114 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
in the same fields, and that if he does not push forward inflexibly, fear¬ 
lessly, thoughtfully, he will be left behind in the grand march of en¬ 
terprise, alone—stagnating and stiffening*—'where he stands. 
The exertion must come from the planter, and the planter only. The 
movement of other Craftsmen will never move him. He must move 
himself. With ns, he is the man who gives the tone to public senti¬ 
ment. Why? He is the great proprietor known to the country. The 
capital of our state exists in the soil, and the serfs who work it. They 
are his. He wields that capital, and that capital makes our feelings, 
our opinions, our character. To plant is to engage in the highest craft 
known to our people. It is the object of ambition with all. It would 
not be so if the influence of the planter were an iota less in business 
and society. 
How does he employ this influence ? Let him ask himself the ques¬ 
tion. Could he make it greater—could he employ it in making a bet¬ 
ter population among our inferior classes, and what should be the aim 
of the moral man in his direction of the vast moral power which he 
certainly may wield over our society, and through it over our institu¬ 
tions ? There are other questions which it may serve him beneficially 
honestly to analyze, and justly to resolve upon. Why is his influence 
less now, than what, under a proper direction of his energies and 
thoughts, it might become? The evil and the error is with him. He 
has himself to blame—none other. The man who places a low esti¬ 
mate upon his own pursuits, cannot surely complain that others re¬ 
ceive him at his own valuation. He has suffered the mechanic to re¬ 
gard his craft with more respect, and to direct more of heart and mind 
to the promotion of it, until he learns to love the toil which gives him 
strength and power. You may see the mechanic with his badges of 
plane or hammer upon his apron—you will never see the plough drawn 
upon the panel of a planter’s coach. He boasts of his negroes and 
his hands. Does he take up the hoe and plant himself—does he re¬ 
gard them, as such old and long tried friends might well be regarded, 
with respectful veneration ? We fear not. He will avoid the subject^ 
and is sometimes apt to disparage it. He has not availed himself of 
that beneficial and blessing Providence, which has given him a mind 
able to direct the sinews of labor—he has suffered it to lie waste and 
fallow, until, through neglect, it has grown as bald and barren as the 
soil which he has impoverished by the opposite extreme of too much 
use. Had he used the soil less, and the mind more, and used both of 
them differently, they had, both of them, been more valuable at this 
moment. It is truly melancholy to think that these are truths which 
we are writing. It is sad that the planter—he who owns three-fourths 
of the state’s wealth, and all of its political power—-who pays more 
than one-hall" of its revenue—should be at the same time of so little 
real public importance. Why will he not consider these things. Why 
permit the subject to remain uninvestigated. Why not provide a nobler 
answer, in a new design of a proper and masculine exertion? 
We shall now seek to show that this degrading condition of things 
has arisen necessarily from the defective character of our Agricultural 
Education—if that can be styled education which fits . our people for 
any thing but what they are to become, any pursuit but the one which 
most directly lies before them. 
What is the education of our young planter—or rather, what is the 
education of him who is to become a planter ? Is it ever adapted to 
the end in view—is it ever calculated for his pursuit?. Is it not radi¬ 
cally defective, as it lacks all connexion with the pursuits of his future 
life, and as it is rather apt to lead his thoughts away from a conside¬ 
ration of it into far and foreign channels. 
MARL, 
Is a compound calcareous earth found in most parts of the world, 
and has been extensively used throughout this kingdom, where it is 
supposed to have been known to husbandmen at a very early period of 
our history. There are, indeed, leases on record, granted in the reigns 
of Edward I. and II. which compel the tenants to make use of it; but, 
though still employed, it has been a great degree superseded by the 
more recent introduction of lime, of the properties of which it in some 
measure partakes. The term denoting it was formerly used in a very 
vague sense, for it is a substance consisting of various materials, and it 
has consequently happened, that what has been supposed to apply to one 
species, did not hold good when affirmed of another. Although princi¬ 
pally deemed valuable on account of the calcareous matter which it 
usually contains, still its composition differs so essentially, that its in¬ 
fluence as manure is but imperfectly understood; yet theoretic writings 
abound in general directions for its use, which are frequently found 
not to answer in practice, for their rules are drawn either from state¬ 
ments which have been made of the effect of its application on particu¬ 
lar soils, or from analyses of its qualities, which, as these vary in innu¬ 
merable instances, frequently lead farmers astray. Its real value can, 
therefore, be only ascertained through the practical experience of 
those who have either actually tried its efficacy, or who have witness¬ 
ed it in their own neighborhood. 
