No. 5. 



Lime and Marl. 



141 



The committee had no opportunity to trst 

 the merits of this plough, and therefore ah 

 stiiined from fjivinqf to it any special sane 

 tion — they would however submit, whether 

 it would not he advisable for the society to 

 hold it in view till the springs season, when 

 its utility can fairly be put to trial. 



The sausai^c ctdttr is a neat and useful 

 invention, seemingly so appropriate and 

 unique, that tlie committee awarded to its 

 inventor, George Hydrick, the sum of five 

 dollars. 



The committee beg leave to offer the fol- 

 lowing resolutions : — 



Ihsd/ved — 'I'hat the committee on imple- 

 ments of husbandry be continued, until the 

 stated meeting in July next, for the purpose 

 of further inspecfiti:^ of Hernly's double share 

 corn plough, with powers similar to those en- 

 trusted to them at the late exhibition. 



Resolved — That the sum of five dollars be 

 appropriated as a premium to George Hyd- 

 rick, for his useful invention in sausage cut- 

 ting. Ml which is respectfully submitted. 

 James Gowen, 

 Daniel Comfort, 

 Isaac W. Roberts. 

 November 6, 1S3S. 



For ihe Farmers' Cabinet. 

 I/ime aud Marl. 



Providence has fiirnisiied means, let man make tho 

 application of them. 



Lime and marl appear to be designed as 

 the great regenerators of the soil of this 

 country, and the canals and rail roads made 

 and making will facilitate the dispersion of 

 these most important agents of agricultural 

 improvement to every part of the United 

 States. The use of these fertilizing ma- 

 nures has increased within the last ten years, 

 at least one hundred fold in the old settle- 

 ments, where the soil had very generally 

 been under the process of an exhausting 

 system of cropping, without making adequate 

 returns of nutriment for plants, from a very 

 early period in the history of our countrj'. 



Much land naturally of a good quality, 

 and more that had been less favored by 

 natural causes, had either failed to yield an 

 adequate return for the annual labor be- 

 stowed upon it, or had ceased to be cultiva- 

 ted at all, until attention was turned to the 

 regenerating effects of lime and marl. — 

 Since which, as their application has pro- 

 gressed, the surface of whole districts of 

 partially worn-out lands, have suddenly 

 changed from a melancholy sterility to the 

 most pleasing and animating fertility and 

 productiveness. 



New Jersey has derived vast advantages 

 from the copious application of both of these 

 mineral manures ; and the industrious and 



enterprising farmers of that thriving state 

 are annually reapimjr rich returns from their 

 early, and still increasing efforts, to apply 

 more and more of these precious ingredients 

 to their kind and easily cultivated soil. In 

 numerous instances land that had long been 

 considered too sterile to be worthy of tillage, 

 has been brought into a state of fertility by 

 the application of lime and marl, so as to 

 rival iu point of productiveness the most 

 favored soil in the slate. 



It is believed that the cultivated and im- 

 proved parts of New Jersey, at this period, 

 are worth three times what they would have 

 commanded, previous to the general intro- 

 duction of lime and marl as resuscitating 

 agents in agricultural processes. The use 

 of them, in every known instance, has so far 

 exceeded previous expectation, as to stimu- 

 late even the indolent and careless to re- 

 gard their use with the most pleasing antici- 

 pations. 



The traveler in passing through the san- 

 dy and formerly sterile plains of this state, 

 is astonished to see large herds of fine cattle 

 feeding in luxuriant pastures, where twenty 

 years airo there was not grass enough grown 

 to justify the expense of an inclosure. 



The districts where marl abounds, and 

 lime is easily and cheaply procured, by 

 means of the tide waters that pass far into 

 the interior, are so rapidly advancing in pro- 

 ductiveness, that they will soon take rank 

 with the most fertile lands in the eastern 

 part of the United States. 



The state of Delaware and the eastern 

 shore of Maryland have begun the work of 

 resuscitation, with the same agents, and so 

 far as it has progressed, with like success. 

 They possess abundant supplies of the green 

 sand marl and marine shells, and are well 

 situated for procuring stone lime, on terms 

 that will insure its profitable application to 

 a most generous soil, that has heretofore 

 been most unkindly treated, in the attempt 

 at perpetual cropping without making any 

 adequate returns. 



The example has now been set, and the 

 experiment fairly made, clearly demonstrat- 

 ing the greatly increased profits and advan- 

 tages arising from the copious application 

 of the great regenerating agents lime and 

 marl to the worn out soil ; and the farmers 

 on the peninsula who study their true inter- 

 ests, are determined to move forward boldly 

 and firmly, to regain the ground they had 

 lost, by neglecting so long to use the means 

 within their power of renovating their once 

 fertile, but now worn-out farms. 



Pennsylvania is destitute of the green 

 sand or marl, but she possesses within her 

 borders inexhaustible beds of the best lime- 

 stone, and these are so dispersed through 



