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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



To illustrate this idea, lei it be said that the 

 farmer of tide water knows that the presence 

 on a soil in his section, of certain plants, such 

 as broom grass, sheep sorrel, etc. unerringly 

 indicates poverty, and that by actual experiment 

 it has been (bund that lime or marl, in certain 

 aantities, is sure and economic means of pro- 

 ucing a speedy and permanent improvement 

 of said soil, and that less quantities of these cal- 

 careous manures is altogether inefficient. Now 

 while this and other similar experiments might 

 aothorize him rationally to infer a deficiency of 

 lime in his soil, as well as the necessity of ap- 

 plying it as above, it would be by no means 

 satisfactory proof of either; for, after all, there 

 may have been present an abundance of some 

 salt of lime, unavailable, because insoluble — in 

 connection with some poisonous salt of iron ; — 

 both of which, thorough drainage and plowing 

 might have remedied to a considerable extent. 

 6 till less would such an experiment prove a de- 

 ficiency ol lime in a soil of a distant locality — 

 and indeed there is abundant proof that sheep 

 mrrel is not incompatible with fertility, and else- 

 where than in tide water, often grows well on 

 soils, presumeably, rich in lime — because long 

 proverbially fertile and especially productive in 

 those crops known to require a good deal of that 

 mineral; and farther, that broom grass soils 

 even have been made very productive without 

 the use of lime. So that even admitting it to 

 kave been demonstrated, that the presence of 

 eertain plants on a tide water soil, indicates a 

 deficiency of lime, and the necessity of apply- 

 ftig it in order to any permanent improvement, 

 two important questions would yet arise. 



1st. Will similar applications of lime to the 

 mbove, on all those poor soils in middle Virginia, 

 tohich present similar signs of poverty, <$c, 

 prove alike beneficial? And, 2d. are such ap- 

 plications of lime equally necessary in order to 

 their permanent improvement ? 



In answer to the first question, it may be stated 

 that the writer's experience with fresh slacked 

 stone lime, mainly in compost with farm pen ma- 

 nures, applied at different times to the extent in 

 the aggregate of a hundred bushels or more, and 

 in one instance at the cost of some 10 or 12 

 dollars per acre, mainly on pine and broom 

 straw soils, together with the observation of its 

 effects under various applications by others in 

 different localities — the details of which cannot 

 be here given* — justifies the conclusion that 

 lime does not on many, at least, of the soils of 

 middle Virginia, produce the same beneficial 

 effects it does in tide water. 



* Mr. W. H. Harris, a neighbor of the undersigned, some 

 six or eight years ago used about 500 bushels of shell lime 

 <»« a granite soil — in quantities generally of twenty-five 

 bushels to the acre, broad cast for cern — and did not see 

 hat the corn was any better than on similar land adjoining 

 and unlimed — nor did he see any benefit in the wheat thai 

 followed, nor in the clover. These lands have since been 

 several times in corn, and the corn in no instance was any 

 better than what he had a right to expect from an improved 

 mode of tillage and the use of guano. Other similar re- 

 salts ia great numbers could be given as the experience of 

 maa^" •( out best farmers in the use of liit>e. 



In respect to the 2nd question, it would only 

 be necessary to appeal to the almost universal ex- 

 perience of the farmers of middle Virginia, to be 

 told that, in order to the improvement of a gen- 

 erality of their poor soils, it has not been found 

 necessary to use lime at all. Indeed there ars 

 thousands of farmers, all over the above section, 

 who never used a bushel of lime in their lives, 

 who could testify to the improvement, within the 

 last few years, of pine, broom, grass and sorrel 

 soils without the use of lime, and with clover 

 and plaster alone, so as to enhance their money 

 value fr»m 100 to 200 per cent. 



But there are other soils, chiefly located in 

 the tobacco district of the State, presenting simi- 

 lar external signs of poverty, and of the neces- 

 sity of lime, with those which have been relied 

 on in tide water, as proof of both on which 

 hitherto neither lime nor plaster seems to 

 have had any very marked effect, and these 

 soils, because they have been unjustly regarded 

 as the most destitute and difficult to improve of 

 all others, and because their agricultural advan- 

 tages and capabilities have been generally un- 

 derrated by agricultural writers, shall now re- 

 ceive especial consideration. 



It would be agreeable to the writer of this 

 essay, had he the means of testing a variety of 

 the soils of tide water, to compare, from approxi- 

 mative results, the average proportions of lime 

 in the two sections. It might be profitable also 

 to compare the histories of the two sections — to 

 notice the fact, that while the one. through a long 

 period of time has been generally appropriated 

 to a mixed husbandry, in which tobacco, the 

 most troublesome and lime-absorbing of all 

 crops, pressing in, between corn and wheat, has 

 not only almost entirely consumed all the oth- 

 erwise spare labor of the farm, which could 

 have been given to a general improvement, but 

 has actually nearly consumed all the manure 

 made — the other has long been devoted almost 

 exclusively to grain growing, and thus received 

 all the benefits resulting from a system of exten- 

 sive fallowing, and all the advantages of much 

 spare time and means for making and applying 

 manures — that while in the one, much of the 

 crops has been returned to the land as manure 

 or otherwise, in the other nearly the whole has 

 been sold off—and farther, it might be well to 

 make some allowance for the impulse given to 

 farming in tide water, under the immediate in- 

 fluence of such distinguished farmers and wri- 

 ters as the authors of "Crater," and of "Calca- 

 reous Manures " advantages but little enjoyed in 

 middle Virginia; and lastly, to make some esti- 

 mate in dollars and cents of the present compa- 

 rative profit, of farming in the two sections ; but 

 all these matters, even could they be fairly stated, 

 would lengthen too much this communication. 



The writer, therefore, as the result of a per- 

 sonal examination of a variety of the soils of 

 middle Virginia as to their lime constituents, 

 and from what he has gathered from the written 

 and verbal testimony of others as to the gene- 

 ral composition of the soils of tide water, as well 

 as from much that may be fairly inferred from 



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