300 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



any other section of our country. It is full time 

 that he should learn to ap[)reciate them himself. 



REaiARKS ON PROFESSOR DUCATEL S GEOLO- 

 LOGICAL SURVEY OF THE EASTERN SHORE 

 OF flIARYLAND. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Eastern Shore, Maryland, ? 

 12//i July, 1836. 5 



The improvement of our condition, has become 

 a mailer of very serious import, to the farmers of 

 the Eastern Shore. Many of us are much dis- 

 heartened, and we have received no great encour- 

 agement from the reports of our geologist. Profes- 

 sor Ducatel. If he be right, that the lands we 

 have heretofore considered the most valuable, "are 

 best adapted to the growth of Indian corn," per- 

 haps emigration to the feilile regions of the far 

 west is our best plan, though at the hazard of being 

 taken for abolitionists and gamblers, as we descend 

 the river, and falling within the jurisdiction of 

 Judge Lynch, a gentleman whose acquaintance 

 we do not at all desire to cultivate. Men who ex- 

 ercise their minds in deep research and profound 

 enquiry, rarely attend much to the common inter- 

 ests and concerns of life. The Canon Recupero 

 passed much of his life on Mount Etna, and had 

 formed some subtle theories as to its age and (br- 

 mation; but its capacity and suitableness for pro- 

 duction, pei-haps never entered into the range of 

 his speculations. Professor Ducatel's inquiries 

 were too much directed to the bowels of the earth, 

 to pay much attention to the sudace — minerals 

 and marl seem to have been his ruling fancy. A 

 little attention and a little instruction, of which he 

 was entirely in the way, Avould have taught him 

 that much of the soil which stands condemned by 

 him as unsuitable to the growth of wheat, "and 

 particulariy adapted to Indian corn," consists of a 

 fine chocolate colored loam, with a red clay bot- 

 tom, and when under proper improvement and in 

 a good state of cultivation, is equally adapted to 

 wheat and Indian corn. The station of a geolo- 

 gist appointed by the State, is one of high confi- 

 dence; lais opinions of the character and capabili- 

 ties of our country, abroad, hold an official weight, 

 and ought to have been formed b}^ his own obser- 

 vation, or the information of men in whom reli- 

 ance could have been placed. This would have 

 saved him from the propagation of the error, that 

 our stiff white clay lands are the most valuable. 

 The Professor would have found on the Eastern 

 Shore, a concurrence of opinion, that they are not 

 naturally fertile, but prone to the production of 

 what is called here, poverty grass. If lands of 

 this description be well ditched and highly ma- 

 nured, in a favorable season, they will produce a 

 heavy crop of wheat; but they are not kind to the 

 growth of valuable grasses, which, in all flirming 

 countries, is the life ot agriculture. The late Col. 

 Edvyard Lloyd of Talbot, whose memory is dear 

 to his friends for qualities much higher than " his 

 elegant hosi)itality, " held a large estate in Miles 

 Rlvei neck — it is bounded on one side by Wye River. 

 Chew's Island is directly opposite, and the land 

 on the river fields of the late colonel's estate, cor- 

 respond with the soil of Chew's Island. In the 

 middle of the neck, there is a large portion of 

 clayey lands, white, etiffj and tenacious: these 



lands he brought to a high state of product by lime 

 and other manures, and extensive and laborious 

 ditching; but he always esteemed his lands on the 

 river the most valuable, both lor wheat and Indian 

 corn. William Strickland, an English gentle- 

 man, (and I suspect a scientific agriculturist,) in- 

 tending, in the year 1796, to visit the United States, 

 received from the British Board of Agriculture 

 certain queries, which he answered on his return. 

 He relates, that for one-half of Chew's Island, £7 

 14s. per acre had been ofiered, and refused ; andy 

 at that period, he states, the piece of land on the 

 Monocacy, in Frederick county, now one of the 

 most valuable districts in Maryland, at £4 14s. 

 Yet Professor Ducatel esteems the lands on Chew's 

 Island, and those of the same quality on the 

 Eastern Shore, as those best adapted to the growth 

 of Indian corn. When the Professor shall have 

 mixed a little more agriculture with his chemistry, 

 he will change his opinion. Chew's Island, and 

 many other lands of the same quality, had been 

 greatly exhausted by neglect and imprudent agri- 

 culture ; but they are indigenous to white clover, 

 and they are capable of producing red abundantly 

 with the application of gypsum ; and by the addi- 

 tion of marl, they can, in a ^e\v years, be brought 

 into a state of great fertility. On this subject, I 

 speak from experience. 



We have certainly many barren lands on the 

 Eastern Shore, some of them sandy in the extreme ; 

 but for the extent of country, not greater than the 

 steril hills and mountains of Lancaster, York, 

 Cumberiand, and Franklin counties, in Pennsyl- 

 vania. Those of Caroline, on the east side of the 

 Choptank, are perhaps among the worst. Yet Pro- 

 fessor Ducatel found them "astonishingly produc- 

 tive of Indian corn." He had the rashness to re- 

 commend the introduction of palma christi; had the 

 good people abandoned corn, and taken to palma 

 christi, and the crop had succeeded, it would have 

 deluged Baltimore in castor oil; had it failed, they 

 might, with good cause, have regretted that Mary- 

 land had appointed a geologist, fresh from the city; 

 and some sufierer, smarting under his los?, might 

 have applied "empirical" to the scheme, a term 

 equally odious to doctors and philosophers, and 

 which none but an angry, or disappointed man, 

 would ever extend to Professor Ducatel. Though 

 I combat some of his opinions, I do it in the spirit 

 of kindness : so far from detracting from his merits, 

 I avail myself of this opportunity to proclaim them. 

 When he first appeared among us, and we were 

 told he was our geologist, and had come to dis- 

 cover the hidden treasures of our country, it pro- 

 duced that shyness and diffidence which the un- 

 learned always feel for the wise; but his good 

 manners and courteous address soon put us at ease. 

 He talked the language of the country, not of the 

 schools, and was communicative, liimiliar, and a 

 little complimentary: he made some valuable dis- 

 coveries, and excited a spirit of inquiry which has 

 led to many more ; and I speak the language of 

 sincerity, not compliment, when I say the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland has derived solid benefits from 

 the labors of Professor Ducatel. 



STEAM PLOUGH. 



Some experiments were tried on Friday week 

 at Red Moss, near Bolton, in the presence of Mr. 



