THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



266 



was sufficient to aJJ to the value of the marl 

 I know not. The other marl was clayey, hav- 

 ing very little '• ^leen-sand.'' I presume no 

 gvpsum was in either. 



8. The stony hardness of many shells that could 

 not be got rid of in the sandy marl, without 

 much trouble, must have caused the niarl to be 

 of less value, because, lo get the required (juan- 

 tity, the mass of marl used was greater than 

 would otherwise have been necessary. .Not 

 so with the clayey marl ; lor although Uiere 

 were many masses of what we call n\arl-rock, 

 many of them weighing hundreds, perluifis 

 thousands of pounds, yet, because they could 

 be easily separated, ihe marl used was not oi' 



. less value. 



9. The quantiiy of sandy marl applied, was from 

 150 to 300 bushels per acre. Of clayey marl, 

 from 150 lo 350 or more per acre. 



10,11. The above, are the only trials i have 

 made, in varying the atr.ount of marl applied. 



1"2. The cro[)ping and ireneral management of 

 ihe land for many years before marling, as well 

 as during 5 or 6 years after I commenced marl- 

 ing, was as bad as couid be. Corn, wheat, and 

 a small quantity of oais, were the crops, graz- 

 ing wherever there was any thing to graze on. 



13. About 7 years ago, I eflected a revolution in 

 the management of my farm, and in the man- 

 ner oi' cropping ; -and up to this time have tried 

 more plans and systems of farming, perhaps, 

 than any good larnier would have done. The 

 increase, however, in the amount of crops and 

 in the (ertiliiy of the soil, has been steadily 

 and 1 think rapidly advancing. 1 have now 

 for the second time adopted the three-shift ro- 

 tation as preferable, corn, wheat or oats, and 

 clover — no grazing as usual Ibr the last 7 years. 



14. All the newly cleared land added to the farm 

 had been marled invariably before cultivation : 

 consequently no comparison of crops could be 

 had on marled and unmarled new grounds. 

 With one exception, all my old land when 

 marled was in nearly the same condition, that 

 is, nearly bare ol' vegetation from excessive 

 grazing. The increase in the crops on said 

 land next after marling I suppose to be from 

 50 to 100 per cent. Generally, the annual 

 increase afterwards was not so great. The ex- 

 ception above referred to is a piece of land marl- 

 ed and cultivated in corn last year, (1840,) 

 which had been at rest andungrazed Ibr 3 

 years, and had a good covering ot broom straw 

 and other grass. Marl used of best quality. 

 Broom straw, &c. all burnt off clean — on this 

 piece of land, I think the increase in the crop 

 must have been 100 per cent. 



15. The crops on the marled land continue to in- 

 crease annually. 



16. I am decidedly of opinion, from observation 

 and experience, that any course of cultivation 

 or rotation of crops, destructive or injurious to 

 the fertility of marled land, would be much 

 more so to unmarled land. 



17. About 4 acres of light sandy land marled in 

 1830, at about 3U0 bushels of strong yellow 

 marl per acre, was injured, but is now recovering 

 from said injury by the application of manure 

 and no grazing. 



28. So durable do I think vegetable and putres- 

 cent manures alter marling, that, under the 

 Vol. 1X.-17-B 



three-shilt rotation of corn, wheat or oats, clo- 

 ver and no grazing, it is only necessary to give 

 to the land an ordinary quantity of good ma- 

 nure, to make it produce clover, and continue to 

 improve without any additional quantity of 

 manure. Thus experience teaches me. 



19. The average quaniity of corn on all my ara- 

 ble land belbre marling coujd not have exceed- 

 ed 10 bushels per acre, perhaps less. 



20. Now not less than 25 bushels per acre. * 



21. The average quaniity of wheat raised on the 

 larm belbre marling was not -over 60 bushels 

 annually. Now not under 100. 



22. In 1827 I began farming operations where 

 I now live. In 1829 1 began to marl. In 1833, 

 80 bushels of wheat, and 75 or 80 barrels of 

 corn vvere made. In 1834, 94 bushels of wheat 

 and 80 barrels of corn. So is it noted in my 

 journal. Most of the land on which the above 

 crops were raised, had been mailed a short 

 time previous, and contained the best of all 

 the arable land. The crops of corn above re- 

 ferred lo were badly managed, though worked 

 with a hoe three limes. In 1840 one-iliird of the 

 arable land, 30 acres of which is the second best 

 field, with no hoe work, though well managed in 

 other respects, produced 140 barrels of^corn. 

 Anoiher third, and which is the best field, al- 

 though in corn the two preceding years, pro- 

 duced, I suppose, not much less than 400 bush- 

 els oal,^. The other third, and much the poor- 

 est field, produced, as well as my memory serves 

 me, between 110 and 120 bushels of wheat, 

 mnsLof which weighed 60 lbs. to the bushel. 



23. Not at all — neither the land marled by my- 

 self, nor that marled by others long anterior, 

 [in 1776 and 1798,] contradicts the statements 

 of ihe " recapitulation-' embraced in pages 53 

 to 56 of ' Essay on Calcareous Manures,' 



II, jlnswers of Boiling Jones, in regard to the 

 use of marl on his farm, ( fValnut Valley,') in 

 Surry Co., Virginia. 



y^nswers to 1st query. — The farm became my 

 property in 1834, and I commenced marling 

 that year; but a part of the fiirm, I do not 

 know how many acres, had been marled by 

 my father, the precedent owner, 



2a. — Since 1834 it has been my properly, and ge- 

 nerally under my management, 



5lh.—\n the earlier part of my marling operations 

 my progress was very slow, as the work was 

 clone solely with the larm hands, at leisure 

 limes — if there are any such times on a farm. 

 There have been marled, up to this time 241 

 acres, and this year I have allotted a separate 

 ■force for the especial business; and hope, by 

 this means, to finish marling all of the arable 

 land in 1842, 



Qih. — The quantity of carbonate of lime in ihe marl 

 used is estimated at 55 and 60 per centum, 



lih. — There is green-sand in the marl, but in 

 what proportion, I do not know, though I 

 think it is about 12 or 15 per cent. The marl 

 which abounds in it most has ever been pre- 

 (ered, and most sought lor, 



Sth. — In many of the beds of marl on the farm 

 there are hard masses of cemented shells and 

 rocky matter, but they were invariably avoided 

 and never have been used. 



