62 



Maryland Marl. 



Vol. X. 



by me at Mr. Cushing's. I told him they 

 could not produce any perfect fruit. He 

 assured me they had never failed. A few 

 feet distant I found another bed, in which 

 nearly all were staminate plants, and which 

 he told me was the Hudson. I pointed out 

 to him in that bed, male plants, amply suffi- 

 cient to impregnate all his Kean. He then 

 observed, to be certain, he had planted a bed 

 of them separate from all others. These I 

 examined, and we agreed to be bound by 

 the result. He wrote me one montli there- 

 after, that the fruit in the first bed shown 

 me, was all perfect, whilst the separate bed 

 had not a single perfect fruit. 



I imported the same variety from England, 

 under the name of Kean's seedling. It is a 

 hardy vine, a great bearer, the fi-uit large 

 and well flavoured. It is a much more 

 valuable variety than the genuine staminate 

 Kean, which produces a partial crop only, of 

 large fine fruit; and a late English writer 

 says it is now but little cultivated, being 

 found unproductive. It is a valuable kind 

 for forcing, but of little value for general 

 culture. N. Longworth. 



Newark, N. J., July 10th, 1845. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Maryland Marl. 



Mr. Editor, — Having had some experi- 

 ence in the application of green-sand marl 

 to poor and worn-out, and thrown-out, lands 

 for the last four years, I have thought that 

 as I have benefited by the experience of 

 others, others might possibly have some 

 claim to be benefited by mine. I purchased 

 a farm of 400 acres — 300 arable — which 

 was most deplorably out of order, and situ- 

 ated near the head of Sassafras, Maryland. 

 I got possession in January, 1840. I gave 

 $8,500 for it. I went immediately to work 

 and surveyed the farm, laid off, and fenced 

 the fields, garden, yards, lanes, &-c. Built 

 a large barn 82 by 45 feet, with a building 

 in front 48 by 27 feet, for cribs, horse-pow- 

 ers, &c., and roofed and repaired the house. 

 These things together consumed the first 

 two years. Having made these preliminary 

 remarks, I will now try in my bungling way 

 to give you some of my experience in the 

 application of marl, and if you think proper 

 to publish it, you can do so — if not, commit 

 it to the flames, and no harm will be done. 

 Having been a subscriber to the Cabinet 

 nearly from its commencement, I read much 

 of the wonderful eflfects of marl in New 

 Jersey, and in Delaware, my native State. 

 Being aware there was something like it on 

 the farm in question, although I had little or 



no faith in it, as my neighbours there said, I 

 concluded to give it a fair trial, for the 

 former owner, Charles Thomas, Esq,, had 

 used a few loads a number of years before 

 as I was informed, and with good effect. In 

 the summer of 1840, I sowed the headlands 

 of the corn-field with buckwheat, and ap- 

 plied one ox cart-load of marl, spread evenly 

 on the ground immediately afler the buck- 

 wheat was sown and iiarrowed, and to my 

 astonishment, before the buckwheat had 

 been up two weeks, I could see very plainly 

 the difference where the marl was and was 

 not put. Well, sir, this raised my curiosity 

 much, and set me to examining the accounts 

 of it in the Cabinet — how it was applied; 

 what quantity to the acre, &.C. In the fol- 

 lowing winter, 1840 and. '41, we opened a 

 pit and covered about 15 acres of young 

 clover, at the rate of two to three hundred 

 bushels per acre, and its action was so sud- 

 den, that it showed very plainly immediate- 

 ly on the opening of the spring ; and when 

 harvest came there was a good swarth, and 

 some places lodged, to the very spot where 

 we left off" marling; and where there was 

 no marl there was little or no clover, al- 

 though all was well plastered. Well, now 

 I began to think I had found a gold mine 

 indeed ! Ah ! said some of my neighbours, 

 it will help your buckwheat and clover, but 

 it will do nothing else any good. My an- 

 swer was as every experienced man's would 

 have been — if it will make clover grow lux- 

 uriantly, that is all I want. Only enable 

 me to raise plenty of clover, and I will risk 

 the wheat and other crops. I began now to 

 think about going to work at the marl in 

 earnest, and I first thought if I could cover 

 a field every year at slack times, we would 

 do pretty well ; but I soon found these slack 

 times never came, so I hired a man to re- 

 move the earth off" the top, and a second to 

 drive a two-horse team, which was appropri- 

 ated to hauling marl altogether, and in about 

 two years we had our farm well marled all 

 over, and some of it a second time ; and the 

 effects have been almost incredible. In the 

 summer of 1842, I broke up part of an old 

 sedge field, that was so poor that it had not 

 been tilled for a number of years, gave it a 

 top-dressing of marl — let it lay until Sep- 

 tember — stirred it again — sowed Mediterra- 

 nean wheat — harrowed it in, and I cut a 

 good crop the next harvest; and a good crop 

 of clover the succeeding harvest; and the 

 next, this last harvest, another crop of wheat 

 much better than the first, without any 

 other application except plaster, and so we 

 go ahead. I raised last year about 1,600 

 bushels of wheat, and about the same of 

 corn, and clover in abundance; and this 



