194 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
els to the acre, and found that quantity as much as Ins poorer soils would 
take with advantage. 
No. 19 is from Col. S. Biddle’s on Neuse River, some 10 miles above 
Newbern. Emmons gives an analysis of a sample from the same point 
which shows 78.60 per cent, of lime carbonate. This marl is a very line 
clay-like mass, of a light ash color. Col. B. “ killed ” a considerable 
held some 40 years ago by a dressing of 600 bushels, so that it has not 
fully recovered yet. With smaller quantities he obtained very profitable 
results. A specimen analyzed for Col. E. R. Stanly, (Newbern), gave- 
S5.20 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 
No. (20) is a marl sent by Mr. Geo. Allen (Newbern), and is still richer 
in lime, and contains a high percentage of magnesia in addition. No. 20 
is from Cox’s Ferry 10 miles above Goldsboro, where there is an outcrop 
of some two miles extent along the bluff on the south side of the river. 
The same marl is reported as occurring 5 miles still further west. The 
marl here is much mixed with gravel, having been evidently disturbed by 
currents since its first deposition. 
The Eocene marl is found at a few points along the Contentnea m 
Greene county, but not in its original position or purity. On the con- 
trary, one only finds patches of it mingled with green sand, abraded 
from the underlying formation. A sample from Hon. Jos. Dixon’s, a 
fine grayish white sand, slightly coherent, gives 30.14 per cert. of lime- 
carbonate, and is evidently a valuable marl. 
It will be seen that these marls usually contain a very large percentage- 
of lime and are therefore to be used with care, especially on thin soils. 
Fifty to seventy-five bushels to the acre is sufficient. The quantity may 
of course be increased with every addition of organic matter, — peat, 
muck, green crops. These marls never fail to improve the land and 
largely increase its yield, when judiciously applied. This would be so, 
if they contained only lime, but there are also valuable percentages of 
magnesia, potash and phosphoric and sulphuric acids. 
Miocene Marls . — These are commonly known as shell marls , or blue 
marls. They are found in limited patches or “ beds,” and are scattered 
over a much wider territory than either of the preceding, and being 
nearer the surface, and so, more accessible, have been much more exten- 
sively used, and are consequently much better known. They are found 
throughout a large part of the eastern region, from South Carolina to 
Virginia ; in fact, they occur in all the counties of eastern North Carolina, 
except those lying between, and north of the great sounds, and two or 
three small outcrops have been observed in Chowan, and in the northern 
part of Currituck. The western boundary of these beds, is very nearly 
