THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



469 



inorgfanic substances and generally in such small 

 quantity, but ye^suffici(M)t for vprrptation, are dif- 

 I'used throiijj;h all known soils ? This is an inter- 

 esting question — which though not directly con- 

 sidered by our anlhor, receives important lights 

 I'roni his lacis. lie shows clearly in the Ibllow- 

 in<j passages, that portions of the salts held in 

 solution by sea and other water are carried ofi 

 into the air by evaporation, and thus are furnished 

 to soils at very remote distances. 



" The experiments instituted under Lavoisier's guid- 

 ance by the Direction dcs poudrcs et salpetrrs, nave 

 f)roved that during the evaporation of the saltpetre 

 ey, the salt volatilizes with the water, and causes a 

 loss which could not before be explained. It is 

 known also, that, in sea storms, leaves of plants in the 

 direction of the wind are covered with crystals of salt, 

 even at the distance of from 20 to 30 miles from the 

 sea. But it does not require a storm to cause the 

 volatilization of the salt, for the air hanging over the 

 sea always contains enough of this substance to make 

 a solution of nitrate of silver turbid, and every breeze 

 must curry this away. Now, as thousands ol tons of 

 sea-water annually evaporate into the atmosphere, a 

 corresponding quantity of the salts dissolved in it, viz. 

 of common salt, chloride of potassium, magnesia, and 

 the remaining constituents of the sea-water will be 

 conveyed by wind to the land. 



"This volatilization is a source of considerable loss 

 in salt-works, especially where the proportion of salt 

 in the water is not lartre. This has been completely 

 proved at the salt-works of Naubeim, by the very in- 

 telligent director of that establishment, M. Wiliielmi, 

 He hung a plate of glass between two evaporating 

 houses, which were about 1200 paces distant from 

 each other, and found in the morning, after the drying 

 of the dew, that the glass was covered with crystals 

 of salt on one or the other side, according to the di- 

 rection of the wind. 



" By the continual evaporation of the sea, its salts* 

 are spread over the whole surface of the earth ; and 

 being subsequently carried down by the rain, furnish 

 to the vegetation those salts necessary to its existence. 

 This is tlie origin of the salts found in the ashes of 

 plants, in those cases where the soil could not have 

 yielded them." — (pp. 165, 166.) 



Liebig does not say whetiier part of some only, 

 or ol' all these different salts are taken up by 

 evaporation and " spread over the whole surface 

 of the earth ;" but as no exception is stated by 

 him, we may inler that ail these salts, in minute 

 proportions, are continually so resupplied to all 

 soils. And here then are ample resources whence 

 soils and plants may receive not only common 

 salt (chloride of sodium, or muriate of soda,) 

 and of soda, but also of potash, magnesia, and 

 some little sulphate of lime. The lands within 

 20 or 30 miles of the sea coast must be much 

 more plenlilully supplied with salts, as violent 

 tempests will carry sea water in vapor, and un- 

 changed, many miles through the air. Hence it 

 may well be believed that the lands of the 

 Eastern Shore of Virginia are maintained in their 

 productive condition by continual supplies of sa- 

 line manure, furnished both by storms and con- 

 tinual exhalation. And as all these salts ope- 



* According to Marcet, sea-water contains in 1000 

 parts, 



26.660 chloride of sodium. 

 4.660 sulptiate of soda. 

 1.232 chloride of potassium. 

 5.152 chloride of magnesium. 

 I 1.6 sulphate of lime. 



rate as manure in very small quantities, the great- 

 er or less amount of the natural and unknown 

 supply, may well be the cause of the contradic- 

 tory results of salts artifiiially applied. An appli- 

 cation of a salt which would be very beneficial 

 to a soil much in want of that particular ingre- 

 dient, might be totally useless, or even hurtful, 

 where the soil was belbre sulTIciently supplied. 



ON THE BEDS OF LIMESTONE AND CALCA- 

 REOUS EAKTH IN THE PEE DEE COUN- 

 TRY. 



From the Farmers' Gazette. 

 SocieUj mil, July 27, 1841. • 

 Yours ofthe 15th was duly received. In proceed- 

 ing to answer you, I must premise that 1 cannot 

 give any information worth publishing in the 

 Farmers' Gazette. It is known to many that ex- 

 tensive banks ofshells are Ibund on the south-west 

 side of the Pee Dee (rom Port's Ferry to Burch's 

 Ferry. These banks wherever the river washes the 

 bluff are lound Irom 10 to 12 leet below the surface 

 and irom 6 to 10 leet thick, and extend back in 

 places several hundred yards. At Burch's Ferry 

 the bank approaches the pure limestone of a 

 gray color; at Witherspoon's old place tlie lime- 

 stone or shell bank is harder and purer than it is 

 at the Bluffs above ; at Savage's, Giles', Erviu's 

 G. Witherspoon's and Allison's old places the 

 shell bank is a light yellow. It seems composed 

 of decayed shells, sand and earthy mailer. The 

 most common of the shells not decomposed are 

 flat pieces from 3 to 4 or 5 inches long and as 

 broad, and ^ of an inch thick. Not being a chon- 

 cologist I cannot give you the name of this shell. 

 It is evidently but the remnant of some large 

 shell fish, and as I have understood considered as 

 extinct. The next most prevailing shell is the 

 fluted clam of various sizes, periwinkles, &c. &c. 

 I do not know that any of the banks above men- 

 tioned have ever been analyzed. A bank of the 

 same appearance as the yellow bank ofthe Pee Dee 

 has been found on the plantation ofthe late John 

 Gibson, near Darlington Court-house, and I un- 

 derstood from him that he had sent a lump of the 

 shell bank to Dr. Cooper to analyze, and upon 

 analysis, he (bund it to contain, I think, about 70 

 percent, of pure lime. Large beds of limestone 

 are found at Legget's, and at Meyers', on or near 

 the road to Georgetown. Samples of this stone 

 or rock were pronounced by the late Col. Bland- 

 ing to be the burrstone. I understand Dr. Harllee 

 of Marion District has leased or purchased Mey- 

 ers' bed of stone, and has commenced burning 

 lime and offers it for sale at i§l per barrel. Large 

 beds of this limestone are found also on Willow 

 Creek, in the Marion District, 5 or 8 miles from 

 Myers'. From this quarry, old Captain William 

 Wilson, in old indigo times, burnt lime (or indigo 

 making, tanning, and brick work, &c. He had a 

 kiln to burn the rock in, but how constructed 1 

 cannot say. Mr. R. Gordon, who now owns a 

 part of this quarry or bed of limestone, told me 

 he had tried the old country plan of burning oys- 

 ter shells, and found it would not burn the rock 

 sufficient to decompose it. 



In the Carolina process ofmaking indigo, lime- 

 water was considered necessary to settle the color- 

 ing matter. My father at limes I know used the 

 yellow limestone rock, and burned it into lime. 



