MARLING." 



175 



gnlphiir and chlorine; the last named by the addition 

 of hydrogen, and the former by uniting with oxygen. 

 Soils derived mainly from primary rocks, (granite 

 and gneiss) m situ, are apt to contain a large excess 

 of coarse sand. Soils of this description abound on 

 the Atlantic slope of the Southern States from Ma- 

 rj'land to Mississippi. The " Drift " formation that 

 covers so large a portion of the area of New Eng- 

 land, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other 

 Northwestern States, is wholly wanting in extensive 

 districts in North and South Carolina, Georgia and 

 Alabama. This wide difference in the origin of 

 northern and southern soils has great influence on the 

 farm management of the two regions. When duly 

 investigated, agricultural geology explains many 

 problems in rural affairs that appear to some quite 

 incomprehensible. A system of tillage and husband- 

 ry which is be^t on one kind of soil and in a particu- 

 lar climate, may be not at all adapted to soils of a 

 different origin and character, even where there is no 

 change of climate. This should lead writers on ag- 

 riculture, and cultivators in different sections of a 

 continent to be more charitable toward each other, 

 and less ready to condemn practices of the necessity 

 or propriety of which they know little or nothing. 

 Soils formed of disintegrated rocks in their native 

 places are entirely different from any drift soils, or 

 those derived from tertiary or quarternary deposits. 

 In all the latter, the earthy minerals are ground down 

 to an impalpable powder, more or less, by the me- 

 chanical action of moving water. This dynamic 

 force has never been similarly applied to the former. 



Thk Journal (f Agriculture Practique (French) 

 In an exten led chronicle of husbandry for 1854, in 

 France, says: 



1 " The marling of lands and mixing corn with lime 

 [chauliige) have become of general use and continue 

 to agricullural operations of the greatest utility. 

 ( According to the request of several of our subscri- 

 i bers, we liave prepared designs of a lime kiln, and we 

 I shall publish instructions on this suliject very shortly." 



I English and French cultivators have very correct 

 deas of the value of lime in agriculture; but can we. 

 n truth, say as much of American farmers ? In 

 ire.stern Kurupe, "marling is in general use;" but such 

 3 by no means the ca,--e on the continent west of the 

 A.tlantic. Ts our soil naturally more calcareous than 

 hat of France? No, it is not. The geology of 

 Prance shows it to possess less granite and freestone 

 •ocka than may be found in New England, in the 



Middle, and in the Southern Slates. Until the last 

 few years, France has grown more bushels of wheat 

 than England and the United States put together. 

 The high price of meats, and the extended culture of 

 sugar beets have operated to limit the production of 

 breadstuffs. The Journal gives this glowing pictures 



" If an example of what agriculture can do when 

 successfully managed were needed, we might cite th« 

 beautiful and industrious Department du JVord, 

 whose entire riches depend upon the cultivation of 

 the soil. On leaving Siile or Valenciennes are we 

 not struck with admiration at witnessing on all side* 

 the air obscured by the smoke of the manufactories 

 of various kinds — manufactories for sugar and for 

 endive [chicoree) breweries, distilleries, &c., almost 

 piled on top of one another in every village? On 

 the highways, where it not unfrequently is difficult to 

 get along on account of the number of wagons, co- 

 ivals, sugar, alcohol, manure, lime, coal from the pit, 

 and black cattle, are busily transported. What life, 

 what cheering animation I Then on the farms they 

 maintain three or four times as many cattle as with 

 us, for the pulp of the beet-root enables them to feed 

 stock and make manure at a cheap rate. There is 

 never any respite for the laborer. Farming opera- 

 tions need his arms every day of the year, and thig 

 work is more useful to him than if he were buildin" 

 palaces; for in augmenting the riches of the ground 

 he is increasing his own wealth. If the whole of 

 France resembled this beautiful district, our country 

 would be the first in the world. Why then seek 

 elsewhere new countries? Wherefore favor the emi- 

 gration of those hands of which the mother countiy 

 stands so much in need? We think that there it 

 now enough at home for seventy millions of inhabi- 

 tants. The benefits arising from the manufacturing 

 of sugar have produced this result, in the Nortk 

 From the day on which French agriculture shall 

 have become prosperous — and this end it will attain 

 by producing meat — it will bring forth miracles." 



The production of " meat " gives an abundance of 

 manure, and this in turn gives a vast quantity of 

 grain and sugar. Marling is the most economical 

 way known to the most advanced husbandry of fer- 

 tilizing both pastures and meadows. Scientifio far- 

 mers have been years trying various experiments with 

 all sorts of "amendmejts;" and shell marl that con- 

 tains one or more per cent, of phosphoric acid pay* 

 best, all things considered, according to the cost of 

 the article. Coprolites, the fossil dung found in Eng^ 

 land, and so much sought after, owes its agricultural 

 value to the phosphate of lime which it containa 

 The elements of crops and the principles of tillage 

 and husbandry are the same on both sides of the At- 

 lantic. 



All men need truth as they need water ; if wise^ 

 they are as high ground where the springs rise ; or- 

 ilitiiirv men are the lower grounds which their waters 

 nourish. 



