Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-12-06
SOME NOTES
Of interest to Truckers. Farmers
and Stock RaiSerS.
PULvERIzED OYSTER SHELLS.


own soil that we reproduce it in tn,
hope that more shell-lime may be useC
by our farmers.
EDITOR SOUTHERN PLANTER:
This section of Maryland (WicomicC
County, is a sandy, piney wood.
country, in which agriculture wa.
formerly at low ebb, and the lumber
industry absorbed all attention. OF
late years the exhaustion of the timber
has led to more attention to the i'm
provement of the land, and a great
trucking industry has sprung up and is
proving very profitable.
One large grower here, who produces
strawberries and MELONS mainly. told
me that the past season has been very
profitable one and that he cleared $40
600. This man is working land that
remember as a sandy waste covered
with sassafras, persimmon and pine
thickets, and in my boyhood would
not have sold for So an acre. Now
the same land will bring $500 an acre,
but is not for sale. The people here
are kind enough to say that my advo.
cacy of the Southern COW pea has done
more for the development of this Sec
tion than anything else.
The roads leading out from the city
of Salisbury in every direction are now
macadamized for several miles out
with oyster shells, and instead of the
deep sand in the roads that l remembe,
there are smooth, hard roads that the
automobiles fly over at rapid rate.
Going out over one of these roads
yesterday | was much interested in
noting that on each side of the shelled
part of the road and down to the edge
of the road ditch there is a beautiful
sod OF bluegrass. AS soon as one gets
beyond the shelled road there is the
old deep sand In the road and no sign.
Of grass; and can remember when i.
was thought that grass would moi
grow here. 1t is evident that the bor-
der Of bluegrass along the shelled road,
is due to the wash Of pulverized shell
from the road, which has made lime
stone conditions there that are favor
able to the blue grass, a limestone
grass, and the seeds have evidently
come from wagons driving along the
road, for there has been no sowing
of grass seeds there. But there has
been great deal of interest in getting
bluegrass lawns in the town, and they
are very fine, too, when one notes the
character of the soil. The darkies NOV
the lawns, and as many of them were
allowed to mature seed, the hauling of
the cut grass along the roads has sup
piled the seed. l feel sure that if pull
verized shells were used on the lawns
there would be much thicker sod
as the sod along the road is very dense
and heavy.
This led me to think over what has
been matter of discussion in the West
of late-the use of pulverized rock in
lieu of burnt lime. There is no doubt
that the use of this material will bring
about limestone soil conditions and will
be great aid towards the recovery of
the clover crop. The great drawback
is the larger quantity needed and in the
scarcity of labor this is a very impor-
tant matter. Whether the use of pull
verized rock or shells will cure the acid
ity of soil as readily as the burnt lime
is, think, doubtful. But would like
to throw out the idea in regard to the
shells, for in the large accumulations
in the centers of the oyster canning in
dustry there is room for some one to
start the pulverization of these shells,
and if they are found effective believe
that there would be a great use fol
them all over this peninsula.
If the wash from a shell road brings
about conditions on this sand that
makes bluegrass sod flourish it will be
well worth the attention of those who
need a permanent pasture,
The growers here are in great dreaC
of what they call "wire grass" for the
Bermuda is here and is well suited tt
this warm soil and will make gooc
summer pasture. Near this town
noted a paddock near the home of i;
wealthy man who is raising race horses
and there was as dense sod of Ber
muda as could be desired. OF course
we do not want Bermuda in trucl
field, but / do not believe that it seed
here to any extent and it will he eas,
to keep it in bounds. Then, if Texa
bluegrass is mixed with it there will b
a winter grass that will be of value
And for any OF these grasses the pull
verized shells will be an excellent appli
cation. Many years ago in Kent county
Maryland, on the point of land betweel
the bay and Fairlee creek, there was
and probably still is, one of the larges
of the old so-called Indian shell banks
lover good many acres the shells wer