242 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



The immoralities of the Statutes might, as was 

 suggested, be corrected ; although even these we fancy 

 have been a little overcoloured. Moreover, if Jack and 

 Gill are not suffered to go to " a statty" they will go 

 to a pleasure fair, or have their holiday out some way 

 or other. These wholesale attempts to interfere with or 

 revolutionize the habits of the lower classes have never, 

 so far, resulted in much good. The Statute fair may 

 be made more orderly, but for either master or man it 

 is about the most j ust principle that has ever yet been 

 devised. 



Perhaps of all districts Lincolnshire was the last 

 in which we might have expected to have wit- 

 nessed such an agitation. The county has long been 

 proverbial for the excellence of its agricultural ser- 

 vants, the good terms on which they stand with 

 their employers, and the liberal manner in which they 

 are treated. As Mr. Torr said, and said well, too :— 



" He had had the good fortune to visit nearly every 

 part of Her Majesty's dominions, and he had taken a 

 special interest in the rural population of the three 

 kingdoms; and he could say, ' without fear, favour, or 

 affection,' that the Wolds of Yorkshire and North Lin- 

 colnshire possessed a peasantry equal, if not superior, 

 to that of any other district. The only place he could 

 point out as their equal in such a respect was the north 

 part of Northumberland, where the cottage system 

 existed in its perfection. He should be sorry to see the 

 north of Lincolnshire copying from the south of Eng- 

 land, where there were no statutes, but where the 

 labourers were in a must miserable condition. The 

 farm servants of North Lincolnshire were, however, 

 comfortably housed and really well kept." 



Is it not rather dangerous to interfere with the cus- 

 toms of people doing as well as these are ? 



USE OF GAS-LIME. 



[In all our larger towns where gas is used for lights, there 

 is a considerable quantity of waste lime thrown out from 

 the gas-houses, lime being used for passing the gas through 

 to purify it. We have various reports from farmers who 

 have tried this, some in fiivour, some that it has no effect, 

 while others have condemned it as rank poison to crops. 

 Several inquiries have recently been addressed to us, one 

 of which, from F. S. Hawley, of Binghampton, N. Y., we 

 forwarded to Prof. S. W. Johnson, of the Yale Analytical 

 and Agricultural School, requesting an opinion. His reply 

 will throw some light upon the subject.] 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 



The various contradictory opinions held among practical 

 farmers, with reference to the value of gas-lime as a manure, 

 are justified by the extreme variableness of its composition. 

 When perfectly fresh from the gas purifiers, it is in general 

 a rather dangerous appplication to any growing crop, or in 

 contact with seed. Mr. Solomon Mead, of New Haven, 

 Connecticut, infroms me he once applied it in the hill to 

 potatoes, and they never came up. A gentleman in Wal- 

 lingford, Ct., applied it to grass land and to the roots of 

 peach trees. The trees were destroyed, and the grass 

 aeverely scorched, so that it did not fairly recover until the 

 ensuing year. 



It may be used in the fresh state upon naked fallows, 

 especially when it is desirable to free the soil from slugs, 

 injurious worms, or couch grass. What its action is upon 

 vermin may be inferred from the fact that when fresh it 

 contains a substance (sulphide of calcium) which is the 

 actual ingredient in the depilatories and cosmetics, which 

 are articles employed for removing haii-. There is an 

 account of its being thrown into a hog-pen with the intent 

 that the swine should incorporate it with the compost heap. 

 This was effectually accomplished, but at the expense of 

 the bristles and hair of the hogs, which were, in a great 

 measure, removed by the operation, 



It is thought, too, that the odour of the coal-tar, which is 

 mixed with the gas-lime in greater or less quantity, serves 

 to dislodge insects and vermin ; and it is sometimes sown 

 in small quantity over young turnip-plants to prevent the 

 attacks of the turnip-fly. In Scotland, it is largely applied 

 to moss-land which it is intended to reclaim. 



The quantity of easily soluble matters (sulphide of calcium, 

 sulphite and hyposulphite of lime) is so variable, ranging, 

 according to analytical data, from 2^ to 15 parts in 100, 



that we may readily comprehend how some gas-limes may 

 be quite harmless if applied in moderate doses even to 

 growing crops, while others, rich in these soluble and 

 deleterious matters, destroy all vegetation. 



It has been supposed that fresh gas-lime is valuable on 

 account of the ammonia it contains. When the gas-lime is 

 emptied from the purifiers in which it has been exposed to 

 the gas, it has quite a pungent odour of ammonia ; but the 

 quantity, though enough to affect the nostrils, is in realitj'' 

 quite too small to have any great manuring value, and quite 

 disappears after a few days' exposure to the air. Mr. Twi- 

 ning, of this laboratory, found in a specimen of perfectly 

 fresh gas-lime, from the New Haven gas-works, but eight- 

 tenths of one per cent, of ammonia. In a gas-lime from the 

 gas-works at Waterbury, Ct., which had been exposed to 

 the air for one week, he found but about four-one-hundredths 

 of one per cent. 



Fresh gas-lime may be advantageously used in compost- 

 ing swamp muck, &c. , 



By full exposure to the atmosphere, as when scattered 

 over fallow-ground, after a time it becomes innocuous. 

 The soluble caustic ingredients are converted into no less 

 valuable a substance than gypsum (plaster) ; and then, 

 after its odour and bitter burning taste have disappeared, 

 it acts precisely like a mixture of lime and gypsum. How 

 rapidly these changes take place, I have no means of know- 

 ing without making actual trial ; but should presume that 

 if a dressing of gas-lime be incorporated thoroughly and 

 uniformly with the soil one week before sowing or planting, 

 no harm could result to the crop. 



In conclusion, your correspondent is recommended to use 

 it, if he can get it more cheaply than other lime, at the rate 

 of fifty bushels per acre on heavy soils, or ten to twenty 

 bushels on light soils, making one application in three or 

 four years. If fresh it should be put on the bare soil, and 

 not on a crop. In case of corn or potatoes, it may be 

 scattered between the rows, and worked in at hoeing time. 

 If the gas-lime is white and tasteless after exposure to air 

 for a time, it may be sown like gypsum. 



It should be remembered that a wet soil will not be much 

 benefited by lime, nor by any manure, unless in a dry 

 season ; and that a light dry soil is soon spoiled by lime, 

 unless a good supply of organic matter be maintained in it, 

 by means of stable manure, muck composts, or green- 

 mnnuring. Lime and plaster, too, are at the best, even 

 when they exhibit their most extraordinary effects, but 

 partial fertilizing agents. S, W, Johnson. 



