

 to so low a state. I have no doubt, that were any 

 of our northern brethren to see this account, they 

 would smile incredulously — but I can assure you 

 that there was no mistake in the measurement, as 

 it was made with perfect accuracy, and the land 

 having been cultivated to the best advantage — as 

 it was ploughed four times and hoed twice. If 

 this picture should impress on the minds of any of 

 the readers of this communication the magnitude 

 of the attempt to bring this land from a state of al- 

 most absolute sterility, how much greater was the 

 impression on my own mind, who had spied out its 

 "nakedness, and beauty unadorned," with my 

 own eyes — 



Segnius irritant animos, demissa per aures, 

 Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta ndelibus. 



But determining to see what virtue there was in 

 marl, 1 removed the stalks from the twenty acres; 

 marled them, at 250 bushels per acre, and sowed 

 in wheat. In Jannary I covered the whole with 

 finely rotted manure, twenty-five tumbril cart 

 loads to the acre; sowed clover-seed, and plastered. 

 The wdieat having been sown too thin at first, 

 was made much more so from being killed by the 

 hard winter, and the fly. I think the crop was 

 shortened one-lit If. The quantity made per acre 

 was supposed to be six bushels. But this I de- 

 termined not to leave to "guessing" — and as there 

 was about three acress on which the wheat seem- 

 ed to be as good as it probably ought to have been 

 throughout the whole field, under favorable circum- 

 stances, from its having been more protected from 

 the north wind by a wood, and the earlier scattering 

 of the manure. I had an opportunity of testing 

 the product, by actual measurement. For this 

 purpose, I laid off an acre with the surveyor's 

 chain — had the wheat on it reaped, shocked, and 

 thrashed by itself. It measured thirteen bushels 

 and one peck — weighing 62 lbs. per bushel. This 

 land was poorer if possible than that yielding two 

 bushels an acre the year before. The clover took 

 well; it grew off luxuriantly, and though this is 

 its first year, the greater part of it headed, attain- 

 ing the height of eighteen inches, and two feet: 

 together with the clover, a fine tall growth of car- 

 rot weeds has sprung up, a thing unprecedented in 

 the field before. But this is not all: the four acres 

 in cotton adjoininffthe rest, and managed alike, ex- 

 cept being mailed earlier and more heavily, after 

 producing me a tolerable crop of cotton, and an ex- 

 cellent crop of wheat, was broke up in July for 

 ruta baga. On going 1 out to give some instruc- 

 tions about placing the manure, what wasmysur- 



