The treasures of the earth then become developed, and stone and
iron take the place of wood in all constructions, while the exchanges
between the miner of coal and of iron--of the man who quarries the
granite, and him who raises the food--rapidly increase in quantity, and
diminish the necessity for resorting to the distant market.
* * * * *
=_Edmund Ruffin, 1793-1863._=
From "An Essay on Calcarcous Manures."
=_156._= IMPROVEMENT OF ACID SOILS.
Nearly all the woodland now remaining in lower Virginia, and also much
of the land which has long been arable, is rendered unproductive by
acidity; and successive generations have toiled on such land, almost
without remuneration, and without suspecting that their worst virgin
land was then richer than their manured lots appeared to be. The
cultivator of such soil, who knows not its peculiar disease, has no
other prospect than a gradual decrease of his always scanty crops. But
if the evil is once understood, and the means of its removal are within
his reach, he has reason to rejoice that his soil was so constituted as
to be preserved from the effects of the improvidence of his forefathers,
who would have worn out any land not almost indestructible.
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