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other circumstance, to have led to the erroneous notion that lime 

 could be of no benefit to the soil. It must therefore be regarded as 

 a fact likely to affect the opinions and practice of persons entertain- 

 ing these views, that in a great many cases, the soils of the valley 

 contain little or no calcareous matter, even when taken from the 

 immediate vicinity of a limestone rock — a fact which has also been 

 observed by my brother and myself, in regard to many of the soils 

 in the corresponding region in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 

 the valley of the former state, lime has long been in extensive use, 

 and is well known to have been the means of imparting rich pro- 

 ductiveness to many wide districts in the limestone country which 

 were formerly regarded as of little value, while in the small belt of 

 corresponding character in New Jersey, a soil of almost sterile 

 worthlessness has by the same means been imbued with an extra- 

 ordinary degrqe oj" fertility. Experience-thus ample and satisfactory, 

 under circumstances which can leave no doubt as to the applica- 

 bility of the results to the valley of our own state, will, it may be 

 confidently hoped, impress our farmers in that region universally 

 with the importance of availing themselves of the invaluable resource 

 which is everywhere spread around them, and of thus removing 

 the imputation of indifference to improved modes of agriculture, 

 which the active enterprise of other regions has already proved to 

 be of great permanent advantage. 



The value of the limestones of our valley, with a view to this 

 most important of all their applications, may be judged of by the 

 results of several analyses recently made, from which it appears, 

 that in most cases, the carb. of lime exceeds 80 per cent., and in 

 some is largely over 90 per cent, of the whole mass. A series of 

 analyses, giving the composition of all the varieties of the rock in 

 numerous localities in each County through the valley, would sub- 

 serve one of the important interests of this region, by enabling 

 the farmers to infer what ought to be the proportion of pure lime 

 present in the product of the kiln in each locality. 



Another valuable material hitherto neglected in this region, is the 

 travertine or deposite marl which exists in some places in large 

 quantities. In Jefferson and Frederick, this chalky deposite forms 

 beds of considerable thickness, mingled with but little extraneous 

 matter. In Rockbridge, nearly all the streams that empty into the 

 South river, flow over a material of the same nature ; and in diet 



