THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



389 



lumps, and requires a powerful solvent in order to 

 disintegrate the mass and sunder the particles. 

 If this reduction be not effected, the lime merely 

 adheres to the outside of the clods, but no com- 

 bination is effected, and no results are produced by 

 the union of the diS'erent bodies. It is an object 

 of the very last importance that the ultimate elements 

 of bodies be brought into contact at insensible dis- 

 tances. Tiie surface of one body being presented 

 to the aggregated mass of another body, aff'ords no 

 opportunity for reciprocal action, the distance is 

 much too great, and the efficacy of combination is 

 in the inverse ratio of the affinity of aggregation ; 

 and the greater the latter power is, the less effica- 

 cious will be the affinity of composition. Hence 

 pulverized lime being brought into contact with 

 lumps of clay can exert no useful influence, and 

 merely gilds the clods with a whiter varnish than 

 they before possessed. This argument is equally 

 apphcable to the use of lime on rough clay fallows ; 

 the lime is in fine particles and the clay is in large 

 lumps, and consequently no reciprocal action can 

 ha})pen : the lime is powerless from the want of 

 opportunity, and the soil is formed into masses 

 wliich admit no influence of exterior action. Hence 

 it would answer a very beneficial purpose to form 

 heaps of the clods of fallows mixed with hme shells, 

 which by bursting and evolving much heat would 

 penetrate, crumble, and pulverize the clayey lumps, 

 and reduce them to ashes, mixed with the 

 granular particles of the lime in the most extreme 

 comminution. Peat might also be reduced to ashes 

 by means of the shells of hot lime, and during the 

 process some useful combinations may happen be- 

 tween the lime, the clay, and moss. 



Bodies that undergo the powerful influence of 

 fire (in conjunction), will have a better opportunity 

 of forming new states of existence, than when 

 brought into contact after the action has ceased, 

 and the mutual change of condition has taken 

 place. The susceptibility is cooled by exposure, and 

 the homogeneous qualities are quickly lost which 

 enable bodies to attract each other, and to enter 

 into combinations. Fire is a most violent agent, 

 and the results of its action must be applied im- 

 mediately on being produced, and before the nature 

 is altered and neutralized by the introduction of 

 adventitious elements. In the case of using Hme 

 and clay in conjunction, the quick application of 

 the lime in the hot caustic state is the primary 

 consideration in forming the useful compost by 

 mixing the two substances. 



Farm-yakd Dung is sometimes used for top- 

 dressing grass lands, and experience has now de- 

 cided that it is best applied in the unprepared state, 

 consisting of straw and excrements as itis produced 

 in the dung-yards. It is most beneficially used in 

 the latter end of autumn or in the early winter; and 

 by the time the grass shoots up in the spring, the 

 faeces will be partly decomposed, and will have 

 subsided into the earthy stratum that holds the 

 roots of the plants ; the strawy part will have 

 afforded shelter and warmth to the vegetable layer, 

 and when the vivifying heats of spring commence, 

 the efifects will be protruded with much vigour. 

 In the early spring, any roughness that remains on 

 the surface must be raked off, the clods broken by 



bush-harrowing, and the application of a heavy 

 roll will level the inequahties, and press to the roots 

 of the plants, the earthy decomposition of the faeces 

 from the eflects of the action of the winter's 

 atmosphere. The quantity must be such as will 

 cover the surface evenly and closely when spread 

 out by the hand, and care is to be used in breaking 

 the lumps and laying the materials very equally 

 over the ground. And when the strawy covering 

 is removed in the spring, the combinations that 

 have been forming during the winter will be ready 

 for developeraent in the promotion of vegetable 

 growth. New seeds for hay are most wonderfully 

 benefited in this way. As the excremental part of 

 the manure contains an earthy residuum, the seeds 

 of the better grass plants will be very beneficially 

 sown in the spring, and rolled into the ground. 



The other substances that are used for the pur- 

 pose of top-dressing lands may be divided into the 

 two kinds of earthy and pulverulent— the former 

 existing in the condition of a concreted mass of a 

 greater or less bulk, and the latter in the state of 

 the residuum of combustion. 



Human F^ces and the dung of the minor 

 animals are very strong in nature, and emit very 

 disagreeable effluvia. They are best mixed with 

 fine earths, which absorb the liquid part of the ex- 

 crements, and reduce the noxious smell. In that 

 condition, a very useful compost is found for being 

 used in the common way. The Dung of Pigeons 

 particularly strong. Coal Ashes are very bene- 

 ficially used on old sour pastures. They are best 

 reduced by being broken by spade and mattock 

 before the application. The quantity is from 60 

 to 100 bushels to an acre. 



Salt, Saltpetre, and the Nitrate of Soda 

 are fossil substances, and after being comminuted 

 they exist in the form of granular or cubical masses. 

 They are best sown by hand from baskets on grass 

 lands, and on culmiferous crops in a young state. 

 Being deliquescent, rains wash away the substance, 

 and the effects of the application as a manure are 

 not great. 



It must be held as a rule, that all bodies of an 

 earthy nature must be comminuted as much as 

 possible, in order to be usefully employed as a top- 

 dressing. 



Among pulverulent bodies. Gypsum has been 

 partially introduced as a fertilizer. The sub- 

 stance is the sulphate of lime, or the earthy 

 base in combination with sulphuric acid. After 

 burning it falls into powder, and has been applied 

 to young crops in quantities of 6 and 8 bushels to 

 an acre, but with very small success. The opinions 

 and the results are very contradictory, and do not 

 obtain a place for gypsum among certain and 

 trusted fertihzers. 



Soot and Vegetable Ashes are pulverulent 

 bodies, and are sown by hand on young crops of 

 the culmiferous and leguminous kinds. The 

 quantity per acre averages 40 to GO bushels. The 

 effects are quick and very great, but last only for 

 one crop. Such bodies require no preparation, but 

 to be kept dry in order to prevent the clotting 

 by moisture, and thus prevent the equal distribu- 

 tion. Moist weather is necessary to the action of 

 the elements, which can be studied by choosing 



