An essay on calcareous manures

Preface To The First Edition

The object of this essay is to investigate the peculiar features and qualities of the soils of our tide water district, to show the causes of their general unproductiveness, and to point out means, as yet but little used, for their effectual and profitable improvement. My observations are particularly addressed to the cultivators of that part of Virginia which lies between the eea coast and the falls of the rivers, and are generally intended to be applied only within those limits. By thus confining the application of the opinions which will be maintained, it is not intended to deny the propriety of their being further extended. On the contrary, I do not doubt that they may correctly apply to all similar soils, under similar circumstances; for the operations of Nature are direcied by uniform laws, and like causes must every where produce like ellects. But as 1 shall rely lor proofs on such facts as are either sufficiently well known already, or may easily be tested by any inquirer, I do not choose to extend my around so far as to be opposed by the assertion of other facts, the truth of which can neither be established nor ovei thrown by any available or sufficient testimony.

The peculiar qualities of our soils have been little noticed, and the causes of those pcculiariiies have never been sought ; and though new and valuable truths may await the first explorers of this opening for agricultural research, yet they can scarcely avoid mistakes sufficiently numerous to moderate the triumph of success. I am not blind to the difficulties of the investigation, nor to my own unfitness to overcome them ; nor should I have hazarded^the attempt, but for the belief that such an investigation is all-important for the improvement of our soil and agriculture, and that it was in vain to hope that it would be undertaken by these who were better qualified to do justice to the subject. I ask a deliberate hearing, and a strict scrutiny of my opmious. from those most interested in their truth If a change, in -most of our lands, from hopeless sterility to a high state of productiveness, is a vain fancy, it will be easy to discover and expose the fallacy of my views ; but if these views are well founded, none deserve better the attention of farmers, and nothing can more seriously affect the future agricultural prosperity of our country. No where ought such improvements to be more highly valued, or more eagerly sought, than among us, where so many causes have concurred to reduce our products, and the prices of our lands, to the lowest state, and are yearly extending want, and its consequence, ignorance, among the cultivators and proprietors.

In pursuing this inquiry, it will be necessary to show the truth of various facts and opinions which as yet are unsupported by authority, and most of which have scarcely been noticed by agricultural writers, unless to be denied. The number of proofs that will be required, and the discursive course through which they must be reached, may probably render more obscure the reasoning of an unpractised writer. Treatises on agriculture ought to be so written as to be clearly understood, though it should be at the expense of some other requisites of good writing ; and, in this respect, I shall be satisfied if I succeed in making my opinions intelligible to every reader, though many might well dispense with' such particular explanations. Agricultural works are seldom considered as requiring very close attention ; and therefore, to be made useful, they should be put in a shape suited to cursory and irregular reading. A truth may be clearly established — but if its important consequences cannot be regularly deduced for many pages afterwards, the premises will then probably have been forgotten, so that a very particular reference to them may be required. These considerations must serve as my apology lor some repetitions— and for minute explanations and details, which some readers may deem unnecessary.

The theoretical opinions supported in this essav. together with my earliest experiments with calcareous manures, were published in the 'American Farmer,' (vol. iii., page 313,) in 1821. No reason has since induced me to retract any of the important positions then assumed. But the many imperfections in that publication, which grew out of my want of experience, made it my duty, at some

IV

future time, to correct its errors, and supply the deficiencies of proof, from the fruits of subsequent practice and observation. With these views, this essay was commenced and finished in 1826. But the work had so grown on my hands, that instead of being of a size suitable for insertion in an agricultural journal, it would have filled a volume. The unwillingness to assume so conspicuous a position as the publication in that form would have required, and the fear that my work would be more likely to meet with neglect or censure than applause, induced me to lay it aside, and to give up all intention of publication. Since that time, the use of fossil shells' as manure has greatly increased, in my own neighborhood and elsewhere, and has been attended generally with all the improvement and profit that was expected. But from paying no regard to the theory of the operation of this manure, and from not taking warning from the known errors and losses of myself as well as others, most persons have used it injudiciously, and have damaged more or less of their lands. So many disasters of this kind seemed likely to restrain the use of this valuable manure, and even to destroy its reputation, just as it was beginning rapidly to extend. This additional consideration has at last induced me to risk the publication of this essay. The experience of five more years, since it was written, has not contradicted any of the opinions then advanced — and no change has been made in the work, except in form, and by continuing the reports of experiments to the present time.

