48 FERTILITY OF SHELLY SOILS. 



this substance also be found inadequate for the cause. Vegetable 

 matter abounds in all rich land, it is admitted j but it has also been 

 furnished by nature, in quantities exceeding all computation, to the 

 most barren soils known. 



~" But there is one ingredient of which not the smallest proportion 

 can be found in any of our poor soils, and which, wherever found, 

 (and not in great excess), indicates a soil remarkable for natural 

 and durable fertility. This is calcareous earth, or carbonate of 

 lime. These facts alone, if sustained, will go far to prove that this 

 earth is the cause of fertility, and the cure for barrenness. 



On some part of most farms touching tide-water, either mussel 

 or oyster shells are found mixed with the soil. Oyster shells are 

 confined to the lands on salt water, where they are very abundant, 

 and sometimes extend through large fields. Higher up the rivers, 

 mussel shells only are to be seen thus deposited by nature, or by 

 the aboriginal inhabitants, and they decrease as we approach the 

 falls of the rivers. The proportion of shelly land in the counties 

 highest on tide-water -".i very small; but the small extent of these 

 spots does not prev: v . l-.t rather aids, the exhibition of the pecu- 

 liar qualities of sucli si . ( ^f shelly larrl, not exceed 

 few acres in extent, rrrid no ve bee;i ci ' vated dif 



from the balance of the fielu3 of which i] -- '"ined par Is-- 

 therefore they can be better compared with the worse soil? 5 i 

 like treatment. Every acre of shelly land is, or has been, remark- 

 able for its richness, and still more for its durability. There are 

 few farmers among us who have not heard described tracts of shelly 

 soil on Nansemond and York rivers, which are celebrated for their 

 long resistance of the most exhausting course of tillage, and which 

 still remain fertile, notwithstanding all the injury which they must 

 have sustained from their severe treatment. We are told that on 

 some of these lands, corn has been raised every successive year, 

 without any help from manure, for a longer time than the owners 

 could remember, or could be informed of correctly. But without 

 relying on any such remarkable cases, there can be no doubt that 

 every acre of our shelly land has been at least as much tilled, and 

 as little manured, as any in the country ; and that it is still the 

 richest and most valuable of all our old cleared lands. 



The fertile but narrow strips, along the banks of our rivers 

 (which form the small portion of our high-land of first-rate quality), 

 seldom extend far without exhibiting spots in which shells are 

 visible, so that the eye alone is sufficient to prove the soil of such 

 places to be calcareous. The similarity of natural growth, and of 

 all other marks of character, are such, that the observer might very 

 naturally infer that the former presence of shells had given the 

 same valuable qualities to all these soils but that they had so 

 generally rotted, aud been incorporated with the other earths, that 



