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CHAPTER XI.

THE EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES, ON
ACID SOILS REDUCED BY CULTIVATION.

PROPOSITION 5. Continued.

October 10th. The shape of the ground did not admit of larger pieces, equal in all respects, being measured, as no comparison of products had been contemplated at first, otherwise than by the eye. Bush. Qts.

From the part not marled

414 corn-hills made 75 quarts--or per acre, 13 26 Marled only

414

490

490

100

Manured only

105

Marled and ma-
nured-

130

18 12

15 5

20 20

My use of fossil shells has been more extensive on impoverished acid soils, than on all other kinds, and has never failed to produce striking improvement. Yet it has unfortunately happened, that the two experiments made on such land with most care, and on which I relied mainly for evidence of the durable and increasing benefit from this manure, have had their effects almost destroyed, by the applications having been made too heavy. These experiments, like the 4th, and 6th, alThe growth on the part both marled and maready reported, were designed to remain without nured was evidently inferior to that of 1819: this any subsequent alteration, so that the measure- was to be expected, as this small quantity of calment of their products once in every succeeding careous earth was not enough to fix half so much rotation, might exhibit the progress of improve-putrescent manure--and of course, the excess was ment under all the different circumstances. As as liable to waste as if no marl had been used. no danger was then feared from such a cause, marl was applied heavily, that no future addition might be required: and for this reason, I have to report my greatest disappointments exactly in those cases where the most evident success and increasing benefits had been expected. However, these failures will be stated as fully as the most successful results-and they may at least serve to warn from the danger, if not to show the greatest profits of marling.

Experiment 10.

Twenty acres of sandy loam, on a sandy subsoil, covered in 1819 with marl of about 3 average proportion of calcareous earth, and the balance silicious sand-at eight hundred bushels to the acre. This land had been long cleared, and much exhausted by cultivation: since 1813 not grazed, and had been in corn only once in four It should be observed that the general rotation years, and as it was not worth sowing in wheat, of crops pursued on the farm, on all land not re-had three years in each rotation to rest and imcently cleared, was that of four shifts, (corn, wheat, prove by receiving all its scanty growth of weeds. and then the land two years at rest and not grazed,) The same course has been continued since 1819, though some exceptions to this course will be re-except that wheat has regularly followed the crops marked in some of the experiments.

Experiment 8.

Of a poor silicious acid loam, seven acres were marled at the rate of only ninety bushels (37) to the acre: laid on and spread early in 1819.

Results. 1819. In corn-the benefit too small to be generally perceptible, but could be plainly distinguished along part of the outline, by comparing with the part not marled.

1820. Wheat-something better-and the ef fect continued to be visible on the weeds following, until the whole was more heavily marled in 1823.

Experiment 9.

In the same field, on soil as poor and more sandy than the last described, four acres were marled at one hundred and eighty bushels (1) March 1819. A part of the same was also covered heavily with rotted barn-yard manure, which also extended through similar land not marled. This furnished for observation, land marled onlymanured only-marled and manured-and some without either. The whole space, and more adjoining, had been manured five or six years before by summer cow-pens, and stable litter-of which no appearance remained after two years.

Results. 1819. In corn. The improvement from marl very evident-but not to be distinguished on the part covered also by manure, the effect of the latter so far exceeding that of the marl.

1820. In wheat. 1821 and 1822, at rest. 1823. In corn-5 by 34 feet-The following measurements were made on adjoining spaces on

of corn, leaving two years of rest, in four. This soil was lighter than the subject of any preceding experiment, except the ninth. On a high level part, surrounded by land apparently equal, a square of about an acre (A) was staked off, and left without marl-which that year's work brought to two sides of the square (C and D.)

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marked square. The fourth side was my neighbor's field.

