I860.] THE S 



- 



0UTHERN 



PLANTER. 



529 



still farther, imposes such a tax on 



all foreign 



blue 



compact marl ; and 



this substance, 



goods sold at auction ; and thus all of the 

 foreign goods so bought for the southern 

 states, (and their principal supply,) pay this 

 tax for the benefit of New York. As oje 

 of the numerous either cases, Alabama im- 

 poses a license tax pf 50 cents on the sale 

 of every pack of playing cards — all of 

 which are imported from the norflLand (by 

 favor* 1 of a federal protecting duty) are of 

 northern manufacture. A very proper tax 

 this is, whether considered in it? financial, 

 moral, or political aspect and operation— or 

 as a counterbalancing protection for - home 

 manufacture — and the legislature of Ala- 

 bama had ah unquestionable right to impose 

 the tax for any^ of .these objects. And 

 every southern stale nasi as g(/)d a right to 

 impose a license tax of 10, 50 or 100 per 

 cent, on the value "of .dtefy commodity that 

 is brought to the south exclusively from 

 northern and north-western 1 -- states. If this 

 policy were resorted to, ancl ruUy carried 

 into operation, the southern states would 

 right themselves in a year — and defend 

 themselves effectually from injustic and \o- 

 pression for all future time. ( 

 The growth of clove^, on these calcarecu 



when decomposing, as it does by exposure 

 to air, and in contact with carbonate of lime, 

 forms ultimately the new combination of 

 sulphate of lime or gypsum. Besides the 

 fact of this known source of sulphate of 

 lime, I suppose that I frequently saw it 

 exposed in visible but very small deposits of 

 white powder, on the sides of ditches then 

 dry, where the remains of the rain water, 

 flowing from the surface of the land, had 

 evaporated, and left the before dissolved 

 gypsum. The quantity of this seen in any 

 one place was too small to be collected for 

 testing; but I have observed the same ap- 

 pearance elsewhere, which I knew to be 

 of gypsum. Both these salts of lime are 

 specific manures for clover, and the sulphate 

 is one of wonderful benefit. 



Clover is a biennial plant; and if suffer- 

 ed to ripen its seeds, will thereby fulfil its 

 ■designed function, and complete its life, and 

 then usually dies when two years old. In 

 some cases, in lower Virginia, when mow- 

 ing or grazing has prevented the ripeningof 

 the seeds, clover will live through the third 

 year; and perhaps being added to by the 

 later springing of plants from seeds, may 

 lands has as yet extencfed to but few planta-| even last longer, but with a rapidly decreas- 

 tions — and except on a sm» ll proportion of,ing number of plants. But usually and for 

 these, it is as yel a* novel culture, of which useful purposes, the clover crop ends with 



the great benefits are but little appreciated 

 by the residents Ari general. Notwithstand- 

 ing the undoubted obstacles to the growth 

 presented in the warm climate, and in 

 seasons of long and severe drougk|t-and 

 the difficulty sometimes of obtaininjHBtand 

 of young plants from the seeding — qy>s yet 

 true that the crop of clover seeing more 

 productive, valuable, and far more endur- 

 ing, than I have ever known on the best 

 lands in Virginia. This strange result is 

 doubtless- owing to the peculiar fitness of the 

 soil for clover, in its large clayey and cal- 

 careous ingredients, and also to the presence 

 of both sulphate and phosphate of lime, in 

 small but sufficient quantities for clover, in 

 addition to the very large amount of car- 

 bonate of lime in the black lands. As the 

 whole bed of marl is the product of the 

 disintegration of ancient marine shells, and 

 m shells always contain a minute proportion 

 of phosphate of lime (bone earth) so must 

 the marl, and the soil impregnated so largely 

 with the marl. Also there must be sulphate 

 of lime, (gypsum,) because lumps ot sul- 

 phuret of iron are found frequently in the 

 34 



the second year. In Marengo county there 

 was clover in some few places as tall and 

 luxuriant as is seen anywhere. More gene- 

 rally it was grazed, and then only exhibited 

 a remarkably close, thick, and unmixed cov- 

 er of clover plants, of great vigor, though 

 kept grazed down to four or six inches ot 

 height. Such I saw over eighty acres of 

 the plantation of A. P. Calhoun, Esq., and 

 some of this he told me had been sown 

 seven years before. I heard of, but did not 

 see, good clover on the plantation of Col. 

 Isaac Croom, in Greene county, that had 

 been standing fourteen years, since the first 

 and only seeding. Part of the clover which 

 I saw on Mr. Calhoun's and Mr. Adams' 

 plantations, in Marengo, grew on what had 

 been " bald prairie/' containing so much 

 carbonate of lime, (probably fifty to sixty 

 per cent.) and also had been so much further 

 damaged by long continued former tillage, 

 that, before being sown in clover, these pla- 

 ces were not worth cultivating under cotton 

 or corn. The clover on these poor spaces 

 was indeed low, but stood thickly over the 

 whole ground, appeared to be a strong and 



