VoL, L AUGUSTA, Ga., JULY 5, 1843. No. 14. 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
MARL. 
The definition of Marl is calcareous earth, 
and Ruffin applies the latter term to the carbo- 
nate of lime, exclusive of all other salts of lime, 
and of lime itself. Pure lime is never found 
jn nature uncombined, and many of its com- 
pounds are not known to exert any influence on 
soils; while others, though esteemed good ma- 
nures, exist in such small quantities, and so 
rarely occur, as to be unworthy of considera- 
tion in comparison with the carbonate of lime, 
which has been discovered in immense strata, 
hundreds of feet in depth, and miles in length, 
and from whose application to soils such won- 
derful results have been derived. 
It is time that our planters were turning their 
serious attention to the nature of this manure. 
It has occupied the labor and capital of many 
of the most intelligent agriculturists in Virgin- 
ia, since its properties have been developed by 
that benefactor to the planting States, Mr. Ed- 
mund Ruffin; and our sister State, Carolina, is 
under considerable excitement with the recent 
discovery, and favorable analysis, of large beds 
of marl in her eastern districts: and having Mr. 
Ruffin among them, to point out the mode of 
application, and the thousand advantages to ac- 
crue from its use, no doubt its effects will be 
tested wherever it is found. Although our lands 
are not exhausted by cultivation, and far the 
larger part of the State is an uncleared forest, 
yet our older plantations are much worn; and 
to save the improvements on them, to check em- 
igration to fresher soils, and to preserve to our 
posterity the timber, (and avoid the extra labor,) 
which the opening yearly of new fields would, 
ere long, destroy, no effbrt should be spared to 
restore them to their original fertility. Putre- 
scent manure, with the aid of rest, and judicious 
rotation of crops, is the only resort at present 
known, for those who are beyond the reach of 
calcareous earth. But to the planters in the 
lower section of the State, or southeast of a line 
through the eastern boundary oi Richmond and 
Stewart counties, this earth may be found in 
abundance and probably in many places can be 
procured with facility, and be applied with lit- 
tle cost of time and labor. In Burke, particu- 
larly, nature has strewed this manure with a 
bountiful hand. The pile of marl at Shell 
Bluff’ would supply every plantation in the coun- 
ty. However, it cannot be transported by land 
carriage to any great distance without manifest 
disadvantage, and at an expense which few 
would be willing to incur, even if convinced of 
the handsome profit which such investment 
would ultimately yield them. But this is not 
necessary. This bed extends through the coun- 
ty, and continues through the State, as shown 
by the digging of wells, and has only to be 
searched for with a boring machine, and worked 
by means ot a shaft. Yet a species oi marl 
protrudes from the surface in various parts of 
this county, and from an analysis of a few spe- 
cimens, contains about 20 per cent of the ferti- 
lizing principle; and if taken from beneath the 
surface, would no doubt yield a much larger 
proportion. It is the argillaceous marl, which 
if specimens of the same strength, is regarded 
the best, since the shells which composed it ori- 
ginally are entirely disintegrated, and its action 
upon the soil will therefore be immediate. Bu^ 
the object of this communication is to call at- 
tention to the subject, by stating the diff’erent ef- 
fect of marl; and to furnish those who feel suf- 
ficient interest to look for and examine it, with , 
a simple process, by which to ascertain its 
strength. 
Marl possesses the property of modifying the 
texture of soils. It renders a clay soil open, 
loose, friable, easily worked, and penetrable be- 
low the surface by heat, air, moisture, and the 
enriching principles of decaying vegetable mat- 
ter; and it forms with a sandy soil, a cement 
which closes somewhat its pores, makes it more 
firm, and capable of absorbing and holding wa- 
ter. This is proved by the fact, that clay and 
lime cannot be made to adhere together in the 
form of mortar, whereas sand and lime will 
form a cement. It is beneficial, therefore, to the 
extreme soils, and is more so to those in which 
sand and clay are in better proportion. 
While it furnishes of itself no nutriment to 
vegetation, it combines with the nutritive ingre- 
dients of manure, fixes them in the soil, and 
only yields them to the attractive power of 
growing plants. Neither sun, nor rain, nor air 
can waste them. In a soil where clay predomi- 
nates, the manure (putrescent) is absorbed and 
retained for a season; a portion of its elements 
being given to plants, while the larger part is 
dissipated in the air by evaporation; and when 
sand prevails, there is no affinity for manures, 
and being porous, the salts are washed through 
it beyond the reach of the roots of plants, and 
retaining no moisture, and being easily parched, 
the heat soon expels the gases. But the calca- 
reous earth combines chemically with these sub- 
stances, and having great affinity for moisture, 
and ability to absorb a large proportion of it, it 
is not injured by hard rains, nor materially af- 
fected by long droughts. And a happy conse- 
quence of this is, that calcareous soils never 
wash. 
An acid soil, (known by the growth of sorrel, 
young pines and broom straw, and nearly all 
our worn soils are more or less acid,) which 
prevents the early decay of vegetable matter, 
and therefore receives no benefit from the appli- 
cation of manures, unless in a fermenting state, 
when half their principles will escape before 
they can be absorbed by plants, is neutralized 
and rendered capable of receiving and holding 
the products of putrefaction. And by destroy- 
ing their sustenance these noxious plants are 
likewise destroyed. 
After the intermixture of marl with the soil, 
by the accumulation of vegetable matter it is 
rendered darker in color, thus more freely ab- 
sorbing the rays of the sun, and becoming 
warmer. The effect of this, added to the stim- 
ulating action ol the marl upon plants, is to 
hasten them to maturity. And our cotton crop, 
which is now shortened by an early fall, and is 
devVeloped so slowly as to require picking until 
very late in the season, will be ripened early, 
enabling a larger quantity of prime cotton to be 
gathered, and rapidly, so that the crop may al- 
ways be housed before December. 
Marl is serviceable in forming new soils on 
“galls” and in gullies, when mixed with putre- 
scent matter. It will not wash, and makes the 
manure permanent. It serves also to deepen a 
soil. The marl and manure are carried down 
together by rain, as far as the soil will permit, 
which is lower than is usually ploughed. And 
by repeated applications of both marl and vege- 
table matter, the land will become fertile beyond 
conception. 
From its power to retard somewhat the putre- 
faction of matter, and combine with the pro- 
ducts of it as fast as they are evolved, it has a 
tendency to destroy, by seizing and retaining the 
miasmatic gases, (since these are generally 
supposed to arise from the action ol heat and 
atmosphere on decaying matter,) and may there- 
fore be regarded as a preservative of health 
wherever it is applied. 
As to the permanency of its effects upon soils, 
Mr. Ruffin alludes to a farm in England, whose 
productive power, (asserted by Lord Karnes,) 
have increased for 120 years after the applica' 
tionof marl; and to another, in Virginia, which 
had been marled before the revolution, and 
whose fertility had increased, to his own know- 
ledge, during the last 15 years. Besides, wri- 
ters on agricultural chemistry place calcareous 
earth as an ele tnent of a good soil. It is one of 
the three ingredients which, united in certain 