1824. In corn. The newly marled part showed as early and as great benefit as was found in 1820 -but was very inferior to the old, until the latter was ten or twelve inches high, when it began to give evidence of the fatal effects of using this manure too heavily. The disease thus produced be

The average increase being 123 bushels of grain came worse and worse, until many of the plants to the acre: nearly 100 per cent. as measured, and had been killed, and still more were so stunted, as more than 100, if the defective filling, and less to leave no hope of their being otherwise than matured state of the corn not marled, be consider- barren. The effects will be known from the meaed. The whole would have lost more by shrink-surements, which were made nearly on the same age than is usual from equal products. ground as the corresponding marks in 1820, and 1821. The whole in wheat-much hurt by the will be exhibited in the table, together with the wetness of the season. The marled part more products of the succeeding rotations. Besides the than twice as good as that left out. general injury suffered here in 1824, there were 1822 and 1823. At rest. A good cover of carrot one hundred and three corn hills in one of the weeds and other kinds had succeeded the former measured quarter acres (in C) or more than onegrowth of poverty grass and sorrel, and every ap-sixth, entirely barren, and eighty-nine corn hills in pearance promised additional increase to the next another quarter acre (D.) In counting these, cultivated crop. Nov. 1823, when the next plough- none of the missing hills were included, as these ing was commenced, the soil was found to be evi-plants might have perished from other causes. dently deeper, of a darker color, and firmer, yet This unlooked for disaster diminished the premore friable. The two-horse ploughs with diffi- vious increase gained by marling, by nearly oneculty (increased by the cover of weeds,) could cut half; and the damage has since been still greater, the required depth of five inches, and the slice at each successive return of cultivation. crumbled as it fell from the mould-board. But as Just before planting the crops of 1832, straw the furrows passed into the part not marled, an im- and chaff very imperfectly rotted by exposure, and mediate change was seen, and even felt by the which contained no admixture of animal manure, ploughman, as the cutting was so much more were applied at the rate of 800 bushels the acre to easy, that care was necessary to prevent the half the square without marl (A 1) and to all the plough running too deep-and the slices turned surrounding marled land. The vegetable manure over in flakes, smooth and sleek from the mould- showed but slight benefit, until after all the worst board, like land too wet for ploughing, which how- effects of excessive marling had been produced; ever was not the case. The marling of the field and the later operation of the manure served barewas completed, at the same rate, (eight hundred ly to prevent a still farther diminution being exhibushels,) which closed a third side (B) of the bited by the land injured by marl.

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ing was the best. Another was trench-ploughed twelve inches deep, without showing any perceptible difference either of product, or in the effects of damage from the excess of marl.

For the crops of 1828, ploughed with three mules to each plough, from six to seven inches deep-seldom turning up any subsoil (which was This square left without marl is the land formerformerly within three inches of the surface,) and ly referred to (page 13) as showing a diminished the soil appearing still darker and richer than when product through three successive courses of the preparing for the crops of 1824. The ploughing rotation recommended by the author of Arator as of the square not marled (A) no where exceeded enriching. Since, another crop has been made six inches: yet that depth must have injured the and measured, and found to be still smaller than land, as I can impute to no other cause the re- any previous. To whatever cause this continued markable diminution of product, through four falling off for 16 years may be attributed, it is at courses of the mild four-shift rotation. It was least a remarkable contradiction to the power of evident that a still greater depth of furrow was not vegetable matter alone making poor land rich. hurtful to the marled land. A strip across the Much trouble has been encountered in attendfield in another place, was in 1828 ploughed eight ing to this experiment, and much loss of product inches deep for experiment, by the side of another submitted to, since its commencement, for the purof four inches, and the corn on the deepest plough-pose of knowing the progress and extent of the

evil caused by the excess of marl. But another portion of the field, marled as heavily in 1824, and where equal damage was expected to ensue, has been entirely relieved by intermitting the corn crop of 1828, sowing clover, which (by using gypsum) produced well, and which was left to fall and rot on the land. The next growth of corn (1832) was free from disease, and though irregular, seemed to the eye to amount to full twenty-five bushels to the

acre.

Experiment 11.