It should be remembered that my attempt to convey instruction is confined to a single means of improving our lands, and increasing our profits ; and though many other operations are, from necessity, incidentally noticed, my opinions or practices on such objects are not referred to as furnishing rules for good husbandry. In using calcareous manure for the improvement of poor soils, my labors have been highly successful; but that success is not necessarily accompanied by general good management and economy. To those who know me intimately, it would be unnecessary to confess the small pretensions that I have to the character of a good farmer ; but to others it may be required, for the purpose of explaining why other improvements and practices of good husbandry have not more aided, and kept pace with, the effects of my use of calcareous manures.

E. R.

Prince George county, Virginia, January 20th, 1832.

Preface To Second Edition

When the first edition of this essay was published, it met with a reception far more favorable, and a demand from purchasers much greater, than the author's anticipations had reached ; and it is merely in accordance with the concurrent testimony of the many agriculturists who have since expressed and published opinions on the subject, to say that the publication has already had great and valuable effects in directing attention, and inducing successful efforts, to the improvement of land by calcareous manures. Experimental knowledge on this head has probably been more than doubled within the last two years ; and the narrow limits of the region within which marling had previously been confined, have been enlarged to perhaps ten-fold their former extent. Still, the circumstances now existing, however changed for the better, present a mere beginning of the immense and valuable improvements of soil, and increase of profits, that must hereafter grow out of the use of calcareous manures, if their operation is properly understood by those who apply them. But if used without that knowledge, their great value will certainly not be found ; and indeed, they will often cause more loss than profit. It is therefore not so important to the farmers of our country at large to be convinced of the general and great value of calcareous manures — and to those in the great Atlantic tide- water region to know the newly established truth, that their beds of fossil shells furnish the best and cheapest of manures— as it is, that all should know in what manner, and by what general laws, these manures operate— how they produce benefit, and when they may be either worthless or injurious. Aud this more important end, the author regrets to believe has as yet scarcely been even partially attained, by the dissemination and proper understanding of correct views of the subject. Of course it is not to be supposed that this essay has been read (if even heard of) by one in ten of the many who have been prompted by verbal information to attempt the practice it recommends ; and of those who have read, and who have even expressed Avarm approbation of the work, it has seldom been found tbat their praise was discriminating, or founded upon a thorough examination of its reasoning and theoretical views, on which principally rests whatever value it may possess. For all persons who are so easily convinced, it may truly be said, that the volume embraced nothing more, and was worth no more, than would be stated in these few words — " the application of calcareous manures will be found highly improving and profitable." It is not therefore at all strange, that the attentive reading of a volume to obtain this truth, was generally deemed unnecessary.

Though the first edition of this work has been nearly exhausted, the circulation has as yet been almost confined to that small portion of the state of Virginia alone in which the mode of improvement recommended had previously been successfully commenced, or had at least attracted much attention. But this district is not better fitted to be thus improved than the remainder of the great tide-water region stretching from Long Island to Mobile— and to a great part of which calcareous manures may be cheaply applied. It is only in parts of Maryland and Virginia that many extensive and highly profitable applications of fossil shells, or marl, have been yet made. In North Carolina the value of the manure has been but lately tried ; in South Carolina and Georgia, no notice of it has yet been taken, or at least has not been made known ; and in Florida and Alabama, (parts of which are peculiarly suited to receive these benefits.) it is most erroneously thought that such improvements are only profitable for long settled and impoverished countries. The farmers of Pennsylvania have gone far ahead of those of Virginia in manuring with,lime — and it is believed (but upon no certain testimony) that in New Jersey, use has been made of the calcareous manure which in Virginia is called marl, as well as of the green sand, which they even still more erroneously call by the same name. But 'whatever may have been the extent of their use of calcareous manures of every kind, and however great their success, it is believed that our northern brethren have been as little directed by correct views of the operation of these manures, as those of the south, who have neglected them entirely.

But though the circulation of this work will be most useful through the great tidewater region, which is so generally supplied with underlying beds of fossil shells, and so much of the soil of which especially needs such manure, still the assertion may be ventured that there is no part of the country where the views presented, if true, are not important to be known ; and, if known, would not be hiahly useful to aid the improvement of soils. It is to the general theory of the constitution of fertile and barren soils, that the attention and severe scrutiny of both scientific and practical agriculturists are invited ; and to the several minor points there presented, which are either altogether new, or not established by authority — such as the doctrine of acidity in soils— of the incapacity of poor and acid soils to be enriched — and of the entire absence of carbonate of lime in most of the soils of this country.

