THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



715 



quantity of olive earth applied here was 400 

 bushels to the acre, which would give (of the 

 Marlbourne bed) from 20 to 25 bushels of 

 phosphate of lime. Perhaps our soils in this 

 neighbourhood may naturally contain nearly 

 enough of this essential ingredient, so that an 

 additional quantity would not produce very 

 marked early benefit. I formerly supposed that 

 our peculiar eocene marl (judging from its ef- 

 fects) contained phosphate of lime — which, if 

 true, would explain the small effect of olive 

 earth on land previously arid heavily marled 

 from such beds. But I am compelled to give 

 up this former and long cherished belief, inas- 

 much as Prof. Gilham, in sundry trials, has 

 not found more than a trace of phosphate of 

 lime in the Marlbourne marl, or in any other 

 of this neighbourhood. 



All the specimens of olive earth of which 

 the analyses are reported above, were overlying 

 eocene marl, except those from Hybla and Cher- 

 icoke. 



Several different circumstances concurred to 

 cause me to suspect, previous to 1853, that the 

 black gravel of the olive earth and marl was 

 rich in phosphate of lime. I had seen such 

 gravel, though in small quantities, in all eocene 

 beds ; and this marl I had found much more 

 fertilizing than the miocene, when equal in 

 their carbonate of lime, the main fertilizing 

 ingredient, and usually the only one in mio- 

 cene marls. The same gravel is still more 

 abundant in some parts of the olive earth. I 

 had heard it remarked by users of this earth, 

 that it seemed to be the better as manure 

 where the black gravel was most abundant. I 

 had evidences (in some specimens which I 

 forwarded to Prof. Gilham) that this gravel, 

 though now extremely hard, had once been 

 quite st. ft, so as to fill the interior of spiral 

 shells, like the softest chiy. 1 had also read 

 that coprolites, the petrified excrements of extinct 

 marine animals, had been found in such quan- 

 tities in certain beds of green-sand in England, 

 that they were separated, and ground to pow- 

 der to be sold for manure — as these coprolites 

 consisted mostly of phosphate of lime. Also, 

 in Prof. Emmons' first report of his geological 

 survey of North Carolina, he stated having 

 found coprolites in the eocene marl on Cape 

 Fear river near "Wilmington. Putting all these 

 things together, I thought it_more than prob- 

 able that the small black gravel in our olive 

 earth, and in eocene marl, was coprolites, and 

 therefore mainly of phosphate of lime, and in- 

 dicating more, invisible, diffused through the 

 bed. This has been proved to be correct, by 

 Prof. Gilliam's recent analysis of this gravel. 

 So far as the quantity of these coprolites may 

 go, they contain as much phosphate of lime as 

 bones, and add more than half of their weight 

 of phosphate of lime to the olive earth or marl 

 in which they are imbedded— and so much in 

 addition to whatever there is in a finely divid- 

 ed state, and reported in sundry specimens 



| from which the black gravel had been separat- 

 | ed. But though this gravel in some rare cases 

 lies thickly through very thin layers of the 

 earth, it is never abundiint enough to be sepa- 

 rated for grinding — and its extreme hardness, 

 and very slow disintegration in the soil, as 

 well as the small quantity of all yet observed, 

 will prevent its presence adding much to the 

 value of the whole quuntity of the finely di- 

 vided portion in phosphate of lime in the olive 

 earth. 



EDMUND RUFFIN. 

 Marllourne, Oct. 7th, 1858. 



For the Planter 



A Plea for Innocence. 



There is a large class of innocent suf- 

 ferers in our country, which deserves 

 more of human sympathy than it is accus- 

 tomed to receive. This is the class of 

 girls, growing up to womanhood, in the 

 midst of that strange process, called edu- 

 cation. Large and costly establishments 

 are constantly being erected all over the 

 country, devoted to this purpose, and the 

 girls of thousands of families, are sedu- 

 lously congregated within them, to un- 

 dergo, for about ten months in the year, 

 the discipline of the boarding school. 

 Many of these girls become proficient in 

 learning to such an extent as to excite the 

 admiration of friends; and evidences of 

 their success are furnished us in long, 

 newspaper columns, of exquisite speci- 

 mens of composition, and in the ample 

 pages of annual reports. Truly, we must 

 be in a fair way to become a learned 

 people. Our admiration is challenged of 

 so great a good, and while the daily press 

 resounds with its praises, we are scarcely 

 at liberty to withhold it. But to the intel- 

 ligent admirer of female excellence, this 

 admiration is not unmingled with commis- 

 seration. He sees and admires mental 

 cultivation, and the requisition of knowl- 

 edge, but he becomes fully aware, at every 

 glance into these institutions, of the inu- 

 tility of mental improvement without its 

 necessary adjuncts, bodily health and 

 vigour. While the former appears to be 

 boastingly secured, the want of the latter 

 inspires him with the deepest compassion. 



It requires only a modicum of physio- 

 logical knowledge — indeed it requires only 

 a little observation and common sense- — 

 to enable us to place a proper estimate 

 upon the importance of health, and to 

 calculate upon the absolute certainty of 



