272 MARL FOB CLEANSING TOWNS. 



into the air ; and being wholly retained by the soil, much smaller 

 applications would serve. The level streets ought also to be sprin- 

 kled with marl, and as often as circumstances might require. The 

 various putrescent matters usually left in the streets of a town 

 alone serve to make the dirt scraped from them a valuable manure ; 

 for the principal part of the bulk of street dirt is composed merely 

 of the barren clay brought in upon the wheels of wagons from the 

 country roads. Such a cover of calcareous earth would be the 

 most effectual absorbent and preserver of putrescent matter, as well 

 as' the cheapest mode of keeping a town always clean. There 

 would be less noxious or offensive effluvia than is generated in 

 spite of all the ordinary means of prevention ; and by scraping up 

 and removing the marl after it had combined with and secured 

 enough of putreseent matter, a compost would be obtained for the 

 use of the surrounding country, so rich and so abundant, that its 

 use would repay a large part, if not the whole of the expense 

 incurred in its production. Probably one covering of marl for 

 each year would serve for most yards, cellars, &c.; but if re- 

 quired oftener, it would only prove the necessity for the opera- 

 tion, and show the greater .value in the results. The compost that 

 might be obtained from spaces equal to 500 acres, in a populous 

 town, would durably enrich thrice as many acres of the adjacent 

 country; and after twenty years of such a course, the surrounding 

 farms might be capable of returning to the town a ten-fold in- 

 creased surplus product. After the qualities and value of the 

 manure so formed were properly appreciated, it would be used for 

 farms that would be out of the reach of all other calcareous manures. 

 Carts bringing country produce to market might with profit carry 

 back loads of this compost eight or ten miles. The annual supply 

 that the country might be furnished with would produce very dif- 

 ferent effects from the putrescent and fleeting manure now obtained 

 from the town stables. Of the little durable benefit heretofore 

 derived from such means, the appearance of the country offers 

 sufficient testimony. At three miles distance from some of the 

 principal towns in Virginia, more than half the cultivated land is 

 too poor to yield any farming profit. The surplus grain sent to 

 market is very inconsiderable and the coarse hay from the wet 

 natural meadows can only be sold to tavern-keepers, or those who 

 feed horses belonging to other persons and to whom that hay is 

 the most desirable that is least likely to be eaten. 



But even if the waste and destruction of manure in towns were 

 counted as nothing, and the preservation of health by keeping the 

 air pure were the only object sought, still calcareous earth, as pre- 

 sented by rich marl, would serve the purpose far better than 

 quick-lime. It is true that the latter substance acts powerfully in 

 decomposing putrescent animal matter, and destroys its texture 



