WATER-BORNE LIME. 



ficiency, as in all cases where labour is on a small scale of opera* 

 tions ; and more especially when slave labour is employed.* 



Another source for obtaining calcareous manures has been opened 

 to the farmers of lower Virginia, which they think cheaper than either 

 transporting marl or burning shells, and they are availing themselves 

 of it to great -extent. This is northern stone-lime, which is brought 

 in bulk, ready slaked, and sold by the vessel-load at prices varying 

 from 8 to 10 cents the bushel. Slaked lime, even if pure, from 

 its extreme lightness, cannot be as much to the bushel as rich 

 marl contains of pure lime, even though the marl may have 30 

 per cent, of other earths. Therefore the lime js much the most 

 costly, as marl may be procured and transported at from 3 to 5 

 cents the bushel. Still, the lime is so much more readily obtained 

 in large quantities, and a farm can by that means be so much more 

 speedily covered, that the purchase of lime is often the more de- 

 sirable and also the more profitable operation of the two. (1842.) 



In making this improvement, more than in any other business, 

 "time is money/' Marling is usually effected by the farmer's 

 labour, whereas the expense of liming is mostly in the purchase. 

 By the use of water-borne marl, few farmers could dress a fourth 

 of their tillage field in a year, whereas by purchasing lime the 

 whole field might be limed, and the whole farm covered in one- 

 fourth of the time required for marling. If then the lime were 

 even thrice the cost of marl (for equal quantities of pure lime), it 

 would still be the cheapest mode of improvement, because yielding 

 its products in one-fourth of the time required for marling. The 

 difference of amount of net product in the first crop, between an 

 acre marled or limed, and another acre not so improved, would 

 usually pay the cost of marling or liming the acre. Therefore, on 

 every acre cultivated by any farmer, and not marled or limed until 



* Since 1843, the water-carriage of marl on James river has greatly in- 

 creased. About ten decked and rigged flat-bottomed vessels have generally 

 been employed in carrying marl from what may be considered one locality, 

 in the neighbourhood of my former residence, in Prince George county, 

 though on fhe close adjacent lands of three proprietors. Half a cent the 

 bushel is paid for the marl in its bed. For the labour and expense of 

 removing the overlay of earth, digging the marl and carrying it on board, 

 and conveying to distances from 15 to 40 miles, the carriers charge from 

 3 J to 4 cents making the total cost at the buyer's landing place from 4 to 

 4 cents. A still larger business has been at the same time carried on in 

 bringing slaked stone-lime, in sea vessels, to James river, from the kilns 

 on the Schuylkill and Hudson, and elsewhere in the Northern States. This 

 lime has latterly been sold as low as 7 cents the bushel, usually, and in some 

 cases still lower. The principal demand for and use of both the water- 

 borne marl and lime is on the lands of Charles City county, where marl is 

 not found on any of the river lands, and in but few cases near to the 

 river. (1849.) The Schuylkill lime contains about 35 per cent, of mag- 

 nesia. The New- York lime contains much silex. 