The circumstances stated above, have induced the publication of a second edition as a supplement to the ' Farmers' Register,' (and suited to be bound with either volume of that work,) which, in that form, may have the facility of distribution through the mail— and which may be offered at so low a price as to reach, as nearlv as possible, that general circulation which is its author's main object.

Preface To The Third Edition

The rapid progress of improvement made by the use of calcareous manures, as well as the many misdirected and less effective attempts to obtain such results, together with the acquisition of much recent and extended information on the subject, all concur in requiring the new and enlarged edition of the Essay on Calcareous Manures, which the author now oilers to the agricultural public.

In the few years which have passed since the issue of the preceding edition, it is believed that the use of marl and lime, in lower Virginia, has been extended over thrice as much land as had been previously thus improved ; and the previous clear income of the farmers thus fertilizing their lands has probably been already thereby increased in amount by several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the intrinsic value of the lands raised by as many millions. These great augmentations of annual profits and of the true value of landed capital, from this single source, if they could be accurately estimated, would be seen to have produced an important item of additional revenue to the treasury of the commonwealth. And these additions of wealth to individuals and to the state, would be obvious as well as real, but for the esistence o' other circumstances which have operated to counteract or to disguise the proper results. The most important of such influences will be merely r< Ferred to here in the cursory manner only that the occasion permits.

fn the first place— besides the deservedly very low appreciation of all lands in Virginia^ founded on the smallness of their products, the market prices were formerly still more reduced by the almost universal urgent desire of proprietors to sell, that they might be enabled then to emigrate to the new and rich lands of the west. The impossibility of selling, even at the lowest valuation pric :, was the only thing which prevented the actual flood of emigration being so much more swelled as to leave half our lands unoccupied and waste. If purchasers had l»ut presented themselves, fully half the farms in Prince George county (and i' is presumed of many other counties) might have been boughi up ata considerable deduction from the lowest estimated value ; and all the sellers would have removed, with all their capital, to the western wilderness. To the then actual and regular flow ol emigration from the now marling district, an effectual barrier has been opposed by the introduction of that mode ol' improvement. All emigration has ceased wherever by trial of this means the cultivators of the land found their labors to be richly repaid. Thus, in estimating the gains of individuals and of the state, on this score, the comparison should be made, not with the value of property and population which remained twenty years ago, but with what would have remained now, if the then existing inducements to emigration had continued to go on and to increase, as they would have done, with time.

Next — the actual increase of intrinsic value of marled lands is far from being even yet fully appreciated, because of the generally prevailing and very erroneous mode of estimating the values of the increase of permanent net income Irom land, (as 'will be made manifest in a part of this essay — ) and but few even of those persons who have obtained such values bv marling their lands, would estimate them at one-fourth of their true amount. The source of any permanent net increase of only .*6 of annual income from land, adds $100 to the intrinsic value of the land. And this proposition is not the less true, and to the full extent asseried, even though the estimate of private purchasers and se lers, and of public assessors of lands, may all count for the market price but a small proportion of the increased real value.

Next— even whatever of new appreciation the foregoing influences might have permitted to be exhibited in the increased market price of lands, and still more their new real value, have been disguised, or altogether concealed, by the great and frequent fluctuations of all market prices of property, and by the general misdirections of capital and industry, all caused by the universal individual and national gambling (whether voluntary or compulsory,) at the maddening and ruinous

VII

game of paper-money banking — to which system of delusion and fraud this otherwise most blessed country and fortunate people are indebted for so much ol disaster, loss, and, still worse, of wide-spread corruption of habits and morals. The enormous apparent and illusory profits promised by this system, and by the stockjobbers who alone have fattened upon the facilities it offered for fraud and plunder, served powerfully to depress the market price of lands, and to discourage agricultural investments and pursuits. For, whatever actual profits the improvement and cultivation of the soil might offer to reward the care and labor of the proprietor, the stocks of various corporations, falsely appreciated by m< ans of a bloated paper currency and by the arts of stockjobbers, promised much higher | rofits, without requiring either care, labor or risk. Thus, the higher that fictitious dividends of profits or the false values of stocks rose, and the stronger became the inducements to make stock in vestments, the more the prices of lands sunk (comparatively) below their true" value, because of the general disposition-to convert landed capital to stock capital. But the real and solid increase of income and of wealth to individuals and to ihe commonwealth, caused by the permanent improvement of the soil, is not the less certain, or the less profitable, because fictitious appreciations of values, caused by the fraudulent banking system, and the consequent speculations and madness of its votaries and victims, have been both so much higher and lower, at different times, as to make the amount of actud improved values appear small in comparison, even if they were not thereby entirely concealed. But these delusive and ruinous causes of fluctuating prices and \alues are now last showing their emptiness, and vanishing from view ; and whenever the fraudulent paper system shall be completely expos< d and entirely exploded, then both lands and paper money system will be estimated at their true value. May the consummation be speedy, complete, and final!