The ground on which this experiment was made, was in the midst of nineteen or twenty acres of soil apparently similar in all respects level, gray sandy loam, cleared about thirty years before, and reduced as low by cultivation as such soil could well be. The land that was marled and measured was about two hundred yards distant from Experiment 2, and both places are supposed to have been originally similar in all respects. This land had not been cultivated since 1815, when it was in corn-but had been once ploughed since, in Nov. 1817, which had prevented broom grass from taking possession. The ploughing then was four inches deep, and in five and a half feet beds, as recommended in Arator. The growth in the year 1820, presented but little except poverty grass, running blackberry, and sorrel-and the land seemed very little if at all improved by its five successive years of rest. A small part of this land was covered with calcareous sand quantity not observed particularly, but probably about six hundred bushels.

C

20

100

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cent. better than the last, and the last superior to the included square not marled, in as great a proportion.

1824. Again in corn. The effects of disease from marling were as injurious here, both on the new and old part, as those described in Experiment 10. No measurement of products made, owing to my absence when the corn was cut down for sowing wheat.

1825. The injury from disease less on the wheat, than on the corn of the last year on the latest marling, and none perceptible on the oldest application. This scourging rotation of three grain crops in four years, was particularly improper on marled land, and the more so on account of its po

verty.

1826. White clover had been sown thickly over forty-five acres, including this part, on the wheat, in January 1825. In the spring of 1826, it formed a beautiful green though low cover to even the poorest of the marled land. Marked spots, which were so diseased by over-marling, as not to produce a grain of corn or wheat, produced clover at least as good as other places not injured by that

cause.

The square, which had been sowed in the same manner, and on which the plants came up well, had none remaining by April 1826, except on a few small spots, all of which together would not have made three feet square. The piece not marled, white with poverty grass, might be seen, and its outlines traced at some distance by its strong contrast with the surrounding dark weeds in winter, or the verdant turf of white clover the spring before.

1827. Still at rest. No grazing allowed on the white clover.

1828. In corn-the land broken in January, five inches deep. October 14th made the following

measurements.

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B

Results. 1821-Ploughed level, and planted in corn-distance 5 by 3 feet. The measurement of spaces nearly adjoining, made in October, was as follows:

23 by 25 corn hills, not marled, (A) made 2 bushels, or per acre,

831

45

very nearly.

23 by 25 corn hills, marled, (B) 5§ 22
1822. At rest. Marled the whole, except a
marked square of fifty yards, containing the space
measured the preceding year.
ly divided-three hundred and fifty bushels to the
acre-from the same bed as that used for Experi-
ment 4. In August, ploughed the land, and sow-
ed wheat early in October.

9

13

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New marling, 105 by 1042 feet, on the side that seemed to be the most diseased, (D) 1} barrels— or nearly twelve bushels to the acre.

1832. Again in corn. Since 1826, the four-shift rotation had been regularly adhered to. PloughMarl 15 and fine-ed early in winter five inches deep, and again with two-horse ploughs just before planting, and after manuring the land above the dotted line D x. The manure was from the stable yard, the vegetable part of it composed of straw, corn-stalks, corn-cobs, and leaves raked from woodland-had been heaped in a wet state a short time before, and was still hot from its fermentation when carrying to the field. It was then about half rotted. The

1823. Much injury sustained by the wheat from Hessian fly, and the growth was not only mean, but very irregular-but it was supposed that the first marled place was from fifty to one hundred per

rate at which it was applied was about 807 heaped disease began also to show early--but were so bushels to the acre, which was much too heavy soon checked by the operation of the putrescent for profit. The corn on the oldest marling (B) manure, that very little (if any) loss could have showed scarcely a trace of remaining damage, been sustained from that cause. The following while that on D2 was again much injured. On table exhibits all the measured products for comthe manured part of D, and C, the symptoms of parison.

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Experiment 13.

