39

found, have been improved permanently and principally by
the use of the means there indicated. This has been done with-
out outlay of capital to but a small extent; in very maney cases
by means of the shell marl on the farms, with the addition
of sea grass, and the ordinary sources of farm yard manure;
during the progress of this improvement, the owners of the
soil have had the unequalled satisfaction of seeing each suc-
ceeding year productive of increasing crops, and every field
yielding annually a higher tribute to the labor bestowed on
it, every day in fact, an increase of interest on an increased
capital, and all this not the chance result of speculation, but
the natural reward of honest labor and industry. Much of
this land has improved within the last decade prior to 1860,
from one to five hundred per cent, in value, and during this -pe-
riod has paid annually good interest on this incresed value. This
increased value has not been due to the sudden springing up
of large cities or the opening of railroads or the discovery of
mines, but derived from the correct application of the natural
means of improvement existing in and on the soil, with the
correlative advantages of health, climate and advantages of
geographical location, these latter no amount of capital be-
ing adequate to supply where they do not naturally exist,
and no where do they exist to the degree that they do in our
State, and no where in it more than here.

The above facts have been verified, proven to me, and can
be to any one who will take the trouble of examining them
by personal, investigation, and the testimony of numerous
gentlemen of the first standing for integrity and agricultural
skill in the State; they are indeed what everybody knows.

I have given the above description as it was published fif-
teen years since, how correct that description is, was attested
at the time. There was also given directions as to the proper
mode of cultivation and manuring and the result predicted.

The prediction has become fulfilled, fulfilled to the letter
and spirit, and in many instances have exceeded what I then
said of the prospective results. I underestimated the capacity
of these soils, in no instance did I overrate them.

To those who care to appeal to specific facts and figures,
dollars and cents, I state the fact communicated by letter from
a very prominent gentleman of Maryland.

That the nett profits of two hundred and fifty acres of land,
taxes, interest on capital, cost of manures and labor, and in-
cidental expenses of every kind being deducted, amounted in
five years to fifty-one dollars and forty-five cents ($51.45) per
acre; the land costing ten dollars per acre when purchased.
The profits on many plantations have been greater than on
this, particularly on fruit plantations.

It is but fair to state that the above land was worth in the
market fifty dollars per acre at the end of the five years.