THE FARxMERS' REGISTER. 



217 



CALCARKOUS EARTH DISCOVERED IN A NEW 

 FOR3I AND A NEW LOCALITY. 



To the Editor ol'tlie rarmers' Register. 



Charlies Hope, jjbbev'ilh District, ) 

 S. C, March Uih, 1841. <> 



As you are conslanlly cornplaiiiing tliut plaiitci si 

 leJuse to coniiDuuicate any little, inroriiiaiioii ilicy 

 may possess, or lo request soluiioiis ol' doubts 

 and ililJioultieSjiliat rtiay present Uieniselves.l liavc 

 at last been templed to acquaint you with a dis- 

 covery that I have made ol' lime in some one or 

 other olits numerous combinations, and at tliesanie 

 time to request the aid ol your knowledije, and 

 expeiience, to ascertain whether the discovery is 

 likely to lead to results beneficial to the aji;riculture 

 ol" the section ot country in which I reside. 



My plantation and residence is in Abbeville 

 district. South Carolina, about hall' way between 

 the centre (d* the district and Savannah river, 

 distant about six miles trom the latter. 1 have 

 been particular in designating my location, as it 

 lias been universally believed that no lime existed 

 in this pan ol' the state. The region of country 

 lo which I reler, lies between the shell marl Ibr- 

 mation, which runs through the low country, (be- 

 low Columbia, crossing the Savannah river into 

 Jiurke county, Georgia,) and the lime-stone ol 

 Habersham in Georgia, and Spartanburgh in this 

 state, distant respectively about SO nitles. J\]y 

 attention has been lor some years (thanks to your 

 work) turned to the subject of lime and marl, and 

 accidentally, a short time past, 1 Ibund the sub- 

 stance which I will proceed to describe to you. 



1 commenced, some months past, draining a 

 portion of low grounds on Little Ktver, a tributa- 

 ry of the Savannah, lor the purpose ol cutting ofi 

 tlie hill waters which in rainy seasons made it too 

 wet for cultivation, and also lor turning a stream 

 which ran ihrough its centre, so as to alter its 

 course to the base of the high lands ; the ditches 

 are several hundred yards apart, and their united 

 length would be rather more than half a mile. 

 The land is all subject to be covered several inches 

 by the very highest freshets. The body of land 

 lo which I particularly reter, contains, on both sides 

 of the river, about 300 acres. 'J''he great propor- 

 tion of the land is a rich, strong alluvial soil, of a 

 dark chocolate color, to the depth of 10 to 12 inches; 

 beneath this first coat lies a light blue, and very 

 tenacious clay, with apparently no silicious matter, 

 and invariably at the depth of 30 inches Irom the 

 surface, we came to the marl, if it be rnarl, to 

 which I alluded. This body of earth is' not so 

 tenacious as the superincumbent stratum of blue 

 clay, and when thrown out by the spade crumbles 

 a little, but still adheres in masses. 1 his stratum 

 is 13 inches thick along the whole line of both 

 ditches, and contains a substance of. a dirty white 

 color, resembling in shape and size Jerusalem ar- 

 tichokes, the largest mass never exceeding the 

 size of a hen's egg, and the smallest not larger 

 than mustard seed. These concretions are so 

 hard as to require considerable pounding to re- 

 duce ihem to povvder; but when well pounded, be- 

 come as fine as flour. I observed that when 

 struck with the pestle, they separated in layers, or 

 thin peelings, if I may be allowed the expression, 

 and that the inside was of a bluish color. 



I analyzed a number of the concretions, (ac- 

 cording to your directions in Vol. let,) and (bund 

 Vol. IX.-14-B 



thero to contain 80 per cent, of the carbonate of 

 lime. \ then took a spade lull of the earth, with- 

 out selection, as it was dug up, containing of 

 course many of the larger and smaller concretions, 

 :ind carefully picked out all the concretions larirer 

 than a pea. I then dried and reduced to powder 

 about one pound of this earih, from which I took 

 100 grains, which yielded 42 per cent, of carbo- 

 nate of lime. I afterwards got the aid of a f^en- 

 ileman who, from his knowledge of chemistry, \b 

 fully capable of accurate exflmination, and the re- 

 sult lie obtained corresponded to mine within a 

 li-action. The growth of timber on this land is 

 birch, poplar, ash, maple, and some gum. It may 

 be necessary to state that the high land.«, adjoining 

 the low grounds, were originally productive cho- 

 colate or mulatto lands, and hard to wear out, or 

 they certainly would have been completely ex- 

 hausted ere this. 



I can make no use of this substance for the im- 

 provement of mv land ; \'ov in older to manure an 

 acre of upland, I should be forced to destroy the 

 filth or sixth of an acre of land, worth 50 dollars. 

 It is therefore useless to me, unless I can discover 

 a thicker deposite; and it is respecting the proba- 

 bilities on this point that I refjues! the aid of your 

 knowledge. 



It may be proper to add, that on sinking a pit 

 below the stratum of marl, say to the depth of 5 

 feet, we came to sand completely saturated with 

 water, and the spade sunk almost by its own 

 weight, two feet or more. The concretions of 

 marl have no appearance of shells or of the im- 

 pressions of shells. Excuse thf. length of this 

 communication, which is at your service to burn 

 or print. Charles T. Haskell. 



The facts stated above are to us mostly of novel 

 character, and highly interesting. The stratum, 

 as described above, is certainly very rich, and, we 

 inter, might be used for manure just as when dug 

 up, without the labor of separating and pounding 

 the lumps. However, so far as the larger lumps 

 might be easily separated, it might be advan- 

 tageous and economical to do so, for the purpose of 

 burning ihem to quick-lime, either for cement, or 

 to reduce them (if very hard) more quickly for 

 manure, than mere exposure would. The concre- 

 tions, from the description, seem to be like those 

 found in Prince Edward county, Virginia, and in 

 Loudobn, the first body of which was described 

 in the first volume of the Farmer's Register, and 

 the latter in the eighth volume; but the whole 

 deposite of the South Carolina body is much richer 

 tkvm those in Virginia. 



We differ much from Mr. Haskell, as to the 

 supposed difficulties and objections lo the use of 

 his marl. Instead of admitting that the marl fur- 

 nished by a certain space would manure only five 

 or six tiiines as much surface, we suppose that one 

 acre would fiirnish enough to marl 50 acres. For 

 a dressing of a quarter of an inch thick would be 

 very heavy, (perhaps much too heavy,) and at 

 that rate, the 13 inches thickness of (he stratum 