This ignorance of the distinguishing properties of marl has necessa¬ 
rily led to many mistakes in its application, which have occasioned the 
variety of opinions that are entertained regarding its use. In most pla¬ 
ces where it was anciently employed, aud where its fertilizing influ¬ 
ence was discovered to be eminently great, it was thought by many 
farmers that it could be made to supersede the uSe of dung; they, 
therefore, in many instances, sold their hay and straw, and although, 
notwithstanding this reduction of the quantity of putrescent manure, 
they still for a time obtained large crops, yet, eventually, the chemical 
effects of the marl exhausted the land. No secCild marling could ope¬ 
rate upon it until it had been renovated by repeated applications of 
dung; and thus has arisen the old saying, cited by Barnaby Googe, 
who wrote so long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century, that 
‘lime and marl are good for the father, but bad for the son.’ In this 
manner, also, some valuable discoveries in agriculture have fallen into 
disuse through their mistaken application, when governed by local 
circumstances which were ill understood; wherever marl of a kind ad¬ 
apted to the soil has been applied, and that a judicious system of cul¬ 
ture has been pursued, without either over-cropping, or neglecting the 
use of putrescent manure, the proverb is so far from being well found¬ 
ed, that the contrary may be safely affirmed. 
The common definition of marl given us by the best writers on fos¬ 
sils, is—that it is composed of clay, sand, and lime, very intimately, 
but unequally mixed, slightly coherent, not ductile, but stiff, or viscid, 
when moist; most easily diffusible in, and disunited by, water, or even 
by exposure to the air, and by it reduced to a soft, loose, incohesive 
mass—for the most part composed of nothing more than calcareous 
earth—in which its chief value consists—combined with a little mine¬ 
ral oil, clay, and sometimes with ochre, or iron. It is also generally 
considered as a characteristic of marl, that it effervesces with acids, 
though to that various exceptions have been discovered; from which 
it has been supposed that, when deprived of that test, it contains no 
calcareous matter, yet it is found to produce ameliorating effects upon 
the soil. Notwithstanding this summary description, its appearance 
is, however, as varied as its properties, being of colour nearly pure 
white, to the darkest shades of brown and red, interveined with blue 
and yellow. It also exists in different kinds of land, is seldom found 
as a stratum of much length, but generally in detached masses at vari¬ 
ous depths, sometimes in wide and dense perpendicular layers, at oth¬ 
ers in streaks, running in lines parallel with the horizon, or again in¬ 
tersecting each other at right angles, usually resting on sand or gravel, 
and is classed, according to its qualities, into the following distinct spe¬ 
cies. 
1 . Clayey marl, which improves sandy land, and seems to act as clay 
in changing the nature of the soil. In land consisting of a mixture of 
sand and loam, or of sand and gravel, then, the application of this 
marl has been found peculiarly advantageous, and on all poor and thin 
sandy soils there is this further advantage in its use—that, from the 
large proportion of clay which it usually contains, it adds to their bulk 
and firmness, and thus has a tendency to bring them to that medium 
state whichds the most favorable to the purposes of vegetation. It is 
more soft and unctuous than clay; indeed, upon slightly cutting it be¬ 
comes so flexible, that it may be kneaded like dough, or paste, though, 
when the moisture evaporates, it falls into pieces: it therefore blends 
easily with the soil, and partaking more largely of calcareous matter, 
its effects, though slow, are in all the latter cases more fertilizing. 
2. Sandy marl, which is far more frequent in Ireland than m any 
part of England, and is commonly found in pits of limestone-gravel, 
whence it is in that country usually called limestone-sand. It is seldom 
clammy or unctuous, like the clay marl, nor does it adhere to the 
tongue, but crumbles between the fingers, and feels gritty; when ex¬ 
posed to the air and moisture it slowly chips and moulders; and it par¬ 
takes of some extraneous mixtures. Its colour is sometimes like that 
of lead, or brown, approaching to black, and at others blue. As im¬ 
plied by its name, it contains an excess of sand over that of clay ; for, 
upon analysing it, the proportion of the former has, in most cases, been 
found to be from 60 to 80 per cent; and it does not effervesce with 
acids so quickly as the argillaceous marls. It possesses but a small de¬ 
gree of tenacity, and it has proved an excellent manure for clayey soils, 
mellowing their stiffness, and rendering them easier to work. 
3. Slaty or stony marl, to which class, also, properly belongs that 
which is called rotten limestone, is chiefly applied to heavy land. Its 
operation is slow, but very lasting; land, forty years after it has been 
laid on, having been found to bear a closer and a better crop of grass 
than that which had been recently applied. 
4. Shelly marl, which is evidently produced by the remains of testa¬ 
ceous fish, which, dying in their shells, become, in process of time, con¬ 
verted into calcareous earth, and their bodies, when decomposed, fur¬ 
nish a kind of mould composed of animal substance, which is no doubt 
analogous to the effect of dung. It is, therefore, highly fertilizing 
when judiciously applied to soils of every kind, which are either in 
themselves dry, or which have been properly drained. 
Such are the most common denominations by which marl is usually 