But even though, if properly and accurately estimated, the true value of the lands already marled and limed in Virginia has been increased to the amount of some millions of dollars, the gain is very small compared to that which yet remains ready to be obtained. Marling has not yet been extended over the hundredth part of the surface to which it may be profitably applied — and liming not to the ten-thousand ih part of the lands of the state, to which lime may be brought. And elsewhere, with the exception of a small part of Maryland, the beginnings of marlingvonly have as yet been made. Nevertheless, these beginnings are the widely scattered seeds which will spring up and spread, and herea ter yield abundant harvests. In South Carolina, more especially, the use of marl ha - been at last commenced and is now regularly prosecuted under auspices which offer assurance that the rich resources of that state, in calcareous deposiios, will not much longer be permitted to lie as dead capital, of which the value was not appreciated or known, and the existence scaiceiy- suspected by the proprietors. In preparing this new edition, the author has endeavored to avail himself of all recent lights, and to present a full and clear view of the general subject, as well as of all essential details. The general theoretical opinions, as presented in the earlier editions, remain unaltered, and of course the facts of former practice ; but in regard to both, while preserving the same substance, the treatment has been enlarged, or the views and statements extended for better illustration and greater clearness. Whatever of other parts of the last edition could be well spared, has been omitted ; and much of other additional and new matter introduced. It has been the object of the author to render the work a full and sufficient guide for the conduct of novices in marling and liming, and he trusts that he has not fallen very far short of attaining that object. December, 1842. 9

ESSAY

CALCAREOUS MANURES.

Chapter I. General Description Of Earths And Soils

It is very necessary that we should correctly distinguish earths and soils and their many varieties; yet these terms are continually misapplied — and, even among authors of high authority, no two agree in their definitions, or modes of classification. Where such differences exist, and no one known method is so free from material imperfections as to be referred to as a common standard, it becomes necessary for every one who treats of soils to define for himself — though perhaps he is thereby adding to the general mass of confusion already existing. This necessity must be my apology for whatever is new or unauthorized in the following definitions.

The earths important to agriculture, and which form nearly the whole of the known globe, are only three — silicious, aluminous and calcareous.

Silicious earth, in its state of absolute purity, forms rock crystal. The whitest and purest sand may be considered as silicious earth in agriculture, though none is presented by nature entirely free from other ingredients. It is composed of very hard particles, not soluble in any common acid, and which cannot be made coherent by mixing with water. Any degree of coherence, or any shade of color that sand may exhibit, is owing to the presence of other substances. The solidity of the particles of sand renders them impenetrable to water, which passes between them as through a sieve. The hardness of its particles, and their loose arrangement, make, sand incapable of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, or of retaining any valuable vapor or fluid, with which it may have been in any manner supplied. Silicious earth is also quickly heated by the sun, which adds to the rapidity with which it loses moisture.

Aluminous or argillaceous earth, when dry, adheres to the tongue, absorbs water rapidly and abundantly, and when wet forms a tough paste, smooth and soapy to the touch. By burning, it becomes as hard as stone. Clays derive their adhesiveness from their proportion of aluminous earth. This also is white when pure, but is generally colored deeply and variously — red, yellow, or blue — by metallic substances. When drying, aluminous earth shrinks greatly, and becomes a mass of very hard lumps, of various sizes, separated by cracks and fissures, which become so many little reservoirs of standing water when filled by rains, and remain so, until the lumps, by slowly imbibing the water, are distended enough to fill the space occupied before.

Calcareous earth, or carbonate of lime,* is lime combined with carbonic acid, and may be converted into pure or quick-lime by heat ; and quick-lime, by exposure to the air, soon returns to its former state of calcareous earth. It forms marble, limestone, chalk, and shells, with very small admixtures of other substances. Thus the term calcareous earth will not be used here to include either lime in its pure state, or any of the numerous combinations which lime forms with the various acids, except that one combination (carbonate of lime) which is beyond comparison the most abundant throughout the world, and most important as an ingredient of soils. Pure lime attracts all acids so powerfully, that it is never presented by nature except in combination with some one of them, and generally with the carbonic acid. When this compound is thrown into any stronger acid, as the muriatic, nitric, or even common vinegar, the lime, being more powerfully attracted, unites with and is dissolved by the stronger acid, and lets go the carbonic, which escapes with effervescence in the form of air. In this manner, the carbonate of lime, or calcareous earth, may not only be easily distinguished from silicious and aluminous earth, but also from all other combinations of lime.

