The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-04-28
MARL DEPOSITS OF EASTERN
VIRGINIA.


A day or two among the mari beds of
the Potomac brings FULLY to mind the vast
wealth which now lies unheeded under the
hills and valleys of Eastern Virginia. The
time has come in this State, and over the
Atlantic States of the South generally,
when commercial fertilizers must be aban-
doned, or play only subordinate part In
agriculture. The capital is not at COM
mand to purchase in sufficient quantity to
give remunerative results. We must have
cheaper fertilizer, attainable by the APP
plication Of our own labor in great mea-
sure, or agriculture on the old lands OF the
South must be abandoned. Mari is for
Eastern Virginia what the limestones Of
the Northern slopes of the great Valley of
Virginia are to their productive soils. Our
mari is distributed along the whole tide
water front of the State, and extends in
land to the first ridges Of primitive rock
on the streams.
From Fort Washington on the Potomac
to Richmond and thence south through
Petersburg to the State line, We find all
the country eastward underlaid with this
valuable fertilizer. The formation here
consists of beds of sand, clay, and gravel
with deposits Of shells and green sand
mari.
The shell beds are generally combined
with more or less decayed vegetables and
animal matter, and form valuable manure
by the lime and organic matter they con-
tain. The green sand mari is still more
valuable. 1t is composed largely of a
green silicite Of iron and potash with q
trace of phosphqBe of lime derived from
shells and animal remains. Its value in
agriculture is very great. In New Jersey,
where It abounds, it has converted the
barren lands of the seashore into gardens.
Lands worth but five dollars thirty years
ago, are now worth from one hundred to
two hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
By the application of mari, their fertility
has been so increased as to render their
owners wealthy in many cases. The
Squankiw mari is carried fifty miles by
rail, and hauled in wagons several miles
from the depots, and pays profit on such
handling Mari is the great hope of the
farmer in Eastern Virginia. 1t is des-
tined to resurrect our buried industry.
Millions of acres of our most arabic lands,
free from stumps and stones, level and
mellow, only exhausted by a century of
stingy tillage, lie within easy reach of the
mari pits.
The material can be easily hauled out
and spread at those seasons when men and
teams are least needed for preparing work.
Twenty tons to the acre on the average
would treble the product of our lands.
Thirty to forty tons would pay still better,
giving us a splendid growth Of grass, corn,
wheat, and other grains, and enabling us
to begin the work of making stable ma
nure to carry our lands up to the scale Of
productiveness. Begin now Try ten
acres this year, that.nearest the mari bank
If you cannot try ten. then five, or even
one but at all events do it with the
utmost thoroughness.
Don't expect to see sudden change
wait little, and you will be rewarded
and your children after you will see the
good effects of your industry and fore
sight.
Mari is the new plank in our agricul.
tural platform. We ask our cotempora-
ries to push it keep it before the people
You will come in on the winning side il
you will accept the great bounty of ma
ture which crops out of all the hill-sides Of
Eastern Virginia.
Here has been gathered up for your use
the offal of buried races for million years
carefully composted according to the for
mulas of the chemist. Muck from The
ancient swamps. dead sharks, alligators
and great whales, fishes and Holsters o.
extinct types, mixed in due proportion
with shells of fossil oysters, furnishing thu
lime, all carefully covered, so that nc
volatile ingredient shall escape. You have
only to feed the hungry soil generously
with this food to make your waste land
equal the prairie in productiveness.