1908. 
MARL FOR ALFALFA. 
I have been much interested in Mr. Wing’s articles in 
regard to lime for Alfalfa. I have 20 acres of Alfalfa 
sown four or five years ago. It hah been very valuable, 
but was never seeded thickly enough, and now Blue grass 
and other grasses and weeds have made it necessarv to 
plow up and reseed. Lime lias to he shipped here and 
would be expensive. I have a deposit of marl underlying 
10 acres of ground, and near enough to the surface to be 
readily worked. The bed is only about four feet thick. 
Not enough to establish cement, works. Would this marl 
answer for lime or ground limestone? It is of itself of 
course nearly pure lime. a. a. m. ic. 
Indiana. 
I think there is no doubt that this marl will act as 
well for sweetening soil as any other lime, and will 
be very cheap, since it will cost nothing but the haul¬ 
ing. This man has a bonanza, which he ought not to 
fail to work. Marls differ very much as to their lime 
percentages and sweetening power. It would be well 
to get an analysis of this bed, and see 
just how much lime there is in it. Prob¬ 
ably it would be safe to apply 20 or 
more tons per acre of the wet marl, al¬ 
though it would be wise to make tests 
with different amounts. In this connec¬ 
tion, my brother, who has traveled in 
England and France, tells me that on 
many farms in the most fertile parts of 
these countries one finds great chalk pits 
so deep sometimes that only the tops of 
trees emerge from them, and from these 
beds is taken every year quantities of 
chalk (which is soft lime a little harder 
than marl), and this is used in sweet¬ 
ening clay soils, and promotes the 
growth of clovers and other crops. In 
fact, he has observed in Europe that 
wherever there is the most carbonate of 
lime in the soil, there were the best 
farms, the best roads, the best homes, 
the prettiest villages, the finest old 
churches and the handsomest people and 
the best live stock. So that it would 
seem that anyone having a bed of marl 
underlying his farm and not using it, 
was really committing a crime. 
Ohio. c. B. WING. 
If the marl you refer to is the “lime- 
marl,” and is in fine mechanical condi¬ 
tion, it may he spread directly upon the 
land, without treatment. There would 
be no particular advantage in burning 
this marl. In this State, we have a num¬ 
ber of deposits of marl in very fine con¬ 
dition, which are practically pure car¬ 
bonate of lime; these are excellent 
sources of lime for use directly upon the 
land. . E. B. VOORHEES. 
N. J. Exp. Station. 
On some soils lime seems essential to 
Alfalfa, while on others it grows finely 
without arty application of lime, and this 
is not always on what are known as 
limestone soils. On a farm now under 
my direction there is a field that for¬ 
merly grew fine Alfalfa though no lime 
was used. After this Alfalfa there was 
corn and wheat grown, and now it seems 
difficult to get good Alfalfa on the land, 
though heavy applications of lime have 
been made. In fact in places where in 
spreading the lime from a wagon there 
was an extra dose applied, the Alfalfa 
stops short of these spots. This is on 
the red clay granite soil of the Southern 
Piedmont. Right alongside of this farm 
is a field of very fine Alfalfa, on a farm 
where no lime has been used in the 
memory of man. There is no lack of 
inoculation, for nearly every farm in the 
neighborhood has been growing Alfalfa 
for 50 years-or more. Now what effect 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
four tons per acre of ground limestone. To the next 
400 pounds of acid phosphate per acre, and on the 
third nothing. All the three plots have been heavily 
limed a year or more ago as I have mentioned 
w. F. MASSEY. 
Our experiments indicate that marl may be sub¬ 
stituted for lime in treating soil for clover or Alfalfa, 
provided it is used in sufficient quantity. We think 
that ground limestone should be used in at least 
double the quantity that would be required of burnt 
lime, and as marl is variable in composition it would 
be safer to use it still more liberally. We do not 
think it would pay to burn it. chas. e. tiiorne. 
Ohio Exp. Station. 
If the marl referred to crumbles readily upon ex¬ 
posure to the air, so that it will become sufficiently 
fine and can be distributed with sufficient evenness, it 
can readily take the place of ordinary lime, provided 
871 
Bulletin 110 for the results which we have obtained 
from the use of shell marl in comparison with other 
sources of lime. You will note that the marl gave 
practically as good results as anything else with the 
11 crops harvested from these plots. Whether it would 
pay to burn the marl, would depend on the state of 
preservation of the shells, and whether the marl con¬ 
tained much of the potash mineral glauconite. If 
the shells crumble up easily when exposed to the air, I 
believe it would not pay to burn the marl. If the marl 
contains considerable of the glauconite, burning and 
slaking the lime would render considerable of the 
potash available. h. j. patterson. 
Maryland Exp. Station. 
R. N.-Y.—The bulletin mentioned gives a descrip¬ 
tion of Maryland marls, of which there are three dif¬ 
ferent classes. Over 90 samples were analyzed. The 
lime ran from a mere trace up to over 50 per cent. 
