The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-04-26
From the Home and FARM
MARI aH n Fertilizer.

Some years before the late war, when the
writer, was a small boy of about four or i've
years OF age, his home was on plantation on
Cooper river in South Carolina and one Sunday
morning as the family of the household were pre-
pairing to start for the country church, the driver
On the place came up with the information that
de oxen has fell in de mari pit" Instantly, in
accordance with the scriptural permission, some
men were dispatched with rope to pull him
out As We were driven along the road to the
church we passed the pits, in one of which was
the OK, at which some men were tugging to get
him out.
This sight, unimportant in itself, impressed
upon the infantile mind of the writer the subject
of mari; and in later years he ascertained from
the swner of the plantation that the material
obtained from those pits had been put upon poor
highland as fertilizer for corn, and had produced
yield approximatng forty bushels per acre, .
quantity quite unprecedented in that section
About twenty miles from Charleston, South
Carolina, there is plantation that the writer
knows TO be naturally of the poorest quality Of
sell, not capable of producing unaided over nine
bushels of corn per acre; but few years ago he
saw this place thoroughly plowed and then ma
nuTeu Win CdiClncu mari, II the rate OF 4UU
pounds per acre, and planted in corn. he
watched the crop with interest through the sum-
mer, and although it was sadly injured in Sep
tember by an equinoctial storm, the yield proved
to be thirty-nine bushels per acre.
Mari has been used as fertilizer in Europe for
centuries, where it always has been esteemed NJ
the most valuable manure that could be applied
to poor worn out lands. In this country it
has been used by the farmers of the Middle and
few of the Southern States for the past fifty
| years. The first discovery of valuable deposits
| Of it was made in New Jersey, and since that
time this fertilizer has steadily gained in favor
among the farmers Of that State and Of these
adjoining; and has worked wonders upon the
naturally poor soil Of that section. So impor-
tant is this mineral considered that several COM
panies now exist whose business it 10 to dig and
| sack it and the shipments ever railways aggre-
gate upwards Of 5o0o0o sacks annually in the
| States of New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware,
| and in addition vast quantity il dug by farmers
| on their own places Of which no record is kept
| There are many varieties of mari, but those
best known and considered most valuable are
| green and calcareeus. The former 10 by far the
| more effective and to the best of the writer's
| knowledge has been discovered In this country
| only in New jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Missis-
siPpi and on the Tar River in Nerth Carolina The
calcareous is found in all the Atlantic and Gulf
States. Marl can always be distinguished from
clay BY the application Of vinegar or any strong
acid, when, II Is the true material Il win e5er-
vesee, while clay will not. Green sand Of aver
average quality contains no per cent Of potash,
| 49 per cent of phosphoric acid, / per can't oi
lime, per cent, 0f magnesia, and 20 per cent Of
Protoxide Of iron; bat Of csurse the analyses ol
different deposits vary both above and below this
contains about 40 rer cent. of carbonate Of lime,
per cent. Of magnesia, and only traces Of pet
| ash and phospAoFic aeid-
The green sand can Be obtained from Msssrs.