354 



Observations on Calcareous Manures, dfC. 



Vol. VIII. 



so that it might not shine upon other people. 

 All he can be sure of, in this case, is to keep 

 himself in the dark. A liberal and intelli- 

 gent mind perceives at once, that the light 

 which his knowledge or improvements shed 

 upon others, is always reflected back upon 

 himself. — Cdlman's Agricultural Tour. 



Observations on the Action of Calcare- 

 ous Manures, and their Practical Ap- 

 plication and Effects. 



Previous to the commencement of my 

 examination of the marls of South Carolina, 

 there had been but very few attempts to 

 profit by their application as manure. It 

 would be both a needless and ungrateful 

 task to inquire into the causes of this strange 

 and general neglect of such wide spread and 

 easily available resources for fertility and 

 riches — and of disregard and ignorance of 

 truths generally known and acted upon in 

 other regions far less blessed in these re- 

 sources, and in the capability of profiling by 

 their use, than lower South Carolina. It is 

 enough here to state, that such was the 

 general neglect of calcareous manures, and 

 general want of efficient information as to 

 their value. Many individuals, indeed, had 

 made very small and mostly improper appli- 

 cations of marl, and a few of lime, and 

 which were as loose and inaccurate as expe- 

 riments, as they were ill-directed to obtain 

 the best results as manure. And a few in- 

 dividuals presented more marked and meri- 

 torious exceptions, in having within the last 

 few years made much larger applications, 

 and having reaped more or less appreciable 

 and admitted profits therefrom. Among 

 these, the oldest or the largest operators, 

 and, as they deemed themselves, also suc- 

 cessful marlers, besides those already men- 

 tioned, were Mr. Darby, of Orangeburgh, 

 Dr. J. S. Palmer and Col. S. J. Palmer, of 

 Charleston district, Dr. Robert Gourdin, of 

 Georgetown district, and Gen. James H 

 Hammond, of Silver BluflT, Barnwell. Re^ 

 ports of the applications of thq four last 

 named gentlemen have been recently pub- 

 lished, and their favourable results stated. 

 But the total amount of these, added to all 

 other applications of marl and lime made in 

 South Carolina previously to 1843, it is be- 

 lieved, fell short of 500 acres. It would 

 furnish an interesting and most useful statis- 

 tical document, if the legislature would 

 hereafter require the extent of each plant- 

 er's applications of marl and lime, for every 

 successive year, to be ascertained and re- 

 corded by the tax collectors; and, a ievf 

 years hence, also the then and thereafter 

 estimated increased product of the improve- 



ments thereby made. Such statements, con- 

 tinued, and published regularly year after 

 year, would exhibit an amount of newly di- 

 rected labour, and of newly created agricul- 

 tural wealth, beyond any present conception 

 of the effects; and the exhibition would 

 stimulate the further exertion and increase, 

 more than any other possible mode of con- 

 veying instruction, or of urging the pro- 

 priety and profit of using calcareous ma- 

 nures. Nearly all of the few applications 

 of marl, or of lime, which have heretofore 

 been made, have failed of early or satisfac- 

 tory effect, or for so long as observed for 

 effects, because of the improper mode of 

 application ; which was as usual, with pu- 

 trescent manures, by burying the marl under 

 the " list," and thereby avoiding, and indeed 

 preventing all intermixture of the manure 

 with the soil, which is essential to its opera- 

 tion. 



Considering the great variations and de- 

 grees of fertility of cultivated soils, and the 

 important bearing of such differences on the 

 profits of the cultivators, it is strange that 

 so little attention has been given to the 

 causes, or of care to avoid the worst and 

 obtain the best effects. Every proprietor 

 knows, that the profit of cultivation is much 

 greater on rich than on poor ground. But 

 very few have estimated how much greater 

 is the profit; and nowhere, within the sphere 

 of my observation, are the prices of lands 

 properly graduated, in proportion to their 

 fertility and true productive value. If pro- 

 perly estimated, it would be manifest that 

 poor land, for cultivation, if to remain poor, 

 would be dear as a gift, and its culti- 

 vation the most costly of all. Yet, the 

 greater number of cultivators of such soils, 

 are content to remain in that condition, 

 without making an eftbrt, and scarcely in- 

 dulging a hope of improving their fields and 

 their profits. 



It is not the less remarkable, that the 

 more sanguine and enterprizing cultivators, 

 who aim and hope to improve, seldom inquire 

 into the causes and manner of the operation 

 designed, and therefore, most naturally, sel- 

 dom succeed in their design. To apply the 

 ordinary putrescent manure, is generally the 

 sole means attempted or thought of; and if 

 on poor and bad soils, in the race between 

 exhaustion and new fertilization, the latter 

 is invariably left far behind. 



It is a universally acknowledged truth, 

 that what is needed to make soil most pro- 

 ductive, are such ingredients as will supply, 

 in sufficient abundance, the food of plants. 

 Growing plants draw from the soil by their 

 roots, and are nourished by the dissolved 

 parts of nearly all putrescent matters, either 



