29G MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Lime— when thrown over land, is quickly converted again into chalk, by 

 "nbibing from the air that acid which had been driven oil by lire ; hence 

 chalk is as good it' put on the land in the winter, because the frost acting on 

 the water in it, expands and crumbles the article to pieces. 



" Salt — is a soda in union with an acid, and acts on land in the same 

 manner as many other manures, by holding moisture for the service of vege- 

 tation ; but the article of common salt does not enter so much into the com- 

 position of laud vegetables, as the salt of potash, that is, saltpetre, or vege- 

 table alkai, as it is called. 



Cheap efficacious Manure. — Raise a platform of earth on the head- 

 land of a field', eight inches high, and of any width and length, according to 

 the quantity wanted. On the first stratum of earth lay a thin stratum of lime, 

 from the kiln ; dissolve or slake this with salt brine from the rose of a water- 

 ing pot; add immediately another layer eight inches thick of earth, then 

 lime and brine as before, carrying it to any convenient height. In a week it 

 should be turned over, carefully broken, and mixed, so that the mass may be 

 thoroughly incorporated. This compost has been used in Ireland — has 

 doubled the crops of potatoes and cabbages, and is superior to stable dung. 



Gypsum — is a dressing used with a variety of effects on different lands, 

 and for different purposes ; it is a line in union with sulphur, being a refuse 

 from plaster makers. Those crops which are cut green, take up gympsum, 

 which constitutes apart of their substance, such as sainfoin, clover, lucern, 

 peas, tares, and such like crops. To these, this mineral dressing will be 

 good, but it is injurious on a chalky land, and when animal and vegetable 

 manures are easily obtained, it is not worth using ; for they yield a suffi- 

 ciency of gypsum to the soil. Sir H. Davy considered that an acre of tares 

 took up several pounds of gypsum. 



Hone Dust — is now a very favourite dressing for turnips, and indeed 

 many other crops ; it is principally composed of lime and phosphorous, which 

 readily enter into the composition of grain, and all grasses. A portion of 

 lime and phosphorous is also found in all milk, and goes to form the bones of* 

 young animals which suck ; the staler the milk, ths less phosphorate of lime 

 is there in it. This bone dressing for land, is a very expensive article, and 

 should be cautiously used. Coal ashes, especially if laid under dung- heaps, 

 are an excellent dressing for clays, by opening and enriching the soil, and 

 like soot, impart a carbon or charcoal to the soil, of which all clays arc 

 deficient. 



In all these manures we find lime an active principle, except in the salt 

 dressings. Lime imbibes carbon, which is the woody principle, and also 

 holds moisture for the service of vegetation. If we cannot procure large 

 quantities of these manures, we must entice air and water to the roots of 

 plants, by every means in our power : and this may be done with the greatest 

 facility, by repeated movings of the surface, a hoeing being equal to a 

 shower of rain. 



There is another source of vegetable vigour, to be obtained without 

 decayed vegetable, or mineral dressings. Land having had a trenching, 

 when it can be done, and having had it lain up in ridges for the air, the sun, 

 and the frost, to impregnate it with those gases which the soil requires, then 

 may we proceed to sow seeds, let the soil be ever so single a mineral. If a 

 bare sand, a dense clay, a shallow chalk, some seed may be found which is 

 particularly adapted to the soil. Buckwheat, rye, tares, lucern, rape, white 

 clover, trefoil, lotus ; some one or other of these will grow readily iu sandy 

 land which has been so trenched without manures, and when grown they 

 may be buried in a soil as manure for a spring crop. Potatoes, carrots, 

 mangel-wurzel, and turnips, may be thus obtained, as well as spring corn 

 crops, peas, and beans. All the cabbage tribe, red clover, beans, are conge- 

 nial to the clays, and sanfoin is congenial to the chalks and loose soils.'' 



Cottage Parmer. 



