FERTILIZERS. 241 



swer the objections which these failures raise to the use of lime, it is only necessary to ascertain 

 that lime existed already in the soil, and that poor crops in those cases of failure arose from 

 other causes than the want of lime. Analysis of the soil is the only safe test to go by. If a 

 soil is found destitute of lime, and is not benefited by its use, it will go far to discourage its 

 application in a great variety of cases. But such a result is not likely to happen, so true are 

 the principles which govern the composition of all bodies. The crops upon which lime acts 

 with special favor are the cereals, as a class, and all fruit trees. For wheat it is used, or should 

 be applied previous to the sowing of the seed, in its caustic or subcaustic state, except when it 

 is used as a top dressing. For maize, it should be composted and put in the hill. For trees 

 it may be applied in its caustic state, or it may be composted. This subject has only recently 

 arrested the attention of farmers. Fruit trees, although suiEciently esteemed, yet the idea that 

 they might be in a starving condition, scarcely entered the heads of fruit-growers. Analysis 

 of the parts of a tree show that lime is one of the special elements required. All parts of the 

 tree contain lime ; and as the tree may have been planted in a soil poor in lime, it is not im- 

 probable that its developments have been restrained for want of this fertilizer. 



An idea has often been throws out, in books that certain soils were sour and required to be 

 corrected, as doctors often correct a sour stomach, by administering an anti-acid. One of the 

 indications of a sour soil, according to the view of many is the presence of sorrel, {Rumex ace- 

 tocella.) This sour soil theory, however, is not so prevalent as formerly. It had its origin in 

 defective observation. Lime has been always prescribed for this condition of the land, and 

 with apparent favorable results : thus where sorrel has abounded, a fine crop of wheat or maize 

 has been obtained, and the sorrel has disappeared. In these cases, however, it is evident the 

 sorrel has not disappeared because the anti-acid has been applied, but because it has been over- 

 come and subdued by a more powerful neighbor : that it is not subdued directly by the chemical 

 operation of the lime, by the neutralization of an acid of the sorrel, is proved by the fact, that 

 sorrel will grow with the greatest luxuriance in the midst of lime. It may always be seen in 

 the immediate vicinity of limekilns, and growing in the refuse lime. The growth of other 

 plants, no doubt, crowds out the sorrel, in all those instances where liming has been employed 

 to correct what is familiarly termed an acid soil. Even the existence of an acid soil remains 

 to be proved ; it is really, on the face of it,* an error — not a very serious one, it is true, but still 

 an error. The only condition which favors the development of an excess of acid, is a mixture 

 of vegetable matters in the marshes, where earthy matters are most absent, and if present, only 

 a slight sprinkling of sand. But this is not soil, properly speaking : no arable lands are ever 

 sour, or require the kind of doctoring which the language expressive of their condition would 

 require. 



Gypsum, {Sulphate of Lime.) Gypsum has been used as a fertilizer more extensively 

 in New- York, than any other species of mineral of which lime forms the base. Being one 

 of the common rocks, and easily accessible in the formation to which it belongs, it has be- 

 come one of the common fertilizers now in use. Experience has proved its utility, and the 

 most profitable mode of employing it. Gypsum is composed of 41 "5 lime and 58*5 of 

 [Agbicdltubai. Report — Vol. in.] 31 



