356 EARLIEST MARLING OPERATIONS. 



continuing appliers of marl in Virginia. But at what time they began, and 

 which of them was the first, I have not been able to learn ; though visiting 

 Mr. Hankins' farm for that purpose, as well as to see his marling, and 

 making inquiries of him personally, in 1833. Mr. Taylor had then been 

 long dead, and his improvements said to be almost lost, by the exhausting 

 tillage of the then occupant of his land. Mr. Hankins was unable to say 

 when he and his neighbour began to try marl. He was only certain that it 

 was before 1816. Yet, though these farms are within 12 or 15 miles of 

 Williamsburg, to which place I had made visits once a year or oftener, yet 

 I never heard an intimation of their having begun such practice, until some 

 time after my own first trials in 1818. At that time, when led to the use, 

 as I was, altogether by theoretical views, and by reasoning (in advance) on. 

 the supposed constitution of the soil, as well as the known constitution of 

 the manure, it would have been to me the most acceptable and beneficial 

 information to have heard that any other person had already proved prac- 

 tically the value of marling. The slow progress of the knowledge of the 

 mere fact of marl having been successfully used before that time, was a 

 strong illustration of the then almost total want of communication among 

 farmers, as well as of their general apathy and ignorance in regard to the 

 means of improving their lands.* 



" Much earlier than the commencement of marling in James City, the 

 practice had been commenced (in 1805), in Talbot county, Maryland, by 

 Mr. Singleton. His account of his practice is in the 4th volume of the 

 ' Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society,' dated December ^1, 

 1817, and first published some time in 1818. But successful as was his 

 practice, and also that of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Hankins in connexion with 

 much worse farming, it is certain that neither of these individuals had the 

 least idea of the true action of marl ; and they were indebted to their good 

 fortune, more than to any exercise of reasoning, that they received profit- 

 able returns, and did no injury by marling. _ They all three applied their 

 putrescent manures with the marl. But though this was the safest and 

 most beneficial plan, the thus uniting them prevented the separate action 

 and value of putrescent and calcareous manures being known, compared, 

 and duly appreciated. 



" My own application of marl, on Coggins Point farm, Prince George 

 county, which in 1818 extended only to 15 acres (of which but 3 or 4 were 

 under the crop of that year), by 1821 had been increased to above 80 acres 

 a year, and so continued until nearly all the then arable land on that farm 

 requiring it (more than 600 acres), had been covered. In 1821, my earliest 

 publication on the subject was made. Though the facts and reasoning thus 

 made known by that time were beginning to attract much notice, and to 

 induce many persons to begin to marl, still it was some years later before 

 incredulity and ridicule had generally given place to full confidence in the 

 value of the improvement. Even at this time, when nearly 25 years of my 

 own experience of marling and its benefits have passed, and the results are 

 open to public notice and scrutiny, half the persons who could marl aro 

 either not engaged at it, or are marling to but little purpose ; and of all 

 who are using marl, nineteen in twenty are proceeding injudiciously, with- 

 out regard to the mode of operation of the manure, and therefore are either 

 doing harm, or losing profit, almost as often, though in less degree, as 

 doing good. At this time, however, there are scarcely any persons, how- 

 ever negligent or mistaken in practice, who do not fully admit the great 

 value and certain profit of applying marl, wherever it is available. 



* See a more full account at page 108, vol. i., Farmers' Register. 



