I¥EW ENGL.AND FAMMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse. )-T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6, 1834. 



NO. 4. 



From tht \ iitiutia Farmer's Registtr. 

 ON THE USE OP MARIKK MANURES. 



It has often been to me a siil'ject of surprise, 

 that ihe various siibstiiiiccs aboiirnliiigoii the shores 

 of the Chesiipeake and its tribiitarics, and which, 

 for the want of a jreiierii^ name, I sliall class under 

 thtt <;oneral- head of 7nm-ine manures, have attracted 

 so little attention in Vir<rinia. Whilst our more 

 enterprising and industrious neijrhliors of Maryland, 

 have by the liberal use of these mean.s, been con- 

 verting a h.irren and exhausted soil into fertile and 

 productive lields, the farmers of Eastern-Virginia, 

 with the most abiimlant resources wiihiu their 

 reacli, seem to have been almost entirely ignorant 

 of their value, or indilterent about their applica- 

 tion. I deeni it not andss, therefoie, to call the 

 attention of the farmers on/tidewater to the value 

 of these resources, by communicatilig for your 

 Register, though in a hasty and imperfect manner, 

 my e.xperiujents and redeetioris ou this interesting 

 sidiject, 



Under llie bead of mnrive manures, I shall em- 

 brace, in the order of their respective values, sen- 

 weeil, (Ai^a Marina,) or sea ware, as it is called 

 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland ; Indian bank 

 shells, oyster shell lime, and marsh muil. 



About two years ago, finding it utterly vain to 

 improve a large and exhausted farm, by the un- 

 aided resources of the stable and fartu yard, I de- 

 termined to look out for some other means of im- 

 provement. I accordingly coimnenced, on my 

 Potomac farm, vigorous and e.\teiisi\'e operations, 

 with the marine manures of which I have spoken. 

 1 committed a fatal error however, at the outset, 

 Ju adhering to the ruinous three shift system, with- 

 out the aid of artificial grasses; U|)oii which, I 

 verily believe, no great or pernjanent im|iroveinent 

 can he effected, with any thing short of a moun- 

 tain of stable manure, and hands ami teams with- 

 out limit, to a(iply it. It is true that upon this 

 system, by great attention, ami the regidar appli- 

 cation of all the fertilizing means within reach of 

 our tiilewater farms, crops may be considerably in- 

 creased, and the laiul grailually improved : lint let 

 this great attention be ill the least remitted, and the 

 diminished returns of the farm will soon demon- 

 strate the deterioration of the land. I have since 

 adopted the four field rotation, with a standing 

 pasture, and the extensive cultivation of clover ; 

 and I have no doubt I shall soon reap the reward 

 of my labor, in the increase of my cro|)S, and the 

 permanent improvement of my land. 



I soon found in the application of manures, that 

 no great reliance could be pl.iced on the occasion- 

 al services of the farm hands and teams. I there- 

 fore detailed for that exclusive purpose a n^gular 

 force, consisting of a man, a woman, and two 

 small boys just large enough to follow the carts, 

 with two carts projierly constructed, anil an iibun- 

 dant supj)ly of oxen. With this force exclusively 

 devoted to collecting ami carting out manure, I 

 applied during the last year, upwards of 500U loads. 

 The whole annual expense, including estimated 

 wages, wear and tear of the carts, «Stc. may be 

 fairly set down at $2.50, making the manure cost 

 about Jive cents a load. Yet few of our fitrmers 

 can he convinced that they can spare time arid la- 

 bor for this essential operation. 



My farm bordering more than a mile on the Po- 

 tomac, aflbrds a fine opportunity of collecting the 

 seaweed; and my princi[)al and most successful 

 experiments have been with this valuable manure. 

 For nine months in the year, from the 1st of Au- 

 gust to the 1st of May, it is in great abundance, 

 and my carts have Dsually carried out, according 

 to circumstances, from 15 to 30 loads a <l;iy. Dur- 

 ing the last year I applied to various crops about 

 3000 loads of this manure, and with great effect 

 upon all. Sly first experiment was with corn. I 

 ajiplied it at the rate of about 70 loads to the acre, 

 in the water furrows of a field intended for corn 

 the next year, and listed upon it. The eflect on 

 the corn was immediate and powerful, doubling, 1 

 am confident, the crop on the poorest and lightest 

 parts of the field, and greatly improving it wherever 

 ap|ilied. I next applied it on a piece of very poor 

 land, at the same rate, and fiillowed for wheat, 

 leaving in the middle of the lot a sjrace of two 

 acres, uimianured, which bail previously been 

 sowed, as an experiment, with cow-peas. The 

 whole was put in wheat during the first week in 

 Septend)er, 1832. The wheat on the niaiinred 

 land grew off beautifully, leaving far behimi that 

 on the other part of the lot. At Christmas it was 

 exceedingly promising, but unfortunately having 

 been sowed too early, the fly in the sjiring nearly 

 destroyed it. During the same fill, I ap|ilied the 

 sea weed as a top dressing to the poorest parts of 

 my wheat and corn land ; and in parts of the field 

 I had it ploughed in with the wheat. Both appli- 

 c.itiims produced most decided effects, the growth 

 of wheat being thick and luxuriant on land which 

 before this manuring was not considered capable of 

 producing wheat at all. The fatal mildew, how- 

 ever, of the last summer, greatly injured the crop, 

 although it did not aftect those portions of the 

 field by any means as much, as other parts to 

 which this manure had not been applied. 



