t 



132 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



quantity for almost any lands, and its beneficial ef- 

 fects will last from fifteen to twenty years, no other 

 application being needed for that space of time. 



Plaster being a combination of lime and sulphuric 

 acid, it will be necessary to mention its beneficial 

 effects in this connection. To the extent of the 

 quantity of lime it contains it benefits all soils 

 which lime would benefit in the same manner and 

 by the same chemical process. It possesses the 

 valuable additional property of fixing the ammonia 

 contained in manure, and applied to land it fixes 

 the ammonia in the soil which is formed by the 

 slowly decomposing roots and other substances 

 found in it. Plaster will attract ammonia and other 

 gases fieating in the atmosphere and fix them about 

 those plants which feed principally upon the air, 

 by means of their leaves, as well as acting as direct 

 food for them, either in supplying the sulphate of 

 lime, or by its decomposition affording the sulphur 

 necessary for their development. It is particularly 

 useful in dry seasons on light, calcareous soils, from 

 the fact that it attracts and absorbs moisture from 

 the atmosphere. All vegetables and plants derive 

 their nourishment from the air as well as the soil, 

 while many live almost entirely from what they re- 

 ceive from the air and water; therefore, to all, and 

 particularly to the latter, or the leguminous class 

 of plants, is plaster beneficial. It is indispensable 

 in the cultivation of clover and other broad leaved 

 plants; and when putrescent manures cannot be 

 supplied clover and plaster must supply their places. 

 No where can plaster be more judiciously used than 

 from time to time on the manure heaps, over the cat- 

 tle yards, sheepfolds and in the stables, in absorbing 

 and fixing the valuable properties of manure which 

 are constantly escaping in the form of gases. I 

 would, therefore, advise the use of plaster in all 

 the vegetable and animal manures raised upon the 

 farm, as well as its liberal use upon all green crops 

 designed for the improvement of land. 



Marl— This is another agent " in improving and 

 enriching poor land," and may be regarded by those 

 who possess it as equally important as lime, for it 

 not only performs all the offices of lime, but from 

 its combination with other inorganic and organic 

 substances found in the soil, renders it, where it 

 can easily be obtained, much more valuable and 

 efficient. So great is the deficiency of farmers in 

 the knowledge of agricultural chemistry and che- 

 mical analysis, and their consequent ignorance of 

 the qualities of the marl which they use, that many 

 who have tried it have become dissatisfied with its 

 action and abandoned its use. Marls, which, from 

 a superficial view, appear to have the most shell and 

 other valuable properties, especially those through 

 which water charged with carbonic acid percolates, 

 are found by analysis to contain but a small portion 

 of carbonate of lime. Feeling the want of proper 

 means to analyze marl, and knowing it could be 

 done with but little trouble, to ascertain the amount 

 of carbonate of lime it contained, many years since 

 I wrote to the late lamented and distinguished agri- 

 culturist, Gen. Corbin Braxton, and obtained from 

 him his mode of analyzing marls, which I here ap- 

 pend, as axheap and simple plan for enabling the 

 farmer to arrive at the amount of carbonate of lime 

 his marl may possess : 



"One hundred grains of carbonate of lime is 

 composed of 46 grains of carbonic acid gas and 54 

 grains of caustic lime ; therefore, if you wish to 

 ascertain the quantity of carbonate of lime in any 

 earth, take a piece of it, a fair sample, and dry it 

 well to get all the moisture out of it — pound it 



finely in a mortar, and weigh out 100 grains; hav- 

 ing provided yourself witli a thin, wide mouth glass 

 vessel — an old quinine bottle answers very well — 

 then put into it enough muriatic acid, mixed with 

 three times its quantity of water, say ono drachm 

 of acid to three drachms of water, if you think 

 your marl has not more than 20 per cent, of car- 

 bonate of lime, and for every 20 grains of lime you 

 think your marl has, add another drachm. If your 

 marl has 40 per cent, take 2 drachms of acid and 

 6 drachms of water; if 60 per cent., 3 drachms of 

 acid and 9 drachms of water. In that proportion 

 having put what acid and water you may want in 

 the vial, then balance it in a scale with any thing 

 you may have at hand. Having done this, add 

 gently to the water and acid the 100 grains of marl 

 already weighed out, and when the effervescence 

 is entirely over, put the vial in the scale again and 

 weigh it, to ascertain the quantity of carbonic acid 

 gas that is lost. Say 17 grains — that is, the vial 

 with the 100 grains of marl that was put into it 

 weighed less by 17 grains — you then work it out 

 by the Rule of Three : 



Say 46 100 17 



100 



46 J 1700 L 36.44 



138 



320 

 276 



^~44 



About 37 per cent, of carbonate of lime/' 



The calcareous earths used in Virginia are the 

 miocene and eocene marls and green sands, which 

 are found in extensive quantities in the tide water 

 region of the State. The miocene marls contain 

 mostly clay and shell, and are valuable for the 

 amount of carbonate of lime they possess, and if 

 applied to light soils act in a twofold capacity — in 

 supplying lime and clay, which improve the tex- 

 ture of such soils. The eocene marls and green 

 sands, especially those found on the Pamunky and 

 James rivens, are mostly valuable for the lime, 

 plaster, potash, soda and other valuable substances 

 which they contain, as will appear from the analy- 

 ses made by Professor Gilham of the Virginia Mi- 

 litary Institute, who seems to have made the first 

 and only correct analyses of these marls Avhich 

 have ever yet been submitted to the public. The 

 action of the marls found upon the Pamunky river 

 is more valuable than any manure I have ever yet 

 seen applied. It is that which has rendered the 

 farms on it so valuable and given them a celebrity 

 which is not surpassed by any lands in the State. 

 The Retreat farm, in' Hanover county, by the ap- 

 plication of this marl has been brought from a state 

 of great sterility to the most highly improved con- 

 dition of any land in that section of country — and 

 it may truly be said that those regions which abound 

 in deposits of this article are blessed with mines of 

 inestimable wealth. 



Ashes. — The action of unleached and leached 

 ashes upon land as a promoter of vegetation ren- 

 ders it necessarily an agent " in improving and en- 

 riching poor land." Ashes are a valuable manure, 

 not only for the potash they contain, but for many 

 other of their constituents, which cannot be re- 

 moved by leaching, and which preserve a value 

 very little inferior to those which have not under- 

 gone that process. They are highly worthy of the 

 attention of the agriculturist for the many sub- 



