Ko. 2. 
RECENT AND EXTENSIVE MARLING IN SOUTH 
CAROLINA. 
Columbia, S. C., November 30, 184'2. 
Dear Sir: — It affords me great pleasure to 
comply with your request, to i'urnish }'ou with a 
siatement of m;r marling operations during the 
hist year, and tiie result of them so far as it has 
been ascertained. 
1 commenced in November last to marl my 
plantation at Silver Bluff', on Savamiah liver, 
rhere is no marl on the place. 1 procured it , 
from biiell Bluff' on the .same river, and had to j 
boat it twelve miles up the stream. It requii'es j 
eleven prime hands to man the boat I use, and ' 
when the river is not too high they make two 
trips a week, loadi.ng and unloading themselves; 
The}' bring about 1100 bushels at a load. The 
marl is landed at a spot below high-w^ter mark, 
and during the whole crop season two other 
hands and two carts are constantly engaged in 
hauling it to a place of secru ity on the top of the 
bluff. At other times it is hauled directly from | 
the landing to the fields. There are, however, 
thirteen hands and two mules lost to the crop. — 
My boat, Avhich is a eornmon pole boat, was 
built chieliy by my own people, and eosi me 
about .$300, including their labor. There have 
been incidental expenses to the amount of alrout 
8200 this year. During the year ending on the 
8th of November, there were 85 trips made and 
about 93,000 bushels brought up. I think I can 
safely calculate on bringing up 100,000 bushels 
per annum hereafter, with the same force. I 
mention these facts that every one may form his 
own estimate of the cost of procuring marl un- 
der similar circum.stances. My caiculation is | 
that it costs me about tvv'o cents a bushel deliver- i 
ed on my bluff. To one having marl on his own : 
premises nearly the whole of this expense would ! 
be saved. I am enabled, by omitting to open i 
new land, to haul ouf and spread this marl, with- 
out interfering with other plantatiim work, or 
lessening the number of acres planted per hand. 
In hauling out I have not been able to do as 
much as they do in 'Virginia, hlr. Ruffin, the 
author of the marling system, hauled 24 loads of | 
.5f bushels with each cart per day a distance of i 
847 yards; I have done but little over half as j 
well. I use mules, however, and the land being 
level, carried 61 bushels at a load. I found the { 
mules could not stand trotting back Avith the j 
empty cart. The marl v'cighs about 105 lbs. per [ 
bushel. Mv laud Avas laid off in squares, so 
many to an acre, and a load dropped in each | 
square. It Avas 'spread by hand; each negro tak- I 
ing his square, andcam'ing his marl on a board | 
or in a small tray. A prime fellow can spread 
an acre in a day. But it is a hard task, and 
counting the gang round I liaA'e not aA'eraged | 
oA’er half an acre for each Avorker. The marl ! 
spreads best AA'ben damp. It Avill then yield 
to the hand, and lumps are in general easilv 
crushed. 
Shell Bluff is a bold cliff on SaAmnnah riA'er, 
over 200 feet high, and, in some places, more 
than 100 feet perpendicular. Professor Vanux- 
em. Avho examinedit some years ago, (see Farm- 
ers’ Register, a'oI. auI. p. 70, and also a'oI. x. p. 
487,) discoA'ered fourteen A'arieties of marl, A'ary- 
ing in quality from 37.2 to 93.4 per cent, of car- 
lionate of lime. In using the marl I haA'e ex- 
cluded the inferior as much as possible, and haA’-e 
not found tlie A'ery best in any great quantity. — 
I tested the quantity of carbonate of lime in one 
specimen taken at random fiom each boat load 
brought up this summer, and found the aA'erage 
of thirty-four load.s to be G2.8 per cent., A arying 
from 51 to 77. In eA'eiy .specimen there was a 
small proportion of oxide of iron, and clay and 
sand, nsually in about equal quantities. There 
Avere, no doubt, other component parts Avhich I 
did not ascertain; but I satisfied my.celf that 
there Avas neither gA-psum no)' magne.sia. The 
marl presents \T.rious appearances, being in col- 
or v.'hite, brovui, oHa'c, yelloAv and A'iolet, and in 
consistence from sand to soft stone. Some of it 
appears to be a concretion of shells from a size 
scarcely A'isible to the naked eye to an inch in 
diameter. There is no hard limestone, and it is 
doubtful Avliether any of the marl here will make 
lime, though it is an excellent cement, hluch 
of that Avhich I haA'e used has been cut from the 
face of the cliff’ Avith pick-axes. It falls down 
sometimes in fine grains, sometimes in masses. 
At cA'eiy handling it breaks rip finer, and expo- 
sure to the air assists disintegration. I do not 
burn or pound it. V/here it Avas .spread last 
Avintej, an obserA'cr Auould readily discoA'er it, 
and lumps as iai'ge as an egg, anS occasionally 
much larger, are to l-e seen. A mere passer bA', 
hoAveve.r. would not notice that the land had 
been mailed. At every Avorking it is more and 
more mixed with the soil. But I imagine it Aviil 
be scA'eral years before it is comiiletely combin- 
ed with it, and until then the full effect of this 
marl cannot be knoAvn. A dift'erence Ava.s appa- 
rent in this crop between the effects of that spread 
early in Februar}' and that spread in the latter 
part of April. 
