THE MARL DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA. 
119 
Rent change and improvement in the soil, which 
could be made by no other means. 
Mr. Ruffin has published a work on calcareous 
manures, which has been of incalculable benefit to 
Eastern Virginia, and might be profitably read by 
every farmer in the United States. He there not 
only proves the utility and benefits of lime in Vir¬ 
ginia, but everywhere else, where it does not alrea¬ 
dy exist in the soil. He gives a more satisfactory 
reason why gypsum does not act on so large a por¬ 
tion of our Atlantic coast, than I have ever seen 
elsewhere. He applies his remarks particularly to 
Virginia, but they are, I think, as applicable in 
other places. He calls all the soils of Eastern Vir¬ 
ginia acid, with the exception of the river bottoms; 
those he calls neutral soils. He calls these soils 
Reid, because there is generally a strong disposition 
to produce sorrel. He says, that after cutting down 
the young pines that grow up in old fields, and letting 
them remain until the leaves rot, where each pine 
lies, will be found a vigorous growth of sorrel, 
which will continue to grow on the land until lime 
is applied. I here make a short extract from his 
work, which will give his reasons why those lands 
must be limed, before gypsum will be beneficial. 
“ If the vegetable acid, which I suppose to exist 
in what I have called acid soils, is not the oxalic 
(which is the particular acid in sorrel), at least 
every vegetable acid being composed of different 
proportions of the same elements may easily change 
to any other, and all to the oxalic acid. This, of 
all bodies known by chemists, has the strongest at¬ 
traction for lime, and will take it from any other 
acid which was before combined with it, and for 
that purpose the oxalic acid will let go any other 
earth or metal which it has before held in combina¬ 
tion. Let us, then, observe what would be the ef¬ 
fect of the known chemical action of these sub¬ 
stances on their meeting in soils. If oxalic acid was 
produced in any soil, its immediate effect would be 
to unite with, its proper proportion of lime, if enough 
was in the soil in any combination whatever. If 
the lime was in such small quantity as to leave an 
excess of oxalic acid, that excess would seize on the 
other substances in the soil in the order of their mu¬ 
tual attractive force, and one or more of such sub¬ 
stances are always present, as magnesia, or more 
certainly iron and alumina. The soil, then, would 
not only contain some proportion of the oxalate of 
lime, but also the oxalate of either one or more of 
the other substances named. Let us suppose gyp¬ 
sum to be applied to this soil. This substance (sul¬ 
phate of lime) is composed of both sulphuric acid 
and lime. It is applied in a finely pulverized state, 
and in quantities from a half to two bushels per 
acre, generally not more than one bushel. As soon 
as the earth is made wet enough for .any chemical 
decomposition to take place, the oxalic acid must 
let go its base of iron or alumina, and seize upon, and 
combine with, the lime that formed an ingredient of 
the gypsum. The sulphuric acid, left free, will com¬ 
bine with the iron or the alumina of the soil form¬ 
ing copperas and alum in the other. The gypsum 
no longer exists.” 
Do not the same reasons exist in New Jersey 
and on Long Island ? Sorrel most certainly grows; 
but is there an absence of lime ? My own opinion 
without an analysis is, that it exists in but small 
proportions, if at all. Lime has been used conside¬ 
rably in New Jersey, but to a very limited extent 
on Long Island. If any of the New Jersey or Long 
Island farmers have not used gypsum since they 
have limed their land, they had better make the ex¬ 
periment, and communicate the result through your 
or some other Agricultural Journal. There are hun¬ 
dreds of farmers in Eastern Virginia, whose expe¬ 
rience and observation fully confirm Mr. Ruffin’s 
theory. With the aid of the marl and clover, this 
section of Virginia will become one of the richest 
and most productive agricultural districts in the 
country. The soil, though generally light, stands 
on a retentive clay subsoil, which enables it to re¬ 
tain near the surface all the manure that is applied. 
Connected with these advantages, it has natural fa¬ 
cilities for transportation superior to any section of 
country of equal size in the United States. There 
is hardly any portion of it that is more than ten 
miles to navigation ; yet with all these advantages, 
this region, until recently, has been entirely over¬ 
looked and neglected. One reason of this is, the 
unhealthiness of the climate in the latter part of 
summer and the fall until frosts come. 
But another equally good reason is, that the sys¬ 
tem of farming has been such that no land could 
fail to be exhausted. Cropped until it could no 
longer pay the expense of cultivation, and then 
turned out to grow up in pine ; and after it has re¬ 
mained in that condition until it is supposed to have 
recovered a portion of its lost fertility, it is again 
cleared and brought into cultivation. But the spirit 
of improvement has begun to have its effects, and a 
regular system of farming has been adopted by the 
most intelligent portion of the farmers. 
There are different systems of cultivation, but 
that known as the three field , is most commonly 
adopted. This is as follows : 1st, corn ; 2d, wheat, 
taking the corn off soon enough to sow in the fall; 
3d, clover sown on the wheat in the spring, and 
grazed as little as possible, and followed in the fall 
and replowed in the spring for corn ; so that two 
grain crops are taken from the land in three years; 
and if the land is marled and attention paid to mak¬ 
ing manure, as hauling into the farm pens pine lit¬ 
ter, rich earth from the corners of fences, and occa¬ 
sionally a little marl scattered over, some farms will 
improve at that. Where the land is not stiff and 
rich enough to produce wheat, oats are frequently 
substituted. But in my opinion, the radical error 
of their system of farming, is the neglect of grass 
cultivation, as meadows and pasture fields, and the 
neglect of cattle. The general opinion among the 
farmers of that region is, that grasses, such as timo¬ 
thy, or herds-grass, will not grow well, and cattle 
are not profitable. The idea that grasses will not 
grow is all conjecture; they can be grown there as 
well as at the north. I have never known an ex¬ 
periment properly tried and fail; and the fact that 
clover succeeds, is evidence to me that other grasses 
can be successfully cultivated. Any amount of 
proof of this can be obtained if desired. The old 
Dutch maxim that grass makes cattle, cattle makes 
manure, and manure makes grain, is entirely lost 
sight of by those farmers. Some of them, however, 
are finding this out and reforming. There is a 
strong desire in many portions of this region to in¬ 
troduce northern farmers. Land is cheap—from $3 
