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FARMERS' REGISTER— MARL BEDS IN NEW KENT, &c. 



MARL BEDS IN NEW KENT nEMARKS AND 



QUERIES ON FARM aiANAGEMENT. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



New Kent, Becejnber lith, 1833. 



A few days ago, the " Farmers' Reo;ister," Yol. 

 lst,No. 7th, fell into my hands, being the first No. 

 I had ever seen : altliough the publication itself is 

 highly spoken of, by the best practical farmers in 

 this and the adjoining counties, yet, the Register is 

 not so widely ditfiised as (I believe,) it ought to be. 

 It should be in every man's house, there to be read 

 and studied, and such improvements as are therein 

 recommended, should be put in immediate prac- 

 tice. 



I ver}^ much regret, that when you were in 

 James City county, at oNIr. Archer Hank ins', you 

 did not come into New Kent, Jiefbre you returned 

 liome. New Kent abounds in wliat is generally 

 termed marl, and your very presence on that score 

 alone, would have roused numbers ot us from that 

 supine, lethargic state, into which we have un- 

 happily fallen in regard to the imj)rovement of our 

 farms. Man is an imitative animal ; and because 

 father, and grandfather, never raised manure o( 

 any sort — never used any ether plough except a 

 trowel-hoe passing through a pole like a cart 

 tongue — the son, nor the son's son will not do oth- 

 erwise. It is recorded, that a certain race of men, 

 formerly, made their beasts of burden draw by 

 their tails; and it required the force of the bayo- 

 net to make tliem alter their mode of gearing, &c. 

 so strong is education. 



The different marl beds that I have examined 

 are mostly exceedingly rich. The one owned i)y 

 Mr. A. VV. Hockaday, is imbedded in a red sand, 

 with some red clay between that and the marl. 

 The shells are all entire, and of one kind on]y,1he 

 clam shell : the very same species of animal that 

 may be now taken in abundance at York Town. 

 The bed owned by Mr. A. Mitchell is, in my 

 opinion, by far the richer of the two, and is com- 

 posed of shells, chiefly of cockle shells, with here 

 and there an oyster shell. In this bank, about four 

 feet irom the surface, I discovered a rib-bone, pe- 

 trilied, that must have belonged to some enormous 

 animal; the kind, can now no where be seen. It 

 must have belonged to the Ma)iimoth, if the In- 

 dians are right in their notions of the existence of 

 such an animal formerly. This rib was six feet 

 long, nearly three inches broad, and two thick, and 

 this appeared to be but a part of what it was ori- 

 ginally. Mr. Mitchell's marl is surrounded, 

 (except at the bottom,) by a red, dark, soapy clay : 

 in the centre of the marl may be seen a stratum 

 of marl so calcined, or so pulverized, as to resem- 

 ble cheese in the cutting ; and at what I term the 

 bottom of the marl, is a stratum greatly re- 

 sembling ready made mortar for plastering, except 

 that it is not so wet. Under this is a stratum of 

 marl petrified, from one to four inches in thickness, 

 rough and uneven. This last we throw aside as 

 useless ; althougii if burnt, I believe it would 

 make good rock lime. The best marl I have ever 

 seen, is owned by Mr. Archer Williams of this 

 county; and I speak advisedly, when I say, that he 

 owns a sufficient quantity to cover every foot of 

 level cleared land in New Kent, one half inch in 

 depth. If analyzed, I believe there would be 

 found ninety parts of pure lime to the one hundred, 

 with, perhaps, some magnesia. To the credit of 



Mr. W., I speak it, that he freely gives to all per- 

 sons what they may choose to haul away. 



One insuperable barrier, there is, however, to 

 imjirovement in Yirginia : one that I fear, will re- 

 main till " tongues shall cease, and knowledge 

 shall vanish away" — to be plain, I mean slavery. 

 It has tainted our morals, manners and language — 

 corrupted us in a thousand ways, and yet we cling 

 to the accursed thing-, and hold it dearer than life 

 itself! Slaves are not intrinsically worth more 

 than half what they were some twenty years ago. 

 They are by far less governable, tractable and obe- 

 dient — will do only what they choose, and when 

 they choose. They are daily more insolent, thiev- 

 ish and lazy, and if punished, they may abscond, 

 and be protected in Philadelphia or New York — or 

 possibly remain to do worse. 



I verily believe, not one farmer in ten, clears one 

 per cent, on the cost and charges of his slaves. The 

 owners barely can breathe, and not unfrequently 

 are compelled to sell one or more every year to 

 square their accounts. But like the Jew of Bris- 

 tol, who lost seven teeth by order of the King of 

 England, and was to lose one per day 'till he paid, 

 or advanced the needy King 10,000 marks, these 

 same men had much rather sell their teeth, than 

 their slaves. Unhappy, inglorious state of things. 



I pray you, sir, I'ecommend in strong terms, 

 that an agricultural society be formed in every 

 county of the State. New Y'ork is seventy-five 

 years ahead of us in agriculture. The Flemings 

 one hundred and fifty years. The British one hun- 

 dred. New York has an agricultural society in 

 every county, and the great benefits arising there- 

 from, are seen and felt to an astonishing degree. 



Our lands for the most part are sandy, and any 

 information in regard to the improvement of this 

 kind of soil, will be of great benefit to most per- 

 sons from the head of tide water to the Atlantic.'* 



Query. — If we were to sow oats, and roll them 

 w hen ripe, and marl on them, woijd it not be a 

 more speedy and cheaper way of improving than 

 hauling leaves, &c. from the woods? 



Query. — Is there no grass that we could profita- 

 bly sow, to take the place of hog weeds and car- 

 rot weeds, with which our fields, that lie fallow, 

 abound .'' 



Query. — How is wire grass to be destroyed.'' 



Query. — If every citizen were compelled by 

 law to keep his own stock, on his own farm, and 

 not permit them to roam at pleasure on every 

 man's land, for a scanty subsistence, would it not 

 be better for one and all.' Would it not be a 

 great saving of timber for ship building, house 

 building, &c. a great saving of labor and time, (it 

 requires three years in every ten,) in making 

 dead fences.' 



If these desultory remarks are worthy of your 

 attention it is well — otherwise it is well. If they 

 appear in the Register for January, perhaps some 

 of your correspondents may furnish some informa- 

 tion to satisfy the querist. 



Yours, with respect, w. x. z. 



TRANSPORTATION AND SALE OF MARL FROM 

 MIDDLESEX. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Your work on calcareous manures, has already 

 given a new direction to public inquiry, in the tide- 

 v/ater section of Yirginia. In many i>arts of the 



