276 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



untrammellod by the obslacles that now so power- 

 I'ully inipcdo its progress, with a field wide and wa- 

 viniT with a luxuriant harvest open and inviting be- 

 fore her, will send abroad her genial and regenera- 

 ting influences, and render this the Paradise of 

 lands. 



DIFFERENT KFFECTS, COMPAnEP, OF THE 

 GHF.EN SAiVD, CALCAREOUS MARL, AND 

 THE MIXTURE OF BOTH, 



[We are much gratified in being able to present the 

 ibllowing practical statements upon a subject which is 

 not only mysterious in itself, and has as yet been inex- 

 plicable, but which has been rendered still more ob- 

 scure by all the mass of writings on the subject. Im- 

 perfect and defective as are the following statements, 

 if considered as dala on which to found a theory of the 

 action of green sand, they are the first which we have 

 seen, of undoubted authority, which throw much light 

 on the subject. Our correspondent generally and cor- 

 rectly discriminates between what are indeed three 

 manures of very different kinds, viz. : Green sand alone 

 — calcareous marl alone — and any mixture of the two. 

 These have been so generally confounded under the 

 one general name oi marl, that facts have been miscon- 

 strued, and therefore false deductions necessarily made, 

 even when there was no other cause for error. Our 

 general views on the difficulties of tliis subject, were 

 stated at page 86, vol. 4, and therefore will not be here 

 repeated. We will oidy request of our correspondent 

 that he will refer to those observations, and state what- 

 ever his experience may offer in confirmation, or in 

 contradiction, when he writes his promised continua- 

 tion. Almost every thing is yet to be learned respect 

 ing "green sand." 



It is inferred, from our correspondent's remarks, that 

 in all the extensive marlings on the borders of the Pa- 

 munky, the green sand has been largely intermix- 

 ed with the calcareous matter. On the contrary, all 

 the marlings referred to in the Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures, or that had been then executed or known by 

 the writer, were of calcareous marl alone, with the ex- 

 ception of the small portion mentioned (p. 48 2nd ed.) 

 as being dressed with what was called the "gypseous 

 marl" lying under Coggin's Point — which marl was 

 there treated as a substance of rare, peculiar, and val- 

 uable qualities, and which in fact is rich eocinc mail, 

 containing green sand as well as gypsum.] 



To tlie Editor of tlio Farmers' Register. 



Chericoke, King William Co. June 9lh, 1836. 

 Dear Sir : In your favor of the 24tli ultimo, you 

 request that I will give you my views respecting 

 green sand marl, for jmblication. As upon the 

 score of giving and receiving agricultural informa- 

 tion, and particularly upon Ihe subject of marls. I 

 am much your debtor, 1 feel disposed to comply 

 with your wishes: ifj indeed, any thing I can have 

 to say, may be thought worthy of the public no- 

 tice. And, indeed, 1 should not iiave waited your 

 request, had I thought that the results of my ex- 

 perience in the use of marls, would have at all been 

 interesting to any one, or have made one convert 

 lo its use— as there is no one more alive to the in- 



terest and welfare of his country than I am, or 

 more anxious for its agricultural improvement — 

 nor can any one be more satisfied of the utilitj^, 

 nay, the necessity there is, of the use of calcareous 

 manures with our soils, to enable us to arrive at a 

 profitable, much less a high grade of agricultural 

 improvement. 



Your views (as contained in your Essay on 

 Calcareous Manures,) respecting our soil, and the 

 nature of putrescent manuries, entirely accord with 

 my experience: and practical results, I look upon 

 as the only sure test of all theories. There is cer- 

 tainly no abiding principle of fertility in putrescent 

 manures alone, nor do I believe land can be car- 

 ried to more than a certain degree of fertility by 

 their use; but by the addition of calcareous matter, 

 1 think it would be difficult to affix limits to the de- 

 gree of iiroductiveness that may be arrived at. 

 You will doubtless say I am an enthusiast: well, 

 perhaps I may be somewhat sanguine in my tem- 

 perament, but zeal I think is a good fault in a far- 

 mer, particularly where it is tem[)ered with reason 

 and experience — and I shall say nothing in which I 

 am not warranted by my own observations of 

 cause and effect. And certain it is, that unless 

 agriculture can be carried to a much higher grade 

 of profit, than it has hitherto attained among us, 

 the Old Dominion mu.st be abandoned, sooner or 

 later, by at least the present occupants. But I 

 find I am fi\st getting off from the subject of your 

 inquiries, and must therefore rein in my pen. and 

 come back to the starting place, which was, I think, 

 my experience, or rather views, respecting the 

 green sand marl. 



JMy experience with the green sand is limited, 

 perhaps too much so to say any thing about it; but 

 the green sand marl I have been using for 4 or 5 

 years; indeed, all the marl on this river (Pamun- 

 ky) is of that character; different locations dificring 

 greatly, as to the quantities of the different ingre- 

 dients. Some of the locations contain a large per 

 centage of gypsum ; some are of gypsum and green 

 sand. Some contain the two former, with lime in 

 a goodly ratio. Some, perhaps much the largest 

 deposites, contain no gypsum, but about equal 

 quantities of green sand and lime, say 34 or 35 

 parts of each. What Professor Rogers calls the 

 pure green sand, contains but little lime, and no 

 gypsum; but you find interspersed among it all, as 

 li\r down as I have gone into the lower, or third 

 stratum (reckoning downwards) of the tertiary for- 

 mation, more or less of shells, and differing from 

 the stratum above it in the shells being generally 

 whole, but easily broken with the fingers. Some 

 very large and perfect specimens of the cardiia 

 planicosta, and many very minute shells of a (Wfl'e- 

 rent species, but also perfiict — whereas the stratum 

 above it is exceedingly rich in lime, containing 

 perhaps 60 or 70 per cent, of shells, almost all de- 

 composed, or in a state of lime, with much green 

 sand. In the most abundant deposites, above re- 

 lerred to, containing about equal parts of green 

 sand and lime, the jiarticles of green sand are about 

 as large as fine gunpowder, which when taken on 

 the point of a knife and marked on the nail, pro- 

 duce a fine verdigris color; whereas in the higher 

 <]ualities of green sand, the particles are too fine to 

 detach. The former, I suppose, is what is called 

 the "gun-powder marl." 



I met lately with Professor H. D. Rogers of the 

 Pennsylvania University, at one of the banks on 