The foregoing definition of calcareous earth, which confines that term to the carbonate of lime, is certainly liable to objections, but less so than any other designation. It may at first seem absurd to consider as one of the three principal earths which compose soils, one only of the many combinations of lime, rather than either pure lime alone, or lime in all its combinations. One or the other of these significations is adopted by the highest authorities, when the calcareous ingredients of soils are described; and in either sense, the use of this term is more conformable with scientific arrangement, than mine. Yet much inconvenience is caused by thus applying the term calcareous earth. If applied to lime, it is to a substance which is never found existing naturally, and which will always be considered by most persons as the artificial product of the process of calcination, and as having no more part in the composition of natural soils, than the manures obtained from oil-cake, or pounded bones. It is equally improper to include under the same general term all the combinations of lime with the fifty or sixty various acids. Two of these compounds, the sulphate and the phosphate of lime, are known as valuable manures ; but they exist naturally in soils in such minute quantities, as not to deserve to be considered as important ingredients. A subsequent part of this essay will show why the oxalate of lime is also supposed to be highly valuable as a manure, and far more abundant. Many other salts of lime are known to chemists; but their several qualities, as affecting soils, are entirely unknown — and their

* Carbonate of lime is the chemical name for the substance formed by the combination of carbonic acid with lime. The names. of all the thousands of different substances {neutral salts) which are formed by the combination of each of the many acids with ' each of the various earths, alkalies, and metals, are formed by one uniform rule, which is as simple, and easy to be understood and remembered, as it is useful. To avoid repeated explanations in the course of this essay, the rule will now be stated by which these compounds are named. The termination of the name of the acid is changed to the syllable ate, and then prefixed to the particular earth, alkali, or metal with which the acid is united. With this explanation, any reader can at once understand what is meant by each of some thousands of terms, none of which might have been heard of before, and which (without this manner of being named,) would be too numerous to be fixed in the most retentive memory. Thus, it will be readily understood that the carbonate of magnesia is a compound of the carbonic acid and magnesia — the sulphate of lime, a compound of sulphuric acid and lime — the sulphate of iron, a compound of sulphuric acid and iron — and in like manner for all other terms so formed.

quantities are too small, and their presence too rare, to require consideration. If all the numerous different combinations of lime, having perhaps as many various and unknown properties, had not been excluded by my definition of calcareous earth, continual exceptions would have been necessary, to avoid stating what was not meant. The carbonate of lime, to which I have confined that term, though only one of many existing combinations, yet in quantity and in importance, as an ingredient of soils, as well as a part'of the known portion of the globe, very far surpasses all the others.

But even if calcareous earth, as defined and limited, is admitted to be the substance which it is proper to consider as one of the three important earths of agriculture, still there are objections to its name, which I would gladly avoid. However strictly defined, many readers will attach to terms such meanings as they had previously understood : and the word calcareous has been so loosely and so different])'' applied in common language, and in agriculture, that much confusion may attend its use. Anything " partaking of the nature of lime" is " calcareous," according to Walker's Dictionary ; Lord Karnes limits the term to pure lime;* Davyf and Sinclair}: include under it pure lime and all its combinations ; and Kirwan,|| Rozier,1T and Young,§ whose example I have followed, confine the name calcareous earth to the carbonate of lime. Nor can any other term be substituted without producing other difficulties. Carbonate of lime would be precise, and it means exactly the same chemical substance ; but there are insuperable objections to the frequent use of chemical names in a work addressed to ordinary readers. Chalk, or shells, or mild lime, (or what had been quick-lime, but which, from exposure to the air, had again become carbonated,) all these are the same chemical substance ; but none of these names would serve, because each would be supposed to refer to such certain form or appearance of calcareous earth, as they usually express. If I could hope to revive an obsolete term, and with some modification establish its use for this purpose, I would call this earth calx — and from it derive calxing, to signify the application of calcareous earth, in any form, as manure. A general and definite term for this operation is much wanting. Liming, marling, applying drawn ashes, or the rubbish of old buildings, chalk, or limestone gravel, all these operations are in part, and some of them entirely, that manuring that I would thus call calving. But because their names are different, so are their effects generally considered— not only in those respects where differences really exist, but in those where they are precisely alike.