Till PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1835. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE 

 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1835. 



WHEN the preceding edition of this Essay was published, it met with a re- 

 ception far more favourable, and a demand from purchasers much greater, 

 than the author's anticipations had reached ; and it is merely in accordance 

 with the concurrent testimony of the many agriculturists who have since 

 expressed and published opinions on the subject, to say that the publication 

 has already had great and valuable effects in directing attention, and in- 

 ducing successful efforts, to the improvement of land by calcareous ma- 

 nures. Experimental knowledge on this head has probably been more than 

 doubled within the last two years ; and the narrow limits of the region 

 within which marling had previously been confined, have been enlarged to 

 perhaps ten-fold their former extent. Still, the circumstances now existing, 

 however changed for the better, present a mere beginning of the immense 

 and valuable improvements of soil, and increase of profits, that must here- 

 after grow out of the use of calcareous manures, if their operation is pro- 

 perly understood by those who apply them. But if used without that know- 

 ledge, their great value will certainly not be found ; and indeed, they will 

 often cause more loss than profit. It is therefore not so important to the 

 farmers of our country at large to be convinced of the general and great 

 value of calcareous manures and to those in the great Atlantic tide-water 

 region to know the newly established truth, that their beds of fossil shells 

 furnish the best and cheapest of manures as it is, that all should know 

 in what manner, and by what general laws, these manures operate how 

 they produce benefit, and when they may be either worthless or injurious. 

 And this more important end, the author regrets to believe has as yet 

 scarcely been even partially attained, by the dissemination and proper un- 

 derstanding of correct views of the subject. Of course it is not to be sup- 

 posed that this Essay has been read (if even heard of) by one in ten of the 

 many who have been prompted by verbal information to attempt the prac- 

 tice it recommends ; and of those who have read, and who have even ex- 

 pressed warm approbation of the work, it has seldom been found that their 

 praise was discriminating, or founded upon a thorough examination of its 

 reasoning and theoretical views, on which principally rests whatever value 

 it may possess. For all persons who are so easily convinced, it may truly 

 be said, that the volume embraced nothing more, and was worth no more, 

 than would be stated in these few words "the application of calcareous 

 manures will be found highly improving and profitable." It is not there- 

 fore at all strange that the attentive reading of a volume, to obtain this 

 truth, was generally deemed unnecessary. 



Though the previous edition of this work has been nearly exhausted, the 

 circulation has as yet been almost confined to that small portion of the 

 state of Virginia alone in which the mode of improvement recommended had 

 previously been successfully commenced, or had at least attracted much at- 

 tention. But this district is not better fitted to be thus improved than the 

 remainder of the great tide-water region stretching from Long Island to 

 Mobile and to a great part of which calcareous manures may be cheaply 

 applied. It is only in parts of Maryland and Virginia that many extensive 

 and highly profitable applications of fossil shells, or marl, have been yet 

 made. In North Carolina the value of the manure has been but lately tried ; 

 in South Carolina and Georgia, no notice of it has yet been taken, or afc 

 least has yet been made known ; and in Florida and Alabama (parts of 

 which are peculiarly suited to receive these benefits), it is most erroneously 

 thought that such improvements are only profitable for long settled and 

 impoverished countries. * * * * 



