THE USE OF MARL NEAR FREDERICKSBURG. 63 



fertilizing power if applied to such lands without cultivation. Tliis, I tliink. is an error, as 

 will be clearly shown by the result of the experiment which T will proceed to detail : 



In the month of February, 1846, five hundred bushels of blue or green sand marl were 

 scattered on a measured acre of land, wliich was covered with a gi-owth of broom-grass, 

 known to be alike the badge of poverty, and the memorial of mal-treatmeut in bygone 

 days. 



On this land, in March following, three gallons of clover seed were scattered, (red clover,) 

 and in the month of June, 1846, the clover was found to be in a thriving condition, bunches 

 of it having reached the hight of 28 inches in less than three months after the seed was sown. 

 And now (June 12th, 1847,) it has complete possession of the soil, and after having been 

 much injured by a long and severe drouth, that portion of it that has gone to bloom is from 

 15 to 20 inches high. As I did not wish my first experiment to prove abortive from drouth, 

 I used nearly double as much seed as would, under ordinary circumstances,, be requisite. 

 Two gallons to the acre would be an abundance. This laud has not had the plow, hoe or 

 spade to operate on it for nearly 20 years. Now it seems to me that the result of this expe- 

 riment shows conclusively that lands similar to this (which are abundant in Eastern Virginia), 

 having a supply oi bine marl near them, may be converted mto rich grazing lands, without 

 subjecting them to a previous succession of cleansing crops, and thus the farmer could make 

 ample provision for his cattle and other animals, without grazing lands devoted to wheat, 

 corn, &.C. 



The cost of restoring such land as that mentioned above to fertility, by marling and apply- 

 ing clover-seed, would be from five to seven dollars per acre, and this caimot be considered 

 ' paying too dear for the whistle,' when it is recollected that the land, after the process, 

 would be cheaper at thirty dollars per acre, ihaii it would be at ttoo dollars, if left in its pre- 

 vious impoverished condition. In the last mentioned state, it would bruig the cultivator in 

 debt ; but when improved, it would not only yield enough to meet the expense of cultivating 

 and securing the crops, but would also pay a handsome profit in the investment if valued at 

 thirty dollai's per acre." 



With all these resources and facilities, it will appear strange that in the last 

 20 years (lirora 1820 to 1840,) Caroline County should have actually decreased 

 in population from 18,000 to 17,800 ; but it should be borne in mind that this part 

 of Virginia has been acted upon, with peculiar force, by the drains which have 

 so influenced the spread of population over the whole Union that while, during 

 the last ten years previous to 1840, the population of the seventeen "Atlantic 

 States," including the District of Columbia, increased from 9,182,237 to only 10,- 

 689,596, that of the Western and North-western States increased in the same 

 decennial term, from 3,673,900 to 6,302,915, or nearly doubled in ten years! 

 while Virginia during the same period increased only from 1,211,266 to 1,239,- 

 797. Alabama swarming with the most enterprising sons of the Old Dominion, 

 has very nearly doubled in the same time — increasing in these ten years from 

 309,206 to 590,756. 



Virginia stood, even as late as 1800, ahead of all the Union in population ; but, 

 thanks chiefly to her patriotic sacrifice for the good of " all the States of the 

 American Union," a country has been opened in the West seven times larger than 

 all the Atlantic States — without including Texas, with her vast and undefined 

 extent of domain. Let those, then, who would cast a slur on Virginia for the 

 slowness of her growth, remember that she has been sending swarm after swarm 

 into hives of her own providing. Surely, not one of those States which, not 

 sleeping, she allowed to be cut as ribs from her own side, will give her occasion 

 to say : 



" She hath abated me of half my train ; 

 Look'd black upon me : struck me with her tongue 

 Most serpent-like, upon the very heart." 



Nevertheless we must be "just and fear not " to admit that there must be 

 something destructive or prejudicial in her institutions or policy; else how is it 

 to be accounted for that she should lag so much behind (1 will not take for com- 

 parison Ohio, a Free, or Alabama a Slave State, but) one of the Old Confederacy, 

 which resembles without excelling her in any of the natural bases of popular or 

 development of political power— Pennsylvania for example? 



If Pennsylvania has her beds of coal and iron and limestone, is Virginia defi- 

 cient in these minerals ? While she greatly surpasses her growing sister in other 

 advantages, as in her navigable waters and water power— in proximity to the 

 ocean ; in climate and in agricultural capabilities. Yet it practically behooves 

 her to see how steadily and quietly this and other even of the old Atlantic States 



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