1846.] Orange County Manures. 43 



the liine alone which will reader land fertile. The other manures 

 are just as necessary, and in equal quantities, as without the marl. 

 Indeed, by a thorough marling of the land, it may be stimulated 

 suddenly to so great fertility as to become rapidly exhausted of 

 vegetable matter, and this has been often the case, and the farmer 

 has been disappointed that the effect of the marl was not more 

 durable. Finding his crops diminishing, he has applied more 

 marl, but still without effect, for what w^as wanted was the pre- 

 sence of organic matter in the soil. If stable manure is freely 

 used after liming, a continued effect may be expected. 



No rule can be laid down as to the quantity of marl to be ap- 

 plied to an acre. Much will depend on the quality of the marl 

 which we have stated to be extremely various, and much upon the 

 character of the soil. The soils of Orange county, however, are 

 so uniform that if the tillage of all were equal, the same quantity 

 would be applicable to any portion. But from the known differ- 

 ence in the qualit}' of the marls, it will be impossible to lay down 

 any rule. There are marls in this county which contain as much 

 as 90 per cent of carbonate of lime — there are others again where 

 there is not more than 10 to 20 per cent. So that a much greater 

 quantit}' of the latter will be required to furnish the same amount 

 of lime with the former. The richest that we have seen are from 

 Minisink and Wallkill. In the former town are to be found thou- 

 sands of acres of the finest quality. It would be advisable, that 

 experiments should be carefully made in different parts of the 

 county, to ascertain the amount which is sufficient of the different 

 marls. Injury is often produced by laying it on so thick as to ex- 

 clude the air from vegetation. But we apprehend little or no in- 

 jury from an overdose of marl, when it is thoroughly incorporated 

 with the soil. There are no caustic properties to injure vegeta- 

 tion. 



Marl will unquestionably be a valuable application to all kinds 

 of crops in Orange county, but to none others do we apprehend 

 it will be of more use than to the grass crop. It contains the 

 principles which are necessary to produce a rich, nutritive grass, 

 and in a county whose great resource has been for years the pro- 



