1857.] On Using Lime for Compost. 105 



is a simple remedy to prevent sucli an escape of the ammonia, by 

 means of tlirowing a layer of ground — about three inches thick is 

 sufficient — on the lime after the manure has been covered with it to 

 the thickness of only one-fourth of an inch. The manure should by 

 no means be old, rotten, or already decomposed, but should be taken 

 fresh from the stable, and the layer of such manure put on the com- 

 post heap, should be of about the same thickness as the layer of 

 ground, say three inches. The ammonia, made volatile by the ap- 

 plication of lime and subsequent fermentation, is then taken up by 

 the layer of ground and united with it so as to make the compost 

 what it intended to be, to wit: a manure in which all the different 

 particles of solid and volatile nutriments are collected — none lost. 



The great benefit in making compost by the aid of lime consists, 

 then, in the fact, that the process of decomposition is finished in a 

 few weeks, after which time you have a compost — made from fresh 

 stable manure — ready for use, which would otherwise — if the de- 

 composition had been left in the usual way to the atmospheric in- 

 fluences — have required the time of a whole season. 



The subject of using lime for agricultural purposes being quite 

 interesting, I send you a most explicit article from the pen of Darius 

 Lapham, Esq., ' On the Application of Lime on Soils,' to be in- 

 serted in the present issue of Tlue Ciiicinnatus, and within a short 

 time I shall send you a thorough description of my own modes of 

 using lime to make rich composts from fresh stable manure, and 

 from green vegetable matters, to be published in the next issue. 



Yours very respectfully, 



Chas. a. Schuman. 



Cincinnati, March \st, 1857. 



EXTRACTS FROM AN ESSAY ON THE IMPORTANCE OP LIME IN SOILS. 



BY DARIUS LAPHAM. 



" Chemical analysis informs us that vegetable tissue, or woody 

 fiber, consists of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, together with 

 earthy, saline, and metallic bases. Plants assimilate these various 

 substances by means of their vascular organization. The leaves ab- 

 sorb from the atmosphere, oxygen, carbonic acid and water ; and the 

 roots extract from the soil, in a liquid or gaseous state, whatever may 

 be contained beneath the surface of the earth, in a condition suitable 

 to be absorbed; and thence by some unknown process of vitality, the 

 substances are assimilated and distributed throughout the plant, and 



