THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



609 



The marl is not here esteemed as a manure, pro- 

 bably because the soil is so sandy that the shelU 

 must decompose very slowly in it. By first apply- 

 ing larse (]uaiiiities ol' cliiy to it, and tl)p.i\ the 

 marl, no doubt very beneficial eliecis would re- 

 sult. 



To the south of Wilmington I noticed the marl 

 again on Little river, near its mouth, jiist over (he 

 boundary line in South Carolin;). The sliells 

 closely resemble those at Wilmington, the most 

 abiiDiiant being large Areas ; but they were all 

 tightly'cemented together by a ferruginous cement, 

 Ibrming a solid ledge on the edges ol' the water. 

 This is the larlhesl point to the south where 1 ob- 

 served this deposile ; but 1 was told it occurs ag tin 

 on the Waccamaw river. 



In treating ol the tertiary formations of our 

 country, I have preferred using the conventional 

 names adopted by Mr. Conrad, of upper, mediid, 

 and lower tertiary, to those of pliocene, miocene, 

 and eocene, applied to similar formations in Eu- 

 rope. The former merely indicate relative posi- 

 tion, and are therefore sufficient at present; the 

 latter imply a relative proportion, of courc^e not 

 very exact, of extinct and recent sliells ; and 

 though oufown formations may now each give 

 about the same proportion with the English form- 

 ations, still when two hours' work may discover 

 more than twenty undescribed species in one 

 locality, besides some recent species not- before 

 noticed in the formation ; and when our know- 

 ledge of the living shells of our coast is so im[)er- 

 fect, it certainly proves that the adoption of these 

 new names would now be hasty. It would be at 

 once faking it (or granted, (as it is certainly not 

 proved,) that our strata will be readily divisible 

 into the same three formations as those of Europe ; 

 and all difficulties, if any are hereaf'ier encounter- 

 ed, will be too apt to be made to bend or to be 

 neglected, for the sake of keeping to this favorite 

 but unproved system of classification. This sub- 

 ject, 1 hope, will be more fully discussed by Mr. 

 Conrad, and sustained by more complete details 

 than I am able lo furnish. 



At the locality last mentioned, near the bound- 

 ary line, are found through the fields singular de- 

 posites of'oyster .ohells, each extending over several 

 feet square and about ivvo feet deep. No account 

 is preserved of the time or cause of these collec- 

 tions. They were made centuries ago, probably 

 by the Indians. Corn does not grow well by 

 these heaps, at which I was rather surprised. 



There is a v/ell knov/n locality of ihe seconda- 

 ry limestone at the Eulaw Springs, near Nelson's 

 ferry over the Santee, in the western part of 

 Charleston district. The siriKingsimilarity of this 

 rock to that in Jones county, N. C, first attracted 

 my attention. Like it the limestone roee above 

 the surface in heavy ragged ledges, here at least 

 fifteen feet high ; it was of the same light ye'lovv 

 color, and contained similar fossil shells. Similar 

 springs too rise among the ledges of the rock, and 

 they contain the same recent shells, and water- 

 cresses in greater abundance. But the water, I 

 noticed, was lukewarm, and one of the largest of 

 the streams, after running only about fifty yards, 

 suddenly disappeared under the limestone, and 

 was no more seen. The rock does not contain a 

 great variety of fossil shells ; the most abundant 

 are some large Ostrese, of what species I know 

 not, the specimens being lost. On this account. 

 Vol. 1X.-60 



too, I cannot speak so decidedly as F wished to 

 have done ol' the quality of Ihe iiinesione, which 

 ouizht certainiy to be ol .sonie practical importance, 

 being on a river navignble by steamboals, and in 

 a region where lime bears a high [irice and wood 

 \s very cheap. A little enterprise and skill only 

 are requisite lo creaie an extensive business iiere 

 in the manufacture of lime. But though its good 

 effects as a manure force it upon the notice of 

 those who use the adjacent fields, eiill noanem|)ts 

 have been made to extend its use lariher than na- 

 ture has seen fit to spread the rock, and the calca- 

 reous deposites formed from it. 



So on ihe Edisio, in Colleton district, this rock is 

 equally available, and equally neglected ; and 

 though lime enough might be made on tliesetwo 

 streams to supply the whole of the eastern parts 

 of South Carolina and Georgia, at an expense 

 not exceeding fifieen cents a bushel, yet the iidia- 

 bitants prefer to import their lime fmrri Thomaston, 

 Maine, and pay at Charleston $2 per cask, or 

 wlten brought up to the neighborhood of ihese 

 vast quarries it sells lor ^3 per cask! In Ches- 

 ter county, Penn., while on the geological survey 

 of that state, I have seen lime made and sold lor 

 ten cents a bushel, where ihe natural laciiities are 

 no greater than here. And when on the same 

 business in Maine, and employed at Thomaston 

 in obtaining the statielics of the lime business, I 

 came to the conclusion that the southern stales 

 must be remarkably deficient in limestone; that 

 notv/ilbslanding the difficulties the Thomaston 

 people had to contend with, in the high price ol 

 iuel, a bad harbor, that frozen up one third ol the 

 year, and their remoteness, still they manaired to 

 monopolize the lime business of the A tiantic coast, 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, and up the Mississippi to 

 Natchez. The average cost of a ca?k of lime at 

 the wharves at Thomaston, was, as near as we 

 could estimate it, about seventy cents, and this 

 included twenty cents for the cask. But unfor- 

 tunately the term " cask" represents no definite 

 measure. By law it should hold " forty gallons," 

 five bushels, but every mason of whom I have 

 made inquiries, and who has measured them, says 

 their capacity is continually changing ; that most 

 of them coiitain less than a common flour barrel, 

 and that three bushels and a half is probably near 

 the averaye measure of their contents. Their 

 large size is made up by enormously ihick slaves, 

 and heads about an inch thick, and frequently 

 large empty spaces remain in the cask. Yet for 

 this meager amount of lime the people of South 

 Carolina are willing to pay a son* for which they 

 themselves might make lull eight times as much ; 

 and by thus rendering it cheap, the labor lost lo 

 their favorite crop would not be missed, when 

 thereby a bale of cotton to the acre would not be 

 considered a maximum product, nor turn ears of 

 corn to each of the widely separated hills a sub- 

 ject won by of remark. 



The prejudice of workmen — their not liking to 

 use a difiierent material from that they have been 

 accustomed to — is one reason why the Thomas- 

 ton lime has successfully competed with all other 

 lime made on the Atlantic coast. The name of 

 that is favorably known and deservedly so, and it 

 will sell when another equal to it from another 

 locality will not bring even a very inferior price. 

 There was a remarkable instance of this a short 

 time since in New York, eome excellent lime from 



