234 



Lime. 



Vol. IV. 



stable manure, and when not so provided, 

 with any vegetable matter that may lie on 

 the soil. A good plan is to turn the lime in 

 with the sod, sow buckwheat, and when in 

 blossom return it to the soil, Airnisliing in 

 this way vegetable matter for the lime to act 

 upon. In this latter case, the returns, though 

 certain, are not so speedily to be expected. 

 Those farmers who burn their own lime, 

 should not neglect to use the refuse of their 

 kilns in making composts with alternate lay- 

 ers of it, and of whatever vegetable or animal 

 matter they can bring together. These, when 

 properly mixed up, and comminuted, are to 

 be used as ordinary manures. The foregoing 

 directions apply to all sorts of soil, whether 

 they be on limestone lands, red lands, chest- 

 nut lands, or any kind of lands, wliatever be 

 their colour, texture, or other physical char- 

 acters ; provided there be soil enough to sup- 

 port any sort of vegetation. 



I have in former reports given my theory 

 of the action of lime, and although farmers 

 are more immediately interested in the re- 

 sults of its application, they cannot fail to 

 employ it more judiciously, as well as other 

 manures, when they understand the recipro- 

 cal action that takes place between these 

 and the plants which they wish to cultivate. 

 I shall, therefore, introduce here a few sim- 

 ple notions of vegetable physiology, and re- 

 peat again what I conceive to be the mode 

 of operation of lime. Every one knows that 

 plants have not the power of creating new 

 elements, which they at most can assimilate 

 and elaborate so as to form new compounds 

 out of those derived from the earth, air and 

 water, in which they live. Accordingly, the 

 result of a chemical analysis shows that all 

 the earthy and saline matters contained in 

 them are traceable to the earth ; whilst by 

 their destructive distillatioMs, they are found 

 to yield gases, that form the elementary con- 

 stituents of air and water. The principal 

 solid constituent of vegetables is carbon, or 

 charcoal, which vegetable pliysiologists assert 

 they derive in the first place from the carbo- 

 nic acid gas of the atmosphere, and from the 

 fermentation of the animal and vegetable 

 substances that during their progress of de- 

 composition in the soil also yield this gas, and 

 is supposed to be either decomposed by the 

 leaves of vegetables, or absorbed by their 

 roots when in a state of aqueous solution. It 

 is found that when a plant is allowed to grow 

 under a glass receiver, containing a mixed 

 atmosphere of carbonic acid gas and oxygen, 

 the former gas is gradually absorbed, and 

 nothing but pure oxygen remains, and this 

 process of vegetable decomposition goes on 

 more rapidly under the influence of the solar 

 beams, for during the night the reverse takes 

 place, though the quantity of carbonic gas 



which they emit is trifling, compared with' 

 that taken up in the day. Thus plants are 

 constantly removing from the atmosphere a 

 gas known to be deleterious to animal life, 

 though necessary to themselves, and replac- 

 ing it by one essential to both man and brutes, 

 exhibiting a most admirable provision of na- 

 ture, to which we must refer that healthful- 

 ness of a country life, which, combined with 

 active exercise and the enjoyment of rural 

 sports, make the mere consciousness of exist- 

 ence a pleasurable sensation. It is also an 

 admitted opinion among vegetable physiolo- 

 gists, that plants have the property of secret- 

 ing from the soil that sort of food which is 

 moit congenial to their own wants, whilst 

 they at the same time, excrete, or throw off, 

 that which is best suited for their own 

 growths. If this doctrine could be well es- 

 tablished by experimental results, the pursuit 

 of the agriculturist would become a science 

 founded upon an immutable basis, and a con- 

 sistent system of rotation in crops would se- 

 cure to him a perpetual recurrence of good 

 crops. But it must be acknowledged that 

 this is the most obscure department of vege- 

 table physiology. 



As to the action of lime, or rather carbon- 

 ate of lime, I can conceive it to operate in 

 three important ways. 1st. As a neutralizer 

 of any acidity of the soil which renders it 

 prone to throw out ascescent growths, such 

 as sorrel, pines, briars, &c., that interfere 

 with the production of plants that afford far- 

 inaceous seeds, in which case it may be sup- 

 posed, by a new combination, to give out its 

 carbon to the growing vegetable. 2d. As an 

 amender of soils ; since it undoubtedly con- 

 tributes to stiffen a loose soil, and gives body 

 and consistency to a porous and sandy one, 

 thereby improving its pliysical condition. 

 And 3d. As a septic, or decomposer of the 

 vegetable matters that may have existed in, 

 or been applied to a soil, reducing them into 

 soluble compounds, fitted to the nourishment 

 of vegetable lite. These I conceive to be the 

 most immediate benefits derived from the ap- 

 plication of lime; but it would seem to act 

 also beneficially as an absorbent of moisture, 

 for it has been found to protect soils from the 

 pernicious effects of a drought, and when 

 used for making compost, its utility and ac- 

 tion are as easily understood as explained. 

 When applied in alternate layers, with sta- 

 ble manure, or vegetable and animal matters 

 of any kind, a powerful fermentation takes 

 place, which ffives rise to the formation of a 

 compound called ammonia, and to the pro- 

 duction of carbonic acid. A re-action soon 

 takes place between these two substances, 

 and a carbonate of ammonia is thus formed, 

 together with numerous other salts ; and the 

 whole mass is converted into a powerful 



