420 



FARINIERS' REGISTER 



[No 7 



cent matters usually left in the streets of a town 

 filone, serve to make the mud scraped i'rom them 

 a valuable manure; yet the principal part ol' the 

 bulk of street mud is composed merely ol' barren 

 c'ay, brought in ujion the wheels of wa<xons li'om 

 the coiuitry. Such a cover of calcareous earth 

 would be the mostefiectual absorbent and preserv- 

 er of putrescent matter, as well as the clipapest 

 mode of keeping a town always clean. There 

 would be less noxious or offensive effluvia, than is 

 generated in spite of all the ordinary means of pre- 

 vention ; and by scraping up and removing the 

 marl afier it had combined with and secured 

 enough of putrescent matter, a compost would be 

 obtained for the use of the surrounding country, so 

 rich and so abundant that its use would repay a 

 large part if not the whole of the expense incurred 

 in its production. After twenty years of such a 

 course, the surrounding liirms might be capable 

 of returning to the town a ten-lbld increase surplus 

 product." 



Those who arc habituated to breathe the pure 

 air of the country, become very sensible of the 

 noxious exhalations of the streets when they visit 

 our cities, especially in the morning in hot clear 

 weather before the wind rises, as it generally lioes, 

 in the forenoon, ijut some loculilirs are offensive 

 at all seasons of the year. This is the case with 

 slaughter houses ; and it would-be no unreasona- 

 ble stretch of prerogative for our city and village 

 authorities to insist on the abatement of such nui- 

 sances by a liberal application of marl or quick 

 lime. The former is the best tor the following 

 reasons: "Quick lime forms new combinations 

 with putrescent substances and in thus combining 

 throws of] effluvia, which though different tiom the 

 products of putrescent matter alone, are still disa- 

 greeable and ofli^nsive. Mild lime on the contra- 

 ry, absorbs and preserves every thing.'"* 



It may now be proper to flirnish some evidence 

 of the salubrious influences of lime in the soil. 



" My principal farm," says E. Ruffin, "until 

 within some lour or five years, was suliject in a 

 remarkable degree to the common mild autumnal 

 diseases of our low country. Whether it is owing 

 to marling, or other unknown causes, these bilious 

 diseases have since become comparatively rare. Nei- 

 ther does my opinion in this respect, nor the facts 

 that have occurred on my farm, stand alone. 

 Some other persons are equally convinced of this 

 change on other lands as well as on mine." 



He afterwards says in 1835 — "The foregoing 

 was first published in the Farmer's Register for 

 July, 1833. It is proper here to add, tliat the two 

 autumns that have since passed, have brought no 

 circumstances to weaken the opinions advanced, 

 and many that have served on the contrary to 

 Btrengthen them." 



A correspondent of the Farmers' Register says, 

 " The streets of Mobile are generally unpaved ; 

 and as a substitute for stone oi; gravel, which is 

 not to be obtained, shells which have long been 

 untenanted, are strewn over the carriage ways 

 and side walks to the depth of several inches. 

 These soon become a firm mass, and form a 

 smooth surface, so as to resend^le a M'Adamized 

 road. The shells which are of various kinds and 

 generally small, are raked up in great quantities 

 in the shallow lakes, and brought to the city in 



Essay on Calcareous Mannres. 



large lighters. Mobile is much more healthy now 

 than it was before this plari of improving the streets 

 was adopted.''' 



Another correspondent of the same paper, sub- 

 sequently says, " A few days airo I saw a near 

 connection who has just returned fiom a settle- 

 ment which he has made on the Black Warrior, 

 about fifty miles below Tuscaloosa. He spoke of 

 the fiict that Mobile had become much more healthy 

 within afeic years, without however assigning any 

 cause. Jle also represented a very large portion 

 of that country between Tuscaloosa and Mobile, 

 as calcareous, and abounding in shell marl or soft 

 limestone. He says the country, if not more 

 healthy, is certainly not more sickly than this, [the 

 middle and hilly region of Virginia.] and that it 

 appears to be generally understood there that the 

 marl preserves it from disease.'''' 



If appears from a letter dated at Mobile and 

 published in the Farmers' Register, that until the 

 year 1827 it was "counted unheaiihy," not only 

 because j'cllnw fever had "raged like a pesti- 

 lence" at difi'erent times, but also on account of 

 bilious fevers. Va.nous improvements however, 

 were in progress, such as raising the streets above 

 high tides, erecting brick buildings, &c. The 

 writer says, in reference to these improvements, 

 "Since 1827 the effect on the comfort and health 

 of the place is abundantly obvious. Every street 

 is shelled — all the alleys — many of the yards — all 

 the public ware-house yards, and the tavern yards, 

 are shelled — several of the streets are Bhelled for 

 half a mile back, and one that meets a leading 

 road is shelled over a mile — many of the cross 

 streets are shelled, and ere long every street in the 

 city will be shelled — it is indeed the settled policy. 

 Mobile has been uniformly healthy since 1827. 

 Last fall and this summer, while the Cholera ra- 

 ged so fatally in New Orleans, Mobile was visit- 

 ed with very iew cases, and they excited little or 

 no alarm. The deaths were four or five." 



In another communication to the Editor of the 

 Farmers' Register, it is said. "There is another 

 lact connected with this part of the suljject that 

 strongly corroborates your views regarding the 

 healthy action of calcareous earths on putrescent 

 matter. The fact is that the prairies have proved 

 to be the healthiest part of the state, notwithstand- 

 ing the water is to all appearance bad, and is very 

 unpleasant to the taste," 



A correspondent of the Southern Agriculturist, 

 in rei'eniug to the prairies of Alabama, writes as 

 follows : " I think the country more healthy than 

 South Carolina, owing in part to its being more 

 high, dry, and broken, and more under the influ- 

 ence of the strong trade winds ; but there must be 

 a further reason, because I have seen local causes 

 enough to produce sickness here, in spite of the 

 general causes of salubrity. Families reside with 

 security on their prairie plantations all summer, in 

 the midst of extensive clearings of rich land. / 

 think it must come from some purification of atmos- 

 phere arising from the immense quantity of lime on 

 and near the surface of the soil. The other lands 

 in that country undoM- similar circumstances, are 

 not more healthy than in South Carolina." 



We shall now" present extracts li-om the " Essay 

 on the use of Lime as a Manure." After reii^r- 

 ring to emanations which attack the health of the 

 inliabiiants," xM. Puvis says, "This unhappy ef- 

 fect appears almost no where in calcareous re- 