By the 2'2fl of April la.st, I Lad mat'led 175 
acres at the rate of 200 bushels to the aci'e. Of 
the.se 1 planted 50 acres in corn on the 17th of 
March, 50 acres in cotton on the lOlh April, and 
75 acres in cotton on the 22d April. The.?e 
three cuts are in the same field, and adjoining, 
being separated onl}^ bv tum-row's, yet the soils 
A'aiy considerabl}'. In the corn, I laid off' four 
separate acres along the tnrn-roAv, as nearly 
equal in quality as possible. The one supposed 
to he the best Avas left Avithout marl. The others 
were )narled with one, two and three hundred 
bushels respectlA'ely. It was all of the same 
boat load, and contained 54 per cent, of carbo- 
nate of lime. This land has been in cultiA'ation 
more than one hundi'ed years. I haA'e planted it 
myself eleven of the last tAveh'e years, and’sow- 
e-d" it in oats the other year. I haA'e glA'en it 
three light coats of manui'e, the last in 18.39. It 
is a light, gray, sand}' soil, of Avhichthe folloAV- 
ing Avas the analysis before marling, A'iz: 
Water lost at 300 degrees 2 percent. 
Vegetable matter 3 “ 
Silica 80 
Alumina 11 
Oxide of iron 2 
Loss 2 
100 
This cut Avas in cotton last year, and my ex- 
pectation Ava-s, that with common seasons it 
would produce tweh'e bushels of corn per acre. 
And had I not kept the unmarled acre as a teff , I 
should have set doAvn all OAmr that quantity to 
the credit of the marl. The corn came up bad- 
ly, and suffered by the birds. The four experi- 
mental acres Avere eultlA-ated precisely as the rest 
of the cut, and were distinguished onh' by the 
posts Avhich marked the comers of each acre. — 
From the first, hcAveA'er, the marled con exhib- 
ited a different appearance. It was siouter and 
of a much deeper color. As the season advanc- 
ed, the difference became greater. The marled 
com was as dark a green a.s.sAA'amp com u.sua]ly 
is. The fodder Avas pulled on the 3d of August, 
and after hanging tAvo days and a half on the 
stalk in dry and rather Avindy weather, Aveighed 
as folloAvs: 
Increase. Percent. 
'Fnmarled acre 250 lbs. 
5Iarled at 100 bushels- • '285 “ 35 lbs. 14 
“ “ 200 “ ■■314 “ 64 “ 25.6 
“ “300 “ ■■261 “ 11 “ 4.4 
The com Avas gathered on the 24th of Octobei; 
being thoronglilv dry and having shmnk as 
much as it would in the field. There appeared 
to be little or no difference in point of soundness. 
It Avas shucked clean and mea.sured in a barrel. 
The umnai'led corn shelled out two quarts les.s 
to the band than the marled. The following 
Avas the le.sult: 
Increase. Per cent. 
Unmarled acre 
17 bush. 
Marled, at 100 bush.- 
■21 “ 
4 
23.5 
“ “ 200 ■ 
■ 21 “ 
4 
23.5 
“ “ 300 “ 
• ■18.1 “ 
14 
8.8 
From this it Avould appear that 100 bushels ot 
marl Avas as efficacious as 200, and perhaps in 
.such land as this such may be the fact. It ap- 
pears also probable that 300 bu.shels to the acre 
is too mucli. I ought hoAveA'er to .state, that thi^ 
last acre had a slight sink in the centre, and that 
the slopes around it are much thinner than the 
aA'erage land. These constitute about one-fiftli 
of the acre, and were CA’idently injured by the 
marl. It Avas a bad selection for the heaAuesr 
marling; but at the time it was made I did not 
suppose, judging by the rates at AA'hich they 
marled m Virginia, tliat 300 bushels would iti- 
jure any land. AJv fear noAv is that 200 bushels 
may prove too much for soil like this; and I have 
accordingly determined to put only 150 bushels 
on the acre hereafter, rmtil I see its fiuther ef- 
fects. This has been a remarkable productive 
season for corn: I think the umnaried f cie in 
this cut made at least fiA'e bushels more than it 
AA'ould have done ol' an average year. I presume 
the marled acres haA'e done so likcAvise. Bm 
whether it would be fair to attribute an}' cf tlie 
four bushels increased to the pecnliariU' cf -the 
season operating on the marl, I am vcholly unable 
to decide. Supposing the increase from the sea- 
son to be the same on the marled and unmarled 
land, and deducting five bushels from the pro- 
duce of each acre, there Avill be 33 ^ per cent, in 
faA'or of the ten best marled acres. Tills, hoAv- 
CA'er, is all cpnjectiu'e. The aA'erage per acre cd' 
this whole cut Avas eighteen bushels. The mea- 
surement of all but the experimental acres was 
made hoAveA'er by wagon loads, according to the 
usual plantation estimate, in AA'hich there is a 
liberal alloAvance for shrinking, &c. Had the 
whole been measured in the same manner as 
the experimental acres were, the produce Avonld 
haA'e appeared greater. I haA'e had this cut 
planted in corn once before, but haA'ing been ab- 
sent the whole year, no account of it was pie- 
seiwed, and I do notlmoAv Avffiatit jiroduced. 
I selected also and laid off' separately four 
acres of cotton along the tnm-roAv of tb.e seA'Oi- 
tA'-fiA'e aci'e cut of cotton. At the time I thonghi 
them nearly equal in qnalit}', and the one suppo- 
sed to he tire best of these Avas left unmarled, 
and 1, 2 and 300 bushels of marl spread upon 
