,j(3 now TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



phaie of lime and ammonia; composted with salt marsli mud, 

 these fish are a valuable fertilizer. 



Lime is a necessity in Agriculture. If the soil is destitute 

 of it, it must be supplied. Of itself it gives no fertility, but it 

 assists in decomposing the organic vegetable matter in the soil, 

 in fixing and retaining the ammonia of the manures, in destroy- 

 ing the acidity of the soil, (the worst foe to productiveness,) in 

 pulverizing granitic soils, in lightening heavy, clayey, peaty 

 soils, and in other ways is a valuable assistant to the farmer. 

 When a large amount is to be used upon a field, it may be 

 dropped in small heaps, and slacked by tlie air, rain, and dew, 

 and spread with shovels, but where only ten or twenty bushels 

 are applied to the acre, it should be more thoroughly slacked. 

 This may be done by spreading it on the cellar bottom about 

 one foot deep, and let it air-slack for a few weeks, forking it 

 over every few days, and sprinkling a little water on the large 

 chunks. AVe advise spreading it on the cellar bottom, as much 

 the best place, but if not convenient, a covered shed Avill 

 answer the purpose. If it is to be sown with a machine, the 

 (lint and stones should all be raked out. Cooper's lime 

 spreader, or some other machine of like character, spreads it 

 more evenly than it can be done by hand, and is equally useful 

 in sowing ashes or plaster. {See fig. 45.) The best plan is to 

 sow fresh slaked lime, in the finest possible condition, and 

 immediately harrow it in throughly. Do not plow it under. 

 The amount of lime to be sown to the acre, can only be deter- 

 mined by experiment. A few bushels to the acre cannot injure 

 any soil. On dry clay or peaty soils, it may always be used 

 bountifully with good effect. Underdraining is th,e first requi- 

 site for wet clays and manures, and fertilizers are wasted until 

 this is done. When the proportion of vegetable matter m a 

 soil is so great that crops of grain go mostly to straw, a liberal 



