202 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



promises well. It was the only wheat last year 

 that escaped the fly. 



The rye crop is now of little value — the oat, 

 though late seeded, is very good — clover will be 

 short, but timothy is very promising — corn may 

 be said to be in chancery — good counsel and hard 

 work may produce good results. 



Lime! lime! lime! is now my only cry. 

 I cannot get shells; my only chance is down the 

 canal to bring the rock and burn it myself. In my 

 single glass of wine, I drink "a calcareous resur- 

 rection to Virginia:" she will then cease to be old 

 Virginia. * * # 



[The early ripening of the kind of corn made by 

 our corresponaent, and probably the greater hardness 

 of its grain, (as the early kinds are always the hardest,) 

 served to make safe his early storing in such large 

 cribs. The ordinary corn of lower Virginia, in the 

 last very peculiar season, could not have been kept in 

 good condition under like circumstances.] 



ON THE NATURE, FORMATION, PROPERTIES 

 AND PRODUCTIONS OF ARGILL AC KOUS SOIL. 



By M. Puvis. 



Translated for the Farmer's Register, from the Jiu 

 nales de V^griculture Francaise. 



EDITORIAL, REMARKS. 



It is but little more than twelve months since we first 

 met with one of M. Puvis' publications — which one 

 (the Essay on Lime) was the latest which he had then 

 sent to the press. Since, we have devoted many pa- 

 ges of the Farmers' Register to translations from that 

 and other of his pieces, some of which were of much 

 earlier date, but which did not come under our view, 

 and probably had never reached this country, until 

 brought by our special order, and in consequence of 

 the high opinion formed of the author's later writings, 

 which had been seen in the last Nos. of the Annales. 

 In presenting these several pieces, it is hoped and be- 

 lieved that we have both gratified and informed 

 thousands of readers, (through the various re-publica- 

 tions that have been made,) and have done much to 

 diffuse the knowledge of the value of lime as manure, 

 and to encourage and promote its extensive application. 

 While we have heretofore frankly stated some strong 

 objections both to the matter and the manner of M. 

 Puvis' different essays, we think that all of them are 

 interesting to investigators of the nature of soils, and (he 

 action of calcareous manures, and highly valuable to 

 those who are but Uttle informed on those subjects, 

 and are seeking all the instruction that they need to 

 direct their practice. As to the main and most im- 

 portant opinions of M. Puvis, we could not do other- 

 wise than approve them — for it is remarkable how 

 closely they agree with our own, first advanced and 

 maintained (so far as was then known,) in the Essay 

 on Calcareous Manures. The two writers separated 

 by the ocean, and ignorant of each other's labors, and 

 even existence, were during the same course of lime 

 engaged in investigating the stime class of subjects, 



and arrived (though often by different proofs, or trains 

 of reasoning,) to the same results. The entire defi- 

 ciency of calcareous earth in natural poor soils — the 

 certainty of improving such soils by its application — 

 and the impossibility of enriching them profitably with- 

 out — the ucidily of such soils — the effect of liming or 

 marling a country to lessen or remove malaria, and its 

 consequence, autumnal diseases — all these views are 

 maintained by both writers — and each maintained 

 what he then thought was as novel and unsupported 

 by other testimony, as it was important to be made 

 known. 



The following piece of M. Puvis, though the latest 

 to reach us, in fact preceded most of what we have 

 heretofore had translated; and this piece, it seems, is 

 but an abstract or new form of an earlier publication, 

 which has not yet been seen. But though our read- 

 ing and publishing of the several articles has thus 

 been in nearly a reversed order to that of their original 

 appearance, the injury thereby sustained has not been 

 considerable, owing to a peculiarity in the manner or 

 form of all these several publications, which is 

 in general a great fault, but which in this case, 

 (and very often in other agricultural writings,) 

 is of much use to readers, however offensive to the 

 critic's eye. It is the repeating, in diflerent kindred ar- 

 ticles, the same descriptions or opinions whenever the 

 same subjects come under view. Thus the i)eculiar 

 qualities of the "argilo-silicious" soils, which are the 

 subject of the following article, have been described in 

 the Essay on Lime, and elsewhere, with sufficient dis- 

 tinctness to enable us to know them. Our inferences 

 in regard to them were stated in a note to the Essay on 

 Lime, (page 363, vol. III., Far. Reg.,) and this entire 

 article shows that those inferences were correct. In 

 fact, if M. Puvis had been investigating the nature, and 

 treating of the improvement, of the "ridge" lands of 

 lower Virginia, he could not have more correctly des- 

 cribed them, than he has done in describing soils in 

 Fi-ance. The dividing ridge or level between every 

 two rivei's, or tributary streams, in lower Virginia, is 

 precisely like the "argilo-silicieux plateaux" of M. 

 Puvis: remarkable for the same general features of 

 sterility — deficiency of calcareous earth — peculiar fit- 

 ness for calcareous manures — and for being more or 

 less subject to sickliness in autumn. As examples ex- 

 hibited are more impressive than general description, 

 it may be observed, that the stifiestkind of M. Puvis' 

 ''argilo-silicious" soil, (precisely the soil of ^'tristc So- 

 logne'" — ) is presented in the body of land in Prince 

 George county, which lies between Powell's Creek 

 andWard's Creek, both flowing into James River: that 

 most of the neighboring level ridge lands between 

 other streams, (and through which the mail road pass- 

 es) are examples of the medium texture : and that be- 

 low, in Surry, the ridges are more sandy, indeed very 

 light, yet still exhibiting the same general qualities. 

 Every county in lower Virginia (if not elsewhere) 

 will furnish abundant specimens of all these varieties 

 of texture. Tliough varying greatly as to the predo- 

 minance of sand or clay, there is, throughout, the same 

 general character. We were, long ago, forcibly struck 

 with this very uniform character of a great extent of 



