WATER-BOHNE MAUL? 815 



charge. Since, the "business has greatly increased, and is now car- 

 ried on by many flat-bottomed vessels (or lighters, decked and 

 rigged), from other places on James river, as a regular and con- 

 tinuous business. But still the business is badly conducted in 

 general, and therefore is much more costly than it would be under 

 better and proper direction. Farmers are averse to being engaged 

 in the management of vessels, or any other business away from 

 their farms, and therefore they have always preferred to buy the 

 marl from vessels, even at higher prices, rather than to have it dug 

 by their own labourers and transported in their own vessels. And 

 this division of labour would be right in all respects, if the owners 

 of the river lighters were better managers of their business, and 

 their hands were industrious and sober. For rich marl thus ob- 

 tained and transported, the prices at the purchasers' landings have 

 usually been from 4 to 5 cents the heaped bushel. And at these 

 high prices, the lazy and worthless and ill provided navigators 

 have rarely realized any profit. The highest price charged for marl, 

 in beds on the river banks, is a half cent the bushel. Under ex- 

 isting circumstances, the cheapest and best mode of obtaining 

 water-borne marl is for the farmer to also carry on the digging and 

 the navigating. And if the several operations were properly con- 

 ducted, the entire expense of water-borne marl, say 10 to 30 miles, 

 will rarely exceed 3 cents the bushel when landed, and under 

 favourable circumstances may fall short of 2 cents. Collier H. 

 Minge, Esq., and Gen. Corbin Braxton, of King William county, 

 who have carried on this business extensively, and for years in sue- 

 cession, for marling their own farms, have furnished me with careful 

 and detailed estimates of their expenses, which have been published 

 at length in the Farmer's Register (p. 567, vol. i., and p. 691, vol. 

 viii.). According to the estimate of Mr. Minge, the entire cost of 

 thus procuring marl, carried 15 miles on the broad water of James 

 river, amounted to less than 2 cents the heaped bushel when landed. 

 And Gen. Braxton' s total expense, the transportion being for eight 

 miles on the narrow and smooth Pamunkey, was but little more 

 than half a cent the bushel, placed at his landing. No charge was 

 made for the marl in either case, but every other charge or expense 

 was included. The labour and difficulties on James river, both 

 of uncovering and digging the marl (at Coggins Point) and un- 

 loading (on a shallow creek) were unusually great ; and on the 

 Pamunkey these labours were very light. A vessel and also a 

 mode of loading, which would be safe in strong winds, were neces- 

 sary on James river ; while no such danger had to be feared, or 

 was guarded against, on the well-sheltered Pamunkey river. So 

 much of the business, in both these cases, as was conducted from 

 home, necessarily was wanting of proper superintendence \ and, no 

 doubt, both of these undertakings suffered for that important de- 



