26 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



VOL. 1. 



Marl— Its iVature and Effects. 



The following extract from Professor Ro- 

 gers' late Geographical Report, will give our 

 agricultural readers some more distinct idea of 

 this remarkable, and recently talked of ma- 

 nure, which abounds in Monmouth and other 

 counties of New Jersey. 



Marl, or green mineral, loses nothing of 

 its potency by a long exposure, even of years, 

 to water and the atmospliere; in other words, 

 it is not dissolved, or decomposed, or changed 

 by the ordinary atmospheric agents which re- 

 act so powerfully upon many other minerals, 

 and consequently we are to regard it is nearly 

 tact, with it to effect it decomposition, by the 

 vital power of their organs, and imbibe a por- 

 tion of some of its constituents. 



" Mr. Wooley manured a piece of land in 

 the proportion of two hundred loads of good 

 stable manure to the acre, applying upon an 

 adjacent tract of the same soil, his marl in 

 the ratio of about twenty loads per acre. 

 The crops which were clover and timothy, 

 were much the heaviest upon the section 

 which had received the marl ; and there was 

 this additional fact greatly in favor of the fossil 

 manure, over the putrescent one, that the soil 

 enriched by it, was entirely free of weeds, 

 while the stable manure rendered its own 

 crop very foul. 



"This being an experiment, an extrava- 

 gantly large dressing of manure was em 

 ployed, but not exceeding the usual average 

 application, more than twenty loads of marl 

 surpassed what was necessary for it. 



" Experience has already shown that land 

 once amply marled, retains its fertility with 

 little diminution, for at least ten or twelve 

 years,if care be had not to crop it too severely ; 

 while, with all practical precautions, the sta- 

 ble manure must be renewed at least three 

 times in that interval, to maintain in the soil 

 a corresponding degree of vigor. 



" The high and deservedly hiijh name, 

 which the Squancum Marl now boasts, was 

 an inducement to me to subject it to chemical 

 examination with special care and rigor. In 

 external aspect, it differs in no respect from 

 many other marls of the State, and chemi- 

 cally studied, I do not find it to depart very 

 materially from several others in the propor- 

 tion of its constituents, though it does most 

 certainly possess an amount of potash in its 

 composition not a little astonishing. — Others, 

 however, seem to have nearly as much. 



"At the pits, which are very extensive, 

 the marl is sold at the rate of ',M^ cents the 

 load. 



"It is transported by wagons to a distance, 

 in some directions, of 20 mile.s, and retailed ; 

 when hauled that far, at the rate of 10 or 12 



cents a bushel— • being very profitably spread 

 upon the soil in the proportion of 2.5 or even 

 20 bushels to the acre. The fact that so 

 small an amount of this marl is found effica- 

 cious to the soil, which, after two or three 

 dressings, is permanently improved, and to a 

 high pitch, by it, furnishes me one considera- 

 tion for supposing that too generally the marl 

 is spread with a prodigality surpassing all the 

 necessities of the land. 



"A specimen of the marl from Thorp's 

 lowest layer yielded me, after reiterated 

 trials, uniformly about the following, for its 

 composition : 



Silieia 43,40 



Protoxide of iron 21,60 



Alumina ". 6,40 



Lime 10,40 



Potash 14,48 



Water 4,40 



99,68 in 100 

 grains. 



In connexion with the foregoing extracts 

 we add a few facts and experiments collected 

 from the gentlemen whose names are used : — 



Messrs. Tunis, and .Tohn B. Forman say, 

 that they have used Squancum Marl at the 

 rate of 100 bushels to the acre, on very poor, 

 worn out, cold clay land ; the product of the 

 first year was 30 bushels of buckwheat to the 

 acre — and the second year (it being sowed 

 the year before with clover and herd) it cut a 

 ton or more of good hay per acre, after which 

 abo'it 100 bushels of marl per acre were 

 scattered over the seed, and it now yields two 

 tons of-good hay to the acre. 



They have also resuscitated mowing 

 ground after it had become too poor to pro- 

 duce a crop, by spreading 100 bushels of 

 marl per acre over the sod, and the effect was 

 to mellow the soil, and produce two tons of 

 hay to the acre ; the hay produced was of a 

 superior quality, and free from weeds. One 

 hundred bushels of marl to the acre of land, 

 so poor as to have been considered useless, 

 will raise a crop of from 12 to 20 bushels of 

 rye per acre, and leave a fine sod of white 

 clover. From three pints to two quarts of 

 marl per hill of potatoes (the hills three feet 

 apart on poor ground) has produced from 200 

 to 2.50 bushels per acre. 



They have found the marl a superior ma- 

 nure for turncps and garden truck in general. 

 The effect of marling lands planted with 

 apple trees, has an astonishing effect in im- 

 proving the trees and fruit. They have known 

 marl to be spread on a bog meadow, and to 

 cause double the quantity of superior hay to 

 be produced. A neighbor of theirs, a few 

 years since, sowed out of a basket, about 60 

 bushels of marl, on three or four acres of very 



