No. 10. Lime — Ruffin on Calcareous Manure. — Every thing in its Place. 325 



Lime — Ruffin on Calcareous Manures. 



Mr. Coleman — Sir, — I have perused with 

 very great interest your weekly reports of 

 the agricultural meetings during the session 

 of the legislature; and as most of the gen- 

 tlemen that have spoken upon the subject of 

 agriculture are practical farmers, their expe- 

 rience is of great value to the farming inter- 

 ests generally. They pursue some different 

 courses, and have different views in the cul- 

 tivation of their corn and other crops, but 

 upon the whole it will have a good effect, 

 and excite to inquiry and investigation many 

 farmers, and stimulate them to step aside 

 from the old beaten track they and their fa- 

 thers have pursued, and imitate the courses 

 pointed out at your meetings. 



Upon the use of lime, there seems to be 

 much difference of opinion. In my own vi- 

 cinity, within four years past, there has been 

 much money expended in the purchase of 

 lime for agricultural purposes, at from .$2 50 

 to $3 per cask for Thomaston lime : it has 

 been applied in various ways, and as far as 

 my knowledge extends, no one can tell whe- 

 ther he has derived any advantage from it or 

 not. They have not been careful to make 

 and note experiments, but in true Yankee 

 style, guess it is good as a manure. Some 

 farmers have applied it to their growing 

 wheat, and have raised good crops, which 

 ■was mostly attributed to the lime: others 

 have grown equally as large without it. Dr. 

 Jackson, I believe, thinks it of great import- 

 ance in agriculture. Dr. Dana says, " a 

 bushel of ashes is equal to a cask of lime." 

 B. V. Frehch, Esq., in his remarks upon the 

 cultivation of wheat, at the eighth agricultu- 

 tural meeting, stated that he used 150 bush- 

 els lime per acre ; his own experience was 

 unfavourable to it, and some others had not 

 derived much if any advantage from its use. 



So also the Berkshire marls have not pro- 

 ved so beneficial as was anticipated, from 

 the great amount of carbonate of lime they 

 contain. 



I have lately had the perusal of a work 

 on the calcareous manures of Virginia, by 

 E. Ruffin, Esq., who after many years' ex- 

 perience, and with the most careful, accurate 

 and numerous experiments, has proved, I 

 think beyond all question, their great value 

 in agriculture; and as the shell marls of 

 Virginia, the Berkshire marls and the lime 

 from the state of Maine, are almost the same 

 thing, that is, the carbonate of lime, I can 

 conceive of no possible reason why lime and 

 marl may not be as useful and as profitably 

 employed in Massachusetts as in Europe or 

 Virginia or New Jersey. But I think every 

 farmer who purposes to use lime or marl, 

 should procure RufEn's Essay on Calcareous 



Manures, and carefully peruse and study the 

 work, which will enable him to apply liis 

 labour and means more understandiii^rly. 

 There are, without doubt, many soils upon 

 which lime would bo of but little or no use, 

 but if there is any reliance to be placed ui)on 

 chemistry, it must be of much use upon soils 

 containing oxide of iron and sulphur, as the 

 lime will combine with the sulphate of the 

 iron, and form the sulphate of lime, or gyp- 

 sum. It may be equally useful upon acid 

 soils, or such as grow sorrel and pine luxu- 

 riantly. — N. E. Farmer, B. 

 March 30th, 1840. 



Every Thing in its Place. 



But this cannot be practised unless a place 

 be provided for every thing. When a mau 

 takes possession of particular premises, he 

 should make a general then a particular sur- 

 vey of the various implements which are on 

 hand, and the conveniencies afforded for 

 the disposal of them. This done, he should 

 determine upon the place which each article 

 shall occupy ; and if there are many persons 

 in the family, some designation should be 

 made, so that no mistake be made about it. 

 When this is done, then he should himself 

 be very particular not to transgress his own 

 arrangement, and that others shall not do it. 

 The axes, the shovels, the iron bar, hoes, 

 rakes, baskets, wheelbarrow, each, every one, 

 and al!,should have its hook, nail, location, and 

 when not in use, kept there. It may some- 

 times be thought unnecessary to be so parti- 

 cular. It may be supposed just as well to 

 leave them where you expect to use them 

 next ; but before this next time comes, you 

 may alter your plan, or some other of the 

 family may have occasion for them, and you 

 at the moment be out of the way; or you. 

 may have forgotten ; then comes the inquiry, 

 the hunt, the general wonder where the ar- 

 ticle can be; then follow mutual suspicions 

 that each other has been in the fault; next, 

 recrimination ; then evil surmises that some 

 neighbour has without leave borrowed it, and 

 neglected or forgotten to return it; and in 

 the end, besides all the excitement, recrimi- 

 nation, and evil surmising, twice the time 

 and labour is lost in searching that would 

 have been required to put the article in its 

 place at first. I have presented no overdrawn 

 representation here : all and more than all of 

 the evils above numbered, I have known 

 many times to have grown substantially out 

 of what many would think hardly worth a 

 notice. A hoe or some other utensil had been 

 left where it was last used instead of being 

 put in its proper place, and a whole family 

 set in confusion thereby. How serious then 