The products of the spaces A and B, in 1828,| Results. 1824. In corn, the second rotation after were not only estimated as usual from the mea-marling. The effects of the dung has not much surement of the corn in ears, (which estimated diminished, and that part shows no damage from quantities are those in the table,) but they were the quantity of marl, though the surrounding corn, also shelled on the day when gathered, and the marled only half as thickly, gave signs of general, grain then measured, and again some months after, though very slight injury from that cause, when it had become thoroughly dry. Care was taken that there should be no waste of the corn, or other cause of inaccuracy. The result shows nearly double the loss from shrinking in the corn Nearly two acres of loamy sand, was covered not marled, and of course a proportional gain in with farm-yard manure, and marl (45) at the that marled, besides the increase which appears same time, in the spring of 1822, and tended in from the early measurement exhibited in the table. corn the same year, followed by wheat. The The grain of A, not marled, when first shelled, quantity of marl not remembered-but it must measured a very little more than the quantity fixed have been heavy (say not less than six hundred by estimate, and lost by shrinking 30 per cent. bushels to the acre) as it was put on to fix and reThe marled grain, from B, measured at first above tain the manure, and I had then no fear of dafour per cent. more than the estimate and after mage from heavy dressings. shrinking, fell below it so much as to show the loss Result. 1825. Again in corn-and except on a to be 16 per cent. small spot of sand almost pure, no signs of disease from over-marling.

The loss from shrinking in this case was more than usual, from the poverty and consequent backwardness of the part not marled, and the uncommonly large proportion of replanted corn on the whole.

The two last experiments, as well as the 4th, were especially designed to test the amount of in

CHAPTER XII.

creased product to be obtained from marling, and EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES ON "FREE

LIGHT LAND.

Experiment 14.

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The soil known in this part of the country by

to show the regular addition to the first increase, which the theory promised at each renewal of tillage. As to the main objects, all the three experiments have proved failures-and from the same error of marling too heavily. Although for this reason, the results have shown so much of the name of "free light land" has so peculiar a the injurious effects, still, taken altogether, the ex- character, that it deserves a particular notice. It periments prove clearly, not only the great imme-belongs to the slopes and waving lands, between diate benefit of applying marl, but also its continued and increasing good effects, when applied in proper quantities.

Experiment 12.

the ridges and the water courses, but has nothing of the durability which slopes of medium fertility sometimes possess. In its woodland state it would be called rich, and may remain productive for a few crops after clearing-but it is rapidly exhausted, and when poor, seems as unimprovable by On nine acres of sandy loam, marled in 1819 at vegetable manures as the poorest ridge lands. In four hundred bushels (5) nearly an acre was its virgin state, this soil might be supposed to demanured during the same summer, by penning serve the name of neutral-but its productive cattle: with the expectation of preserving the ma-power is so fleeting, and acid growths and qualities nure, double the quantity of marl, eight hundred so surely follow its exhaustion, that it must be inbushels in all, was laid on that part. The field ferred that it is truly an acid soil.

in corn in 1820-in wheat, 1821-and at rest 1822 The subject of this experiment presents soil of this kind with its peculiar characters unusually

and 1823.

At the same time, from the edge of the adjoining woodland which formed the next described clearing, and which had not then been marled, a specimen of soil was taken from between the depths of one and three inches-and found to consist of the following proportions. This spot was believed to be rather lighter than the other in its

865 grains of silicious sand, principally coarse-
107--finely divided earthy matter, &c.
28--loss.

well marked. It is a loamy sandy soil (the sand
coarse) on a similar subsoil of considerable depth.
The surface waving-almost hilly in some parts.
The original growth principally red oak, hickory,
and dogwood-not many pines, and very little
whortleberry. Cut down in 1816 and put in corn
the next year. The crop was supposed to be
twenty-five bushels to the acre. Wheat succeed-natural state.
ed, and was still a better crop for so sandy a soil-
making twelve to fifteen bushels, as it appeared
standing. After a year of rest, and not grazed,
the next corn crop of 1820, was evidently consi-
derably inferior to the first-and the wheat of 1821, 1000
(which however was a very bad crop from too wet
à season) could not have been more than five
bushels to the acre. In January 1820, a piece of
14 acres was limed, at one hundred bushels the
acre. The lime being caught by rain before it was
spread, formed small lumps of mortar on the land,

CHAPTER XIII.