My next experiment was with oats, on which 

 the clt'ect of this manure was tridy astonishing. I 

 selected the poorest knoll in my field, bordering 

 upon a small stream, along the side of which was 

 a strip of land considered rich. I gave a liberal 

 dressing to the knoll, and left the bottom umnanur- 

 ed, and fallowed during the winter for oats, which 

 were sowed in March at the rate of two bushels to 

 the acre. When I prepared this jiiece of land for 

 oats, an intelligent neighbor and friend of ndne 

 remarked to me, that if I succeeded in getting a 

 crop from it, he would never afterwards doubt the 

 eflieacy of sea weed. 



We visited the farm together shortly before liar- 

 vest, and ho expressed the greatest astonishment 

 at the growth of the oats. The line was distinctly 

 visible which marked the extent of the manuring; 

 the oats ou the poor knoll being from G to 12 in- 

 ches liigber than those on the rich bottom. I 

 verily believe I do not exaggerate, when I say that 

 the oats were higher than some of the corn stalks 

 of the crop preceding the manuring. I tried this 

 manure also as a top dressing for oats, followed 

 by clover, with decided benefit on both crops. Its 

 great efficacy in counteracting the effects of drought 

 is very remarkable, and was strikingly exhibited 

 in my field of corn during the excessive drought 

 of last sumnier. The parts manured with sea 



my experi- 



weed continued green, long after the rest ;)f the 

 field had faded, and produced a tolerable croji, not- 

 wiihstanding the great severity of the drought. I 

 am now making an application of it, the operation 

 of which I have yet to test. I am |o|i-d|-essing a 

 field of clover sowed last spring, that I design to 

 fidlow for wheat next sunmier. I have been in- 

 fijrmed by an intelligent gentleman who witnessed 

 the experiment in New-.Iersey, that good farmers 

 in that State purchase this manme on the sea coast 

 at 25 cents a load, and after carting it several 

 miles itito the interior, apply it with jirofit to their 

 grass lands. 1 have little doubt that 

 ment will be successful. 



In an admirable treatise on agricidtnrc in tlio 

 New Edinburgh Encyclopaedia,* (to which, if it 

 has not already attracted your notice, I would be<' 

 leave to direct your attention, as furnishing many 

 valuable extracts for your Register,) the opinion is 

 expressed, tlnit " in one respect sea tceed is prefer- 

 able to the richest dung, because it does not pro- 

 duce such a rinantity of weeds." I do not know 

 whether its effect will be .so permanent or not, but 

 lor a single crop, I hazard nothing in saying that 

 in suflicient cpiantity it is equal to the beat stable 

 manure. 



The wonderful effects of this manure are Dot to 

 be attributed so much to the vegetable matter 

 which it contains, as to the quantity of salts and 

 animal mucilage intermixed with it. It is doubt- 

 less this animal tnatter (consisting of sea nettles 

 young shell fish, and the spawn and freces of the 

 finny tribe,) ihat produces so striking an eflect on 

 wheat on light lands. According to the writer in 

 the Encyclopa'dia to whom I have referred, it has 

 produced a wonderful effect on the sea coast of 

 England, imparting to light lands suflicient tenaci- 

 ty to product; wheat and resist mildew. I do not 

 know what this manure would yield on analysis; 

 but I think it probable a quantity of gluten would 

 be afforded, which is essential to the growth of 

 wheat ; and this may account for the remarkable 

 fact observed both here and in England, that it 

 imparls to the lightest soils the capacity to bear 

 heavy crops of wheat. You may find in the first 

 vol. of the American Farmer, an interesting letter 

 from Thomas Griflin, Esq. of Yorktown ; and in 

 the 13th vol. of the same work, a valuable com- 

 mimicalion from an Eastern Shore farmer, signed 

 " Corn Planter," on the great virtues of this ma- 

 nure: the republication of these papers might pos- 

 sibly be of service by arousing the attention of 

 some of our lethargic farmers, to the inestimable 

 value of an article, lieretolbre regarded by them as 

 a nuisance, being suftered to remain fermenting 

 and putrefying on the shores, and infecting the at- 

 mosphere with the most fojtid and pestilential 

 odors. 



Most of the farms on the Potomac abound with 

 banks of partially decomposed oyster shells, wheth- 

 er left there by the Indians, or brought to the sur- 

 face by some great convulsion of nature, from the 

 former bed of the river, I leave to geologists to de- 

 termine. I have used these shells in considerable 



* By Robert Brown of Markle, (Scotland,) wlio was a judi- 

 cious and sviccessl'ul practical farmer on a large scale, as well 

 as an excellent writer on agriculture in general — two charac- 

 ters which unlortunately, are seldom fouud combined in Ih* 

 same person. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



