246 
TO MISS. PLANTERS.—MARL ON WORN-OUT LANDS. 
TO THE PLANTERS OP MISSISSIPPI. 
The Hon. Edmund Burke, Commissioner of the 
Patent Office, Washington, has been pleased to ad¬ 
dress to me one of his circulars, calling for accurate 
information on the various subjects interesting to 
us as planters. I am very anxious to give a full 
and accurate answer, and therefore beg, through 
this medium, to request the planters of Mississippi 
to forward me by letter, by the 20th of October, as 
full accounts as possible. 
Congress has appropriated the means by which the 
Commissioner of Patents can issue another report, 
and feeling assured that the planting interest are 
willing to aid in the undertaking, I trust I may 
receive numerous letters. 
The information desired may be summed up 
thus:—What increase compared with the crop of 
1845 ? The cause? Quantity of seed per acre ? 
Average quantity grown per acre? Price, home 
consumption, time of sowing, time of harvest, best 
kinds, soil ? (These questions are applicable to 
grain of all kinds.) Quantities of hay (or blades, 
fodder, as called with us), hemp, flax, tobacco, 
cotton, rice, silk, together with the diseases and 
remedies; the best kinds, if any choice, in seeds ? 
Any experiments, and what ? How conducted, the 
result ? Probable proportion of cultivated land ? 
Best rotation ? Orchard ? Kinds of fruit ? Any 
increased attention ? Wool ? Average per head, 
price per pound, weight of mutton and price ? 
Hogs ? Enough for home consumption ? Weight 
per head, any sold ? Wages of laborers ? desig¬ 
nating price of men and women farm hands, white 
mechanics, black ditto ? Price of transportation to 
market ? with any other information that will tend 
to throw any light on our resources. 
I beg to note here a portion of the report for the 
estimate of the crop of Mississippi for 1844, in 
order that attention maybe particularly drawn to it. 
Our population was placed at 556,467; our crop of 
corn was placed at 2,709,000 bushels.; the number 
of slaves, as returned to the State Department in 
1845, over five and under sixty, was 173,730, with 
near 50,000 under five. If we allow fifteen bushels 
to each slave over five, it would require 2,605,950 
bushels to feed them, not leaving much for the 
whites. The oat crop was put down at 1,081,000 
bushels; potatoes 3,378,000 bushels; hay 1000 
tons ; cotton 195,240,000 lbs. 
We have about 100,000 negroes engaged in the 
culture of cotton, besides some thousands of white 
laborers. It would be safe to calculate on 100,000 
horses and mules in the State, and on sixty bushels 
of corn fed to them during the year, which would 
require 6,000,000 bushels; add to this, the corn that 
is used per head, and, judging by my own family, it 
will require eight bushels each, this multiplied into 
the population of 1844, would give 10,451,736. To 
this might again be added largely for waste, car¬ 
riage and riding horses, poultry, hogs, &c. But 
our crops will average full twenty bushels per acre, 
and our five acres per hand, thus would our corn 
crop swell up to 10,000,000 bushels, with a con¬ 
siderable margin for purchasing more ; and if these 
acres should produce only 200 lbs. of blades, and no 
hay nor pea-vines saved, then would our hay-crop 
amount to 5000 tons. Again, our potatoe crop is 
rather large, it being about six bushels for every 
soul; as we sell scarcely any, and seldom have a 
supply until June, we might drop full a million, ! 
think. 
These matters are merely alluded to, that others 
may reflect thereon, so as to be able to render more 
service. M. W. Philips. 
Edwards' Depot, Miss., June 17 th, 1847. 
A splendid Yucca. Gloriosa, —One of these 
magnificent plants was seen in bloom, a few years 
since, in the garden of Mr. James Bagust, near 
London, which was in its full vigor, and contained 
from 1500 to 2000 blossoms! But its superiority 
consisted in the magnitude of its lilaceous flowers, 
which were nearly equal in size to those of the 
tulip, and possessed the agreeable quality of at¬ 
tracting bees. 
Plaster for the Interior of Houses. —Take 
air-slacked lime eight parts; sifted plaster (gypsum) 
four parts; powdered quick-lime one part; mix 
well together in small quantities with water, and 
use immediately. This composition, under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances, will not crack. 
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MARL ON WORN- 
OUT LANDS. 
I have for many years been occasionally engag¬ 
ed in making experiments, designed to bring to light 
the best method of restoring to profitable culture, 
lands that are clothed w T ith that unerring badge of 
poverty, the broom-grass. The result of the follow¬ 
ing experiment in applying marl to such land is now 
made public for the benefit of persons possessing 
worn-out lands, near deposits of this valuable 
manure. 
The impression has hitherto generally prevailed, 
that the application of marl to poor lands must be 
limited by the progress of cultivation, and that it 
could not exert much of its fertilizing power, if ap¬ 
plied to such lands without cultivation. This, I 
think, is an error, as will be clearly shown by the 
result of the experiment which I will proceed to de¬ 
tail. 
In the month of February, 1846, five hundred 
bushels of blue or green sand marl were scattered 
on a measured acre of land which was covered with 
a growth of broom-grass, known to be alike the 
badge of poverty, and the memorial of maltreatment 
in by-gone days. 
On this land, in March following, three gallons 
of red clover-seed were scattered, and in the month 
of June, 1846, the clover was found to be in a thriv¬ 
ing condition, bunches of it having reached the 
height of 28 inches in less than three months after 
the seed were sown. And now (June 12th, 1847) 
it has complete possession of the soil, and after 
having been much injured by a long and severe 
drought, that portion of it that has gone to bloom is 
from 15 to 20 inches high. As I did not wish my 
first experiment to prove abortive from drought, I 
used nearly double as much seed as would, under 
ordinary circumstances, be requisite. Two gallons 
to the acre would be an abundance. This land has 
not had the plow, hoe, or spade to operate on it 
for nearly twenty years. Now it seems to me that 
the result of this experiment shows conclusively, 
that lands similar to this, w r hich are abundant in 
Eastern Virginia, having a supply of blue marl neai 
