234 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



We then consoled ourselves, that what they lack- 

 ed in lime, they made up in green-sand, or may 

 be, the happy compound of lime, irreen-sand, 

 &c., whatever it may be, fonned a hap[)y dose 

 for our sandy bottoms, or flats. But you now 

 come out and tell us, that the green-sand is 

 worse than useless. Now, my dear sir, what are 

 we to do"? Our lands dreadfully poor, no 

 lime, (which is the only thincr, as you say, that can 

 benefit them,) and our green-sand, of which 

 there is plenty, you say is good lor nothing.* I 



and the results show that there teas a mistake in the 

 former specimen, and that the marl which he has used 

 is about four times as rich in calcareous matter as 

 the specimen which we before analyzed. He ana- 

 lyzed by solution in acid, filtration, and subtraction of 

 the undissolved residuum from the whole quantity — 

 which mode will always make marl appear richer 

 than it really is. We used Davy's apparatus (for the 

 measurement of the gas evolved,) which is much 

 more accurate. The results were as follow : 

 Bassett's marl, used- by Dr. Eraxton, and by his ana- 

 lysis, contained of carbonate of lime, 48 per cent. 

 The same, according to Davy's appara- 

 tus, - - - - - 45.50. 

 The lower stratum, of the Newcastle 

 green-sand marl, (formerly reported 

 by us, p. 688 vol. 8, as containing 

 2 per 'cent,) by Dr. Braxton's trial 

 contained, - - - 5. 

 And by Davy's apparatus, - - 2.50. 



This stratum, it should be remembered, is the low- 

 er, and the one lying above it, 5 feet thick, contains 

 36 per cent, of carbonate of hme. 



Another specimen from Bassett's land, contained 

 only 11.50 per cent, of carbonate of lime. This, from 

 its near agreement, was no doubt the same kind of 

 which a specimen was before furnished by mistake, 

 instead of the kind which Dr. Braxton used from. 

 All three of these specimens contained larg'e pro- 

 portions of green-sand also — estimated by the eye to 

 be from 20 to 30 per cent, of the whole mass. — Ed. 

 F. Register. 



• Not so, in either case. We reported, and cor- 

 rectly, the marl sent as a specimen of the kind used 

 so largely by Dr. Braxton, to be only 11 per cent, of 

 carbonate of lime. It now appears (as stated in the pre- 

 ceding note) to be rich, as we at first had supposed, 

 containing 45.50 instead of only 11 per cent. As to 

 the " happy compound of lime and green-sand," we 

 readily admitted the manifest and very remarkable ef- 

 fects, as seen on the Pamunkey lands. We only dis- 

 trusted the permanency of so much of the effect as 

 was due to green-sand alone, from our own varied 

 and considerable course of trial elsewhere. The results 

 of those trials we have fully and fairly presented, (p. 

 118, vol. ix.) and desire others to do the like ; and, so 

 far from designing to discourage farther trials of green- 

 sand, because of our own small returns, we have urged 

 renewed trials, even where we had abandoned the use, 

 in consequence of the greater benefits which we saw 



very much fi-ar that, in your "search alter truth,"' 

 you will leave depopulated a large section of our 

 country; lor I already hear some rumors of the 

 return of the epidemic which prevailed in this re- 

 gion some years since, with such alarming mor- 

 tality, both in body and purse, that 1 have 

 scarcely known of an individual who was subject 

 to the malady, that ever finally recovered. I 

 think the physicians called it the emigrating 

 fever. As you are our great land " regulator," 

 you must pardon me in again asking you what 

 we are to do? for without this marl, or some sub- 

 stitute, we are gone ; not going, but gone, and as 

 you say we have none that is worth using, what 

 would you advise us to do? go to the hospital, 

 and be inoculated lor the lever, or slay a while 

 longer, and try some more experiments with this 

 green-sand 1 But from your experience, it seems 

 the longer ihe trial, the worse the effects ; so, 

 Mr. Editor, I can see no glimmerinor of hope 

 lor us Pamunkeyites, but the very faint one, 

 that your green-sand may not be like ours, that 

 is, that ours may have some ingredient in it, 

 whicdi is> wanting in yours, or, may be, our sandy 

 lands may not labor under the same disease with 

 your stitier soils, and therefore the same remedy, 

 perhaps, that may have been inert upon your 

 lands, may be beneficial. And may not that be 

 the reason why the green-sand acts so well as 

 is said on the sandy soil of New Jersey, and not 

 at all on the James river lands ?t 



And now, my very good friend, badinage apart, 

 let us try and reason this matter a little together, 

 and compare your ideas and experience with mine; 

 not at all though with the view of contrasting 

 my knowledge or experience upon the subject 

 with yours, but simply that both sides of the sub- 

 ject may be presented, as iiir as my limited ex- 

 perience goes. 



With the green-sand proper, I readily admit 

 that my experiments have not been of such a 

 character as to arrive at any thing like definite 

 or lair conclusions ; but with the green-sand marl, 

 (the admixture of lime and green-sand,) 1 

 claim to have had some experience ; and what- 

 ever may be its component parts, whether it con- 

 tains much or little lime, or whatever else it ma\ 

 contain, certain it is, so lar as I can judge, its pre 

 sent effects are very fine ; whether it may prove : 



on the Pamunkey lands. Still, there has been nothing 

 adduced to show that we were wrong in pronouncing 

 that the green-sand alo7ie, without any admixture of 

 carbonate of lime, and applied to an acid soil, would be 

 an unprofitable application, if not entirely without ef- 

 fect.— Ed. 



t We should greatly regret such results of our in- 

 vestigations and reports ; still, whatever may come of 

 it, we will still aim to "search after truth," and urge 

 all other investigators to do the same ; and not to trust 

 to our opinions, or any others, or to seek to sustain any 

 particular theory, but submit every doubt to the test of 

 accurate experiment. Our green-sand was no doubt 

 generally poor ; but the quantity would have made up 

 for defect of quality. Besides, some of it was abun- 

 dantly rich. Neither were the lands generally stiff, 

 but in most cases light and sandy, though less so than 

 I the Pamunkey low-grounds. — Ed. 



