413 



One of these (and which he had first gathered from some old and 

 ignorant, but experienced practical cultivators of his neighbour- 

 hood), was the opinion that our land which was naturally poor 

 could not " hold manure," to any extent or profit, and therefore 

 could not be enriched. For years I heard this opinion frequently 

 expressed by him, and the evident inference therefrom, that the 

 far greater part of our lands, and of the whole country, was doomed 

 to hopeless sterility; and as often as heard, I rejected it as a 

 monstrous agricultural heresy as treason, indeed, to the authority 

 of Taylor, and of every other author on agriculture whom I had 

 read or heard of. But at last I was compelled, most reluctantly, 

 to concur in this opinion. 



What was then to be done ? I could not bear the idea of pur- 

 suing the general system of the country in continuing to lessen the 

 already small productiveness of my fields, by their course of culti- 

 vation. The whole income, and more, was required for the most 

 economical support of a then small but fast growing family ; and 

 for any increase of income or net profit, there was no hope, save 

 in the universal approved resort in all such cases, of emigrating 

 to the rich western wilderness. And accordingly such became my 

 intention, fully considered and decided upon, and which was only 

 prevented being carried into effect by subsequent occurrences. 



Just before this time Davy's " Agricultural Chemistry" had been 

 first published in this country ; and I read it with delight, notwith- 

 standing my then total ignorance of chemical science, and even of 

 chemical names, except as learned by that perusal. There was one 

 passage of this author which seemed to afford both light and hope 

 on the point in which disappointment had led me to despair. As 

 an illustration of defects in the chemical constitution of soils, and 

 of the remedies which proper investigation might point out, he 

 adduced the fact of a soil " of good apparent texture," which was 

 sterile, and seemed incapable of being enriched. The fact which 

 struck so forcibly on my mind was presented in the following con- 

 cise passage of Lect. iv. " If on washing [for analyzing] a sterile 

 soil, it is found to contain the salt of iron, or any acid matter, it 

 may be ameliorated by the application of quick-lime. A soil of 

 good apparent texture from Lincolnshire, was put into my hands 

 by Sir Joseph Banks as remarkable for sterility. On examining 

 it, I found that it contained sulphate of iron ; and I offered the 

 obvious remedy of top-dressing with lime, which converts the sul- 

 phate into a manure." 



Much the greater part of my land, and of all the land of lower 

 Virginia, seemed to me just such as Davy described in this single 

 and peculiar soil. It was certainly of " good apparent texture/' 

 that is, it was neither much too clayey or too sandy, nor had it any 

 other apparent defect to forbid its being fertile in a very high 

 35* 



