314 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MARSH MUD, &c. 



rate oliser vat ion of fotts which leads to every prac- 

 tical improvement, and a classification of the i'atts 

 proves the only and safe principle which pervades 

 them. 



The principle is the superiority of a compost of 

 bones and manure, or other substances, over bones 

 used singly ; tlie etfects of such a compost are sta- 

 ted, by some of our correspondents, who present 

 them as their own individual conclusions, and a 

 course into which they have been individually led 

 by experience, without having had, as far as ap- 

 pears, any communication witli each other. Such 

 a coincidence, is too regular and marked to allow 

 us to attribute it to any accidental circumstance, 

 and the force of the concurrent testimony is so 

 great as to leave no reasonable place for doubt. 



The results of the inquiries proposed by the com- 

 mittee are shown in the following sunmiary of their 

 deductions from the details collected. 



It appears that on dry lands, limestone, chalk, 

 light loams, and peat, bones are a very highly va- 

 luable manure : they may be laid on grass with 

 good effect, and on arable lands they may be laid 

 on fallow for turnips, or used for any of the subse- 

 quent crops. 



That tha best method of using them when broad 

 cast, is previously to make them up with earth, 

 dung, or other manure, and let them lie to ferment. 



That if used alone, they may be drilled with the 

 seed, or thrown broadcast. 



That bones which have undergone the process of 

 fermentation are decidedly superior to those which 

 have not done so. That the quantity should be 

 about 25 bushels of dust, or 40 bushels of large, in- 

 creasing the quantity if the land be impoverished, 

 that upon clays and heavy loams it does not yet ap- 

 pear that bones will answer. 



BIARSH Mur>, &c. 



From the American Farmer. 



Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Md. } 

 October 12, 1831. \ 



Mr. Smith : — I do not know how I can more 

 satisfactorily answer the polite call of" Potomac" 

 than by giving some account of improvements 

 made on one of the farms alluded to in my last, by 

 jthe application of bank shells, sea-ware, marsh- 

 mud, and heads of creeks, aided by a well conduct- 

 ed iarm-yaitl. These have been so remarkable 

 as to have had a beneficial effect in this county, 

 and I tliink such examples should be made knov/n 

 as widely as possible for general benefit. 



I select this farm, Emerson's Point, in particu- 

 lar, because no one can pretend that capital had any 

 agency in restoring its fertility. It lies near the 

 mouth of JNIile's river, emptying into the Eastern- 

 branch of the Chesapeake bay, and contains two 

 hundred and seventy-five acres. It was purchas- 

 ed by the father of tlie present proprietor, Mr. 

 Wm.Hambleton, about the year 1790, at 40s. Md. 

 currency — 5.33 dollars per acre,— and was occu- 

 pied by a tenant, as it had been for two or three 

 generations, until the year 1808, when the propri- 

 etor married and settled on it. The soil is a stiff 

 yellow clay — growth chiefly pine ; it was worn 

 down to the lowest stale of sterility : a considera- 

 ble portion had been suffered to run into pine thick- 

 ets, where tlie corn ridges are still visible ; and it 

 was nearly destitute of the buildings indispensable 

 lo a farmer. But the means of improvement were 



at hand : the proprietor knew their value, and lost 

 no time in availing himself of them. He had no 

 capital of any kind : but he was young, skilful and 

 industrious. Having no slaves he commenced with 

 two hired hands, and, occasionally, two boys, two 

 horses and a yoke of oxen. The arable land was 

 one hundred and twenty-nine acres, but his ope- 

 rations, for many years, were confined to ninety- 

 nine acres — a ]K)or field of thirty acres, distant 

 from his resources, he left idle, unenclosed. He 

 laid off these ninety-nine acres as follows: — two 

 fields of 45 each, two lots, 5 and 1|, orchard and 

 garden ^\ acres. For his first crop, to make a 

 push, he selected his best land, iiicluding the old 

 tobacco ground near the house. From forty-five 

 bushels of wheat seeded Sept. 1807, he got a crop 

 of one hundred and fifteen, less than three for one. 

 In the spring of 1808, he planted corn on one half of 

 his other field, after getting out a considerable quan- 

 tity of bank shells and sea ware, and left the other 

 half, under the same enclosure, for fallow, to be 

 manured as opportunity might permit during the 

 sumnter — and this plan he continued to follow 

 about eight years, and would have continued it lon- 

 ger but for the inconvenience arising from the 

 want oi' pasture. It is to Ije regretted that he did 

 not keep an exact record of all his crops : however, 

 he assures me that the following may be depended 

 on as very near the truth. His first crop of corn 

 was eighty-five barrels, his second thirty-five, of 

 which twenty were short corn. (It may be well 

 to mention that a bari'el of corn is five bushels of 

 grain, or ten bushels of ears.) His second crop of 

 wheat was two hundred and fifty bushels from 45 

 of seed, being five and a half lor one. His third 

 crop of 350, nearly eight lor one. Fourth 500, 

 fifth 700 — and so on, increasing every year, until, 

 in the year 1816, having altered the arrangement 

 of his fields fromtwoof forty-five to three of thirty 

 acre« each, he reaped from sixty-seven and a half 

 of seed a thousand bushels of prime wheat, — one 

 half on corn land — the other fallow. This crop he 

 had the good fortune to sell at two dollars 91 cents 

 per bushel, and the good sense, although not pres- 

 sed, to ajiply the proceeds to the payment of debts 

 necessarily contracted in the erection of buildings, 

 among others an excellent barn, and the purchase 

 of three or four boys; and various expenses inci- 

 dent to a new establishment and growing family. 

 It should be remarked also, that, until the end of 

 the year 1818, his land was burdened with a third 

 of the estimated rent, as dower. 



No memorandum can be found of his crops for 

 the three succeeding years, nor does he recollect the 

 amount ; but they were not so great as that just 

 stated. He failed in one crop from defective seed 

 which he purchased. 



In 1820 he reaped eleven hundred and twenty- 

 seven bushels from ninety of seed, thirty of which 

 was sown on the out-fiekl before mentioned. This, 

 and several other crops to be noticed, he has on re- 

 cord. In 1823 his wheat crop from seventy-two 

 was one thousand and thirty-nine bushels — nearly 

 fourteen and a half ibr one. 



In 1830, from 88 of seed he reaped fourteen hun- 

 dretl and ninety seven bushels of wheat, 17 for one j 

 one half from corn-land, the other fallow — thirty 

 acres each — the fallow yielded twenty-fivefor one ; 

 see some account of this crop in the Farmer about 

 July 1830. 



Last year, being much occupietl in repairing an(i 