There were small quantities of potash 
and phosphoric acid also in many of 
these marls. It will evidently pay to 
have such marls analyzed before using 
them. In an experiment carried on for 
11 years with corn and wheat sheU marl 
was used for 11 years, compared with 
stone lime and oyster shells. The quan¬ 
tities used were 1400 pounds of stone 
or shell lime, 2600 pounds of ground 
oyster shells and 13,000 pounds of marl. 
This marl gave a total yield greater than 
either kind of lime, and about equal to 
the ground shells. This marl analyzed 
about 15 per cent of lime, over V/i of 
potash and had a small amount of phos¬ 
phoric acid. It might well have been 
used in much larger quantities. 
A FARMHOUSE HEATED BY HOT WATER. Fig. 409. 
HARDY PHLOX AMONG SHRUBS. Fig. 410. Sec Rural isms, Page .876. 
lime would have on the soil in Indiana can only be 
ascertained by actual experiment. But “marl” is rather 
an indefinite word. On the South Atlantic coast the 
marl is mostly shell marl, and similar in nature to 
the unburned limestone now so freely advised. If 
the Indiana marl is mainly carbonate of lime I would 
use it liberally on Alfalfa instead of burnt lime. If 
the marl is a green sand, glauconite marl, so much the 
better. But as the correspondent talks about burning 
the marl, I must assume that it is carbonate of lime, 
and in that case I would not burn it at all, but apply 
it m a heavier amount than would be safe with caus¬ 
tic lime. Whether the lime is essential to Alfalfa 
culture on his land can be ascertained by applying it 
to the larger part and leaving a small portion without 
lime. In this way lie can learn something. On the 
farm I have mentioned I am applying to one plot 
PLANT FOOD IN CHARCOAL. 
Have you not made a mistake in say¬ 
ing that there is no fertilizing value in 
charcoal? If you have any plants that 
are not doing well, or any trees that 
are not very thrifty, or are going back, 
sprinkle some powdered charcoal around 
them and watch the result. Try some 
on your melons, etc. I think you will 
change your mind if you try it. 
New Hampshire. r. t. ii. 
R. N.-Y.—We know what charcoal 
will sometimes do to crops, but the good 
effect is not all due to the plant food. 
We have seen people suffering from 
dyspepsia or from overeating greatly 
helped by swallowing a piece of char¬ 
coal. It was not the food in the char¬ 
coal that helped them, but the effect it 
had upon the stomach. Nearly all the 
“stock foods” contain powdered char¬ 
coal and quite a number of farmers 
keep a barrel of charcoal on hand and 
feed it regularly. Poultry keepers often 
keep charcoal before the fowls just as 
they do oyster shells—not because it 
takes the place of grain, but because it 
keeps the hens in good condition. As 
for plant food, suppose you have a ton 
of chips or sticks; you would not con¬ 
sider them of much value as manure, 
even after they had rotted down. You 
burn them in a closed place where they 
cannot blaze and have charcoal, about 
25 per cent of their weight. You have 
added nothing to the plant food value 
of the wood. You have made it less, be¬ 
cause the burning has driven off the 
nitrogen. You keep on burning the 
charcoal until only the ash is left, and 
you will have a few bushels of ashes 
only. You will realize that the char¬ 
coal does not decay as readily in the 
soil as the wood did. That is one rea- 
it contains enough actual carbonate of lime. The*term son why we char the ends of fence posts when the 1 
“marl” is used very loosely, and may refer to marl are put in the ground. 
containing anywhere from two to 95 per cent of car- Thus even the small amount of plant food in the 
bonate of lime. My advice to him would be to take charcoal is not readily available to plants. Yet ii 
out some of it and forward it to Director Goss, Agri- helps plants in various ways. It forms a good mulcl: 
cultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Indiana, and . w ' ien enough of it is used. A mulch around a tret 
as uni or a deteiminatton of the percentages of car- 0 ti ier insects which die and enrich the soil besides 
bonate of lime and magnesia which it contains, and also working it over. It also gives the soil a darker color 
ask him if, in his opinion, the material will crumble This enables it to absorb more heat. Also, while th< 
sufficiently, so that it can be applied directly as a top 
dressing. If not, there is no reason why he cannot 
burn it on his own farm. h. j. wheeler. 
Kingston, R. I. 
If your Indiana correspondent has a calcareous mai 
* -- ■* * ' *— - —' - - - --? "**•*'• 
charcoal itself contains but little actual plant food 
it has a remarkable power to absorb moisture ant 
gases. Take the body of a dead rat or cat and cove 
it with charcoal and leave it alone. After a whil 
you will find that nearly all except the bones has dis 
I appeared. The gases have been absorbed by the char 
coal and held, so that there is little smell. Certaii 
nn Lie t u, m.i.i i i coal and held, so that there is little smell. Lerti 
on ins tarm 1 should certainly advise him to use it •, • , . ,, , 
J . sous, especially if mixed with charcoal, would hav 
as a source of lime, rather than to purchase lime. In something of the same power. Bones buried by dog 
this connection I would refer you to page 56 of our in such soils often remain sweet. 
