FARMERS' REGISTER— MINERAL MANUf.ES. 



629 



or other, the coal mines of Virginia will furnish a new 

 source of fertilization. 



The two following communications on the same sub- 

 ject, have been received since writing the foregoing re- 

 marks. The last extract is from one of the most suc- 

 cessful practical farmers in Virginia, whose name we 

 hope to be hereafter authorized to use, and in connex- 

 ion with more extended communications.] 



RE3IARKS ON BIINERAL MANURES. 



Prince Edward, Isi Feb. 1834. 



The printed slieet containing an account of IMr. 

 Hollert's manure, &c. has just come to hand, for 

 which I thank you much. I have little doubt, but 

 that we have both the terre houille and the houtlle 

 grasse j but much time and money may be consum- 

 ed, before we have them sufficiently under our con- 

 trol, to convert them to useful purposes. I am now 

 writing by a fire, made partly of dead coal; it 

 burns slowly, with a glowing heat, but is not in- 

 flammable. Lime here is very costly, however ; 

 and its scarcity may create a barrier to making 

 Mr. Hollert's manure. I think with you, that 

 lime, with its combinations, constitutes the chief 

 value of the Dutch and Belgic manures, so far as 

 permanency of effect is concerned. It may be the 

 case, that nature has supplied a sufficiency of this, 

 to render an artificial admixture unnecessary. I 

 saw but little appearance of lime at Mr. Flour- 

 noy's : but on my own land I never find a small 

 vein of dead coal, without discovering clay marl 

 in its vicinity — and in the coal stratum itself, 

 there is usuallj' a seam of selenite, some of which 

 you have seen. I had a cut made across one of 

 these strata a few days since, about six feet deep, 

 and found a seam of selenite, from one to two 

 inches in thickness, of the most firmly impacted 

 and hardest crystals I have ever seen. A plate of 

 it, a foot wide, would bear its own weight, when 

 held by the edge. The veins of coal on my land 

 are generally too thin to furnish much manure 

 about their outrunnings. There probably are 

 thicker veins at a much greater depth. But be- 

 sides the dead coal — which has probably been in a 

 measure divested by lime of its sulphuric acid — 

 there are other materials about my land, which I 

 think, in a slight degree, contain lime and gyp- 

 sum. Much of the sand stone and slate in the 

 banks of the gullies, is covered with a white ef- 

 florescence in dry frosty weather, and much of 

 these matters will effervesce with acid. VVhere- 

 ever this appearance is exhibited, clover, j)articu- 

 larly the white, grows luxuriantly in the gully be- 

 low, and sometimes even in the crevices of the 

 rocks. This white efflorescence I take to be gyp- 

 sum. It does not effervesce w ith acids, when collect- 

 ed, but the rock from which it issues will, though ve- 

 r)' slightly. If'any mode could be discovered ()f con- 

 verting these rocks into manure, the benefit would 

 be great; as in quantity, they are inexhaustible. 

 They moulder on exposure to the atmosphere. 

 But if the lime in them be the only manuring 

 principle, they might not be worth the quarrying 

 and removal. 



The strata in which I discover most calcareous 

 matters are, 1st, laminated beds of coal slate, hav- 

 ing its lamellcB curled and glossy, like some of our 

 best bituminous coal; 2dly, strata of glomerated 

 sand stone, the balls closely impacted, formed with 

 concentric layers, and having rich calcareous 



earth in the interstices, and sometimes between 

 [he lamincB. These balls are from three or four 

 inc lies to a foot in diameter. 



Some years past, I observed, that what is called 

 schistusor coal-sill, in the " Edinlnirgh Farmers' 

 Magazine," was there much reconmiended as a 

 manure. Ever since, I have hoped, that in some 

 way, the accompaniments of coal might be render- 

 ed useful to all living convenient to coal regions. 

 The account in the Magazine was too vague to 

 give any understanding of the material, or of 

 its inodus operandi A way seems to 1 e opening 

 up for rendering these matters of incalculable be- 

 nefit to the world. 



I have for some lime been groping my way 

 among these things, occasionally gathering light 

 from the pages of the Register. How much might 

 Virginia be benefitted by the labors of a scien- 

 tific geologist.^ I was much ])leased to find a 

 confiruialion of the benefits of hornblende in the 

 letter of Mr. Browne to our Governor. I think, 

 however, it is more probably its lime, than its iron 

 which does the good. It is very pleasing to see 

 chemistry, mineralogy and geology lending light 

 and aid to agriculture. I believe it was Lord 

 Kames who was much ridiculed, for imagining 

 that the time might come, when manure could be 

 so concentrated, as to be carried, to a valuableex- 

 tent, in a snuffbox. Who knows but that, in this 

 age of discovery, his lordship's notion may be ve- 

 rified.^ Chemistry has already produced amazingly 

 concentrated extracts from Peruvian bark, opium 

 and other medicines. Indeed, cakiimi, the baseof 

 lime, has been discovered. i\nd should a cheap 

 mode of extracting it be found, our cismontane 

 gentry may fill tJieir snuff boxes, and return from 

 their annual visits to the springs rather more plea- 

 santly, than with the emptiness of pocket hereto- 

 fore experienced. 



In the course of this winter, I have found a blue- 

 ish clay, which I suppose to be disintegrated slate, 

 containing a more lilieral supply of selenite than I 

 have before discovered on my land. This is near 

 the bottom of a deep ditch, in a place so exces- 

 sively miry, as to defy my curiosity and enthusi- 

 asm in such matters ; and I am compelled to wait 

 for drier weather, before I can ascertain Avhether 

 there is enough selenite to be valuable. I am of- 

 ten on the look out for the gypseous earth of your 

 region. This clay may be essentially the same, 

 but very different in consistence, being almost as 

 unctuous as tar, when wet. I was led to examine 

 it by some streaks of a peculiar caio-hlue color. 



The negroes on this farm were for a long time 

 permitted to burn the old field pines into charcoal, 

 for the use of the neighboring smith shops. The 

 scites of their old kilns are much richer than the 

 surrounding land, probably from both the burnt 

 earth and the coal dust — chiefly the latter, I sup- 

 pose. In spreading marl, I have directed it to be 

 more liberally applied on such sj^ots than else- 

 where, imagining that the lime might aid in the 

 decomposition of the coal. These spots have much 

 improved in appearance since being marled. I 

 contem{)late spreading much of this coal dust, of 

 which I have a great quantity, and mixing it with 

 marl, in my further efforts to marl my land. 



There is a gully here, the bottom of which I 

 have seen covered for about an inch deep with a 

 very white salt, and for a considerable extent. 

 This frequently occurred in weather favorable to 



