THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



125 



provemcnt of land so very poor ae to be beyond all 

 hope of recovery. Neverlheless, having some 

 corn throwing not far from the mill, I carried a 

 wheelbarrow full of marl, li-esh from the pit, to be 

 strewed between two corii-rovvs^about the space of 

 25 yards, and the same quantity of marl between 

 Two more rows, and across the first, the same dis- 

 tance. This was done about the last of May or 

 first of June, and the corn cultivated just as all the 

 rest in the field. The marl produced not the least 

 effect, tor good or lor evil. In the spring of 1815 I 

 sowed the field in oats, and when the oats in the 

 field generally were ancle high, the cross mark 

 where the marl was put vvas knee high — the 

 former being of a pale sickly color, the latter deep 

 geeenj and might be seen at the distance of 300 

 yerds. With this trifling experiment 1 was roused 

 at once. There was no room for doubt, two facts 

 were immediately established, viz., the great va- 

 lue of marl as a manure, &c., the certainty that it 

 would not act on poor naked land until it was acted 

 on by a winter^s frost.* The land that this expe- 

 riment was made on was very poor, light and 

 eandy, but had not been grazed for several years. 

 In the autumn of 1815 I commenced carrying out 

 marl on the field for the next year's crop of corn, 

 and in the beginning made a series of experiments. 

 It was strewed on six rows about 400 yards long, 

 5^ feet apart, at the rate of 250 bushels to the 

 acre. On six more adjoining at the rate of 300 

 bushels to the acre — on six at 400 — six at 500, and 

 so on up to 1000 bushels to the acre. The land 

 very poor, acid, and much stiffer than that on 

 which the first experiment was made. The rows 

 on which the 250 and 300 bushels were put, pro- 

 duced the best corn, and all as high as 600 yielded 

 double the quantity that it would have done with- 

 out the marl; Irom 600 and upwards, the crop was 

 Jess and less, and the 1000 bushels' rows brought 

 none. The rest of the field was finished out at 

 the rate of about 300 and 350 bushels to the acre. 

 The whole field was put in wheat the succeeding 

 autumn, and produced four times as much as it did 

 in 1812 — no disaster of any kind happening to 

 either crop. The rows that received most benefit 

 in the corn crop had the same effect on the wheat. 

 The 1000 bushels rows had no wheat, and the 

 year following had no grass, bijt was as naked as 

 a wheat-treading yard. 1 continued to carry out 

 the marl from year to year until the arable land 

 was all dressed with it at the rate of about 250 to 

 350 bushels to the acre with the same beneficial 

 etfects as above described— no grazing allowed, 

 and not a particle of manure of any kind except 

 the marl on the land on the west side of the main 

 road. On a piece of land that vvas the last of my 

 experiments, after the marl, a crop of corn was ta- 

 ken off" and the land seeded in wheat at the usual 

 time, at the rate of three gallons to the acre, and 

 rolled after seeding, and again rolled in March fol- 



• The latter inference was altogether mistaken. It 

 was not the action of frost, but proper mixture of the 

 marl with the soil which was wanting. If marl is first 

 applied to land but the hour before planting corn 

 thereon, and well mixed with all the ploughed depth, 

 very great and most manifest effect will be seen by the 

 the time the plants are four inches high — perhaps as 

 early and as great effect as even a very rich putrescent 

 manuring could produce in so short a time.— Ed. 

 Vol. IX.-2t 



lowing. On thia land I say I gathered 22 bushels 

 olwheat Ibronesownjbut I attribute the great yield 

 as much to the roller as to the marl. The land was 

 very poor, light and sandy, and during the growth 

 of the wheat crop scarcely a spire of grass was to be 

 seen in it. The year that this last mentioned crop 

 of corn was made was remarkable lor the great 

 destruction by the cut-worm amongst the young 

 corn. Mr. Jno. Roane cultivated a field in corn 

 the same year, separated from mine only by the 

 main road. His crop vvas so annoyed by the cut- 

 worm that he told me he replanted it five times. 

 In mine there was not one cut-worm to be seen. 

 The spot you make inquiry about, on the right 

 side of the road as you approach the house, I 

 think was marled in 1815 or 181G with about 400 

 bushels to the acre, but had been lightly manured 

 previously and heavily cropped with corn, wheat 

 or oats, and sometimes in Irish potatoes. That 

 spot was much the sliflTest land on the whole tract. 

 There were two kinds of marl, each a mixture of 

 a large portion of shells of every kind I ever saw, 

 with brown earth of a chocolate color. The earth 

 in one was stiff' and adhesive, the other light and 

 sandy. The light and sandy I used but little, and 

 and that on stiff land ; the other kind was used on 

 all the light and sandy land, and on the greater 

 part of the stiff. 1 (bund them equally efficacious, 

 though I did not remain at the Academy long 

 enough to determine whether or not the sandy 

 marl would be as lasting in its efTects as the clayey, 

 of which I had my doubts. The land on which 

 1 applied the marl had, as I suppose, been cleared 

 some 80 or 100 years, and abused as all the Virgi- 

 nia lands had been in the olden time. Judging 

 from the growth on the uncleared land adjacent to 

 the cleared, the stiffer parts I should think were 

 very poor, cold, acid land, that would not produce 

 more than 10 or 12 bushels of corn when first 

 cleared. The lighter parte of the farm would 

 have produced I imagine double that quantity, the 

 land being much more lively. At the time I took 

 possession at Rumlbrd Academy, that part of the 

 land on the west side of the public road, which 

 constituted the whole of the arable land except, as 

 I said above, about 20 acres round about the 

 houses, would have yielded not more than five or 

 six bushels of corn to the acre, and less wheat. 

 At the time I sold the place (1822) the same land 

 would have yielded fifteen bushels of corn, and as 

 many bushels of wheal*— no other manure except 

 the marl having been applied to it during my resi- 

 dence, and that only once, and at the rate per 

 acre as abovementioned. In the year 1822 I sold 

 the place to Mr. William Rufiin. What he did 

 in the way of marling I know not. He afterwards 

 sold it to Doctor Witi. B. Weslmore, who suc- 

 ceeded astonishingly, as I have been told, in the 

 improvement of the land by a second application 

 of marl, and clover. Whether or not he used other 

 manure with the marl i know not, but it is cer- 

 tain, from what I have been told by others, that 

 the plantation was more improved when he left it, 



* From a previous estimate made by Mr. Hill of 

 product of wheat, it may be inferred that he here 

 means fifteen bushels for one of seed, and not to the 

 acre. As the usual mode of sowing seems to have 

 been remarkably thin, fifteen for one might have been 

 not more than 7 or 8 to the acre.— Ed. 