HAUSTED ACID SOILS, UNDER THEIR SE-
COND GROWTH OF TREES.

PROPOSITION 5. Continued.

and produced no benefit on the corn of that year, EFFECTS OF CALCAREOUS MANURES ON EXbut could be seen slightly in the wheat of 1821. The land again at rest in 1822 and 23, when it was marled, at six hundred bushels, (3) without omitting the limed piece-and all sowed in wheat that fall. In 1824, the wheat was found to be improved by the marl, but neither that, nor the next of 1828, was equal to its earliest product of wheat. The limed part showed injury from the quantity of manure in 1824, but none since. The field was now under the regular four-shift rotation, and continued to recover-but did not surpass its first crop until 1831, when it brought rather more than thirty bushels of corn to the acre-being five or six more than its supposed first crop.

Not having owned much land under a second growth of pines, I can only refer to two experiments of this kind. The improvement in both these cases has been so remarkable, as to induce the belief that the old fields to be found on every farm, which have been exhausted and turned out of cultivation thirty or forty years, offer the most profitable subjects for the application of calcareous

manures.

Experiment 15.

Adjoining this piece, six acres of similar soil were grubbed and belted in August 1826-marl at six hundred to seven hundred bushels (3) spread just before. But few of the trees died until the May 1826. Marled about eight acres of land summer of 1827. 1828, planted in corn: the crop under its second growth, by opening paths for the did not appear heavier than would have been ex-carts, ten yards apart. Marl, put five hundred pected if no marl had been applied-but no part to six hundred bushels to the acre-and spread in had been left without, for comparison. 1829- the course of the summer. In August, belted wheat. 1830, at rest. 1831, in corn, and the pro- slightly all the pines that were as much as eight duct supposed to be near or quite thirty-five bush- inches through, and cut down or grubbed the smaller els-or an increase of thirty-five or forty per cent. growth, of which there was very little. on the first crop. No measurement was made-pines (which were the only trees,) stood thick, but the product was estimated by comparison with an adjacent piece, which measured thirty-one bushels, and which seemed to be inferior to this piece.

The operation of marl on this kind of soil, seems to add to the previous product very slowly, compared with other soils-but it is not the less effectual and profitable, in fixing and retaining the vegetable matter accumulated by nature, which otherwise would be quickly dissipated by cultivation, and lost forever.

The remarkable open texture of the soil on which the last two experiments were tried will be evident from the following statement of the quantity and coarseness of the silicious sand contained.

1000 grains of this soil, taken in 1826 from the
part that had been both limed and marled,
was found to consist of

811 of silicious sand moderately coarse, mixed
with a few grains of coarse shelly matter.
158-finely divided earthy matter, &c.
31-loss.

1000

The

and were mostly from eight to twelve inches in diameter-eighteen inches where standing thin. The land joined Exp. 14 on one side-but this is level, and on the other side joins ridge woodland, which soon becomes like the soil of Exp. 1. This piece, in its virgin state, was probably of a nature between those two soils-but more like the ridge soil, than the "free light land." No information has been obtained as to the state of this land when its former cultivation was abandoned. The soil, (that is, the depth which has since been turned by the plough,) a whitish loamy sand, on a subsoil of the same: in fact, all was subsoil before ploughing, except half an inch or three quarters, on the top, which was principally composed of rotted pine leaves. Above this thin layer, were the later dropped and unrotted leaves, lying loosely several inches thick.

The pines showed no symptom of being killed, until the autumn of 1827, when their leaves began to have a tinge of yellow. To suit the cultivation with the surrounding land, this piece was laid down in wheat for its first crop, in October 1827. For this purpose the few logs, the boughs, and grubbed bushes were heaped, but not burnt

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