CHAPTER XV. 



EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES ON EXHAUSTED ACID SOILS, 

 UNDER THEIR SECOND GROWTH OF TREES. 



PROPOSITION 5 continued. 



Not having owned much land under a second growth of pines, I 

 can only refer to two experiments of this kind. The improvement 

 in both these cases has been so remarkable, as to induce the belief 

 that the " old fields" to be found on every farm, which have been 

 exhausted and turned out of cultivation thirty or forty years, offer 

 the most profitable subjects for the application of calcareous manures. 



Experiment 16. 



May 1826. Marled about eight acres of land under its second 

 growth, by opening paths for the carts ten yards apart. Marl 40 

 per cent. ; put 500 to 600 bushels to the acre and spread in the 

 course of the summer. In August, belted slightly all the pines 

 that were as much as eight inches through, and cut down or grub- 

 bed the smaller growth, of which there was very little. The pines 

 (which were the only trees) stood thick, and were mostly from 

 eight to twelve inches in diameter eighteen inches where standing 

 thin. The land joined experiment 15 on one side ; but this is 

 level, and on the other side joins ridge wood-land, which soon be- 

 comes like soil of experiment 1. This piece, in its virgin state, 

 was probably of a nature between those two soils ; but less like 

 the ridge soil than the " free light land." No information has been 

 obtained as to the state of this land when its cultivation was 

 formerly abandoned. The soil (that is, the depth which has since 

 been turned by the plough) a whitish loamy sand, on a sub-soil of 

 the same; in fact, all was sub-soil before the ploughing, except 

 half an inch or three quarters, on the top, which was principally 

 composed of rotted pine leaves. Above this thin layer were the 

 later dropped and unrotted leaves, lying loosely several inches thick. 

 The pines showed no symptoms of being killed, until the autumn 

 of 1827, when their leaves began to have a tinge of yellow. To 

 suit the cultivation with the surrounding land," this piece was laid 

 down in wheat for its first crop, in October, 1827. For this pur- 

 pose, the few logs, the boughs, and grubbed bushes were heaped, 

 but not burnt ; the seed then sowed on the coat of pine leaves, and 

 ploughed in by two-horse ploughs, in as slovenly a manner as may 

 be supposed from the condition of the land : and a wooden-tooth 



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