THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



423 



swallows and other inseciivoroiis birds, and if 

 this could be generally ell'ected, it would tend 

 more to the reduction ol noxious insects than any 

 eH'ort of man, no matter how eH'ective, scientific, 

 or combined. 



MARL IN ALABAMA. 



To tlic Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Claiborne, jila., June 12, 1811. 

 Since I wrote you in January last, the subject 

 of marl has attracted some notice, and the m- 

 quiry has resulted in the discovery of several 

 beds ol' shells of (jjreat lertility and of unknown 

 extent. A lew feet below the surface of the 

 earth, on the eastern bank of the Alabama river, 

 and within the limits of this village, there is a 

 deposite of shells of great variety, lertility, and of 

 easy access; anil the surprise is that they should 

 not have been discovered sooner, and applied to 

 purposes of agriculture, seeing the hints nature 

 has manilested by stripping them nearly bare, and 

 the effect on vegetable growth below them, 

 by the washings ol' the finer particles. The trees, 

 the shrubbery, and undergrowth of every kind, 

 indicate a better nourishment. How they came 

 there (they are above high water mark) is for the 

 geologist to explain ; but certainly their position, 

 their very great variety, their loose and disunited 

 location, excite a curious inquiry. These shells 

 are different in Ibrni from those seen in the soft, or 

 rather, lime-stone, and, as before remarked, are 

 loose and disunited, whereas the others are ce- 

 mented, and capable of being quarried and 

 polished to some extent, cither by the plane or 

 drawing-knife, and are extensively used, as a sub- 

 stitute for brick in building chimneys. They are 

 mostly round, elonsated, and curiously indented 

 on the edges, nearly in contact. Some resemble the 

 shell of the periwinkle, with receding circles at each 

 end. Some are nearly as large as an egg; others 

 not larger than a pea; but all lying in one com- 

 mon and loose mass. The shells Ibund in the 

 soft rock, as designated with us, are mostly flat, or 

 rather slightly convex, with the outer surface fur- 

 rowed, and the furrows narrowing to one extremi- 

 ty. Some resemble the shell of the starfish, with 

 the points beautifully fringed, and the inner sur- 

 face with correspondmg depressions, tattooed in a 

 most curious manner. But by far the most inter- 

 esting view is their application as manure lo poor 

 and nearly exhausted soils. The interest deepens 

 here, and from experiments now making, no one 

 can doubt their astonishing eflicacy. A small lot 

 has been planted in corn, and a double handful of 

 shells applied to each hill. The effect is so plain 

 " that he that runs may read," and as the season 

 advances it will be still more manliest. Do you 

 remember the experiment made by that sagacious 

 philosopher, Dr. Franklin, on a "clover field bor- 

 dering on one of the avenues to the city of VVash- 

 iogton, with the plaster of Paris, forming the fol- 

 lowing sentence :" " This has been plastered." 

 A writer adds, "So astonishingly luxuriant was 

 the vegetation, when the operation had been per- 

 formed, that it became a matter of general com- 

 ment." Many a poor pilgrim will sojourn here 

 ere long, to read this experiment, and to improve 

 his bad corn. 



About five miles below this placp, and on the 

 western bank ol tlie river, there is a similar depo- 

 eite ; and still lower down the river, some eight or 

 ten miles, there is another; all said to be equally 

 rich, abundant and accessible. I have observed, 

 as a general liict, that our richest alluvial lands are 

 in contact with the poorest pine lands, and 1 have 

 thought their great fertility was owing to the 

 washings of the fine particles of sand, incorporated 

 with animal and vegetable matter. For ceriain it 

 is, no lands are sooner exhausted than these 

 when not inundated ; tlwy become loose, ex- 

 tremely sandy, and incapable of sustaining vege- 

 tation of any kind. To remedy this evil, (and it 

 is one of some magnitude, and increasing yearly, 

 as embanking becomes more general, and the 

 lands more worn,) we have a manure, cheap, rea- 

 dily prepared, of immense fertility, (yielding 90 

 per cent, of pure carbonate of lime,) and in great 

 abundance. And by adding the furiher consider- 

 ation of health, which has been proven, if any 

 doubt, by shelling the streets of Mobile, and it 

 would seem a matter of surprise that these extra- 

 ordinary advantages and inducements have not 

 been in general use and common practice, long 

 since. L. J. 



CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT. 



From tlie Magazine of Horticuttitre. 



The filbert is one of the finest nuts, and al- 

 though great quantities of the fruit are imported, 

 and sold in the fruit shops annually, there are 

 scarcely any, as yet, cultivated in the United 

 States. A sterile variety of the English filbert 

 may be seen in many of our gardens, which rare- 

 ly produces any fruit ; but the finer sorts, which 

 thrive luxuriantly, and bear most abundantly in 

 this climate, are scarcely known in cultivation. 

 Nothing can well be easier than the cultivation of 

 this shrub or tree, and we are confident that were 

 the merits of the better varieties generally known, 

 no garden would be considered complete without 

 them. 



A few years since, we imported small plants 

 of the most celebrated English varieties, and 

 have, without the least attention to pruning, 

 realized quite an abundant crop of fine nuts, for 

 two years past, which are quite an acceptable 

 addition to the dessert. 



Among the finest of these varieties are the 

 Frizzled, the Red Kernel, the Northampton Pro- 

 lific, the Cobnut and the Coslbrd. We have found 

 the Coslbrd, Frizzled, and the Northampton Pro- 

 lific, the most productive varieties in this climate. 

 All the varieties grow very vigorously in any good 

 soil, naturally dry rather than moist, but a dry 

 gravelly loam, or sandy loam, is considered pre- 

 ferable. In pruning and training filberts, the 

 most important requisite is to keep the main stem 

 Iree from all suckers ; and the second, to prevent 

 too great a luxuriance of wood, which if suffered 

 to grow at random, will prevent the production 

 of large crops. The nuts are produced, both 

 upon the sides of the young wood, and upon 

 lateral spurs, annually produced on the older 

 branches, after the previous year's bearing lateral 

 shoots have been trimmed away. Abroad, there- 

 fore, what is called the spurring in system oi" 



