FARMERS' REGISTER— QUICK-LIME— PUTRESCENT MANURES. 



497 



The face of the country is broken and liilly, and 

 covered, frequently, with a large (juantity of round 

 flint rock, and occasionally with a flat slate rock. 

 I have commenced the use of plaster and clover, 

 and next year, shall hav'e clovered the entire farm. 

 Lime is burnt at about fifteen miles of me, wliere 

 it can be pin-chased at ten ccMits a bushel. I have 

 not yet made any experiments with lime, but de- 

 sign to do so on a small scale in the sjiring. I 

 have adopted the horizontal ploughing, and shall 

 adopt Mr. Skipwith's hill-side drains, as soon as I 

 can find time to do so. I shall, however, enter 

 into that system gradually, being disposed to carry 

 it no farther, than is absolutely necessary to pre- 

 vent the land li-om washing. That I may proceed 

 in the sj'stem I have begun with vnderstanding 

 and knoivledge, I propose the following (pieries to 

 j-ourself and your correspondents, to which I beg 

 a prompt and explicit reply. 



Query 1st. What is the best mode of fencing 

 with round flint rock? What should he the width 

 of such a fence at the base? What the slope of 

 the sides? To what height may it be carried 

 without impairing its strength? Is it necessary to 

 dig out a foundation, and if it be, to what depth 

 should the excavation be carried? I should be 

 glad to have an answer on these points from some 

 person of experience, accompanied with a diagram 

 of the fence. 



Query 2nd. In using plaster, is it of advantage 

 to mix ashes with it? If so, in what proportion? 

 Should the ashes be dry or moist? 



Query 3rd. In using lime, what quantity per 

 acre should be applied to a poor soil with a red 

 clay foundation? Would not the effect of the lime 

 be greater, if the suWace was first covered with 

 rough unrotted manure? Whether the lime should 

 be slaked or unslaked? What effect it would have 

 on creek bottoms, having a sandy surface resting 

 on a clav foundation? 



Can t get the favor of you to publish these 

 queries in the successive numbers of your Register 

 until they are answereil. In doing so, yon Avill 

 aid many who are just entering on the career of 

 agricultural improvement, and more especially, 



A QUERIST. 



[Referring these queries to the consideration of our 

 readers in general, and hoping, as in every like case, 

 that among them, some will deem it a duty to give 

 information when it is thus asked for, and it is in their 

 power to bestow, we shall confine our remarks to a 

 single point. 



Though the mixture of caustic lime with rough stable 

 or farm-yard manure has been recommended as advan- 

 tageous, we should pronounce it altogether wrong, 

 judging from theoretical opinions of the action of these 

 diderent kinds of manures. Quick-hme acts by break- 

 ing down the hard and insoluble parts of vegetable 

 matter, and thus renderitig it more speedily fit for the 

 food of plants: but on vegetable and animal matter 

 already fit, or rapidly becoming fit to sustain plants, 

 quick-lime is always injurious, by eating or destroying 

 those matters, or forming chemical compounds less 

 valuable as food for plants, than the putrescent matters 

 before they were so acted on. Stable and farm-yard 

 manure, before being rotted, or when but «Iightly rot- 

 ted, contain some rich matters readv for the immedi- 



ate sustenance of plants, and a much larger proportion 

 of insoluble matter, not yet fit for that purpose. The 

 lime will hasten the action of the larger proportion of 

 inert matter, but will destroy the portion already solu- 

 ble. If then one-fourth (in value) of the manure was 

 fit for the support of plants, and three-fourths still 

 insoluble and inert, the mixture of enough caustic lime 

 would serve to destroy the one-fourth; but by bringing 

 into immediate use thrice as much, the lime would 

 appear to increase the value and profit of the manure, 

 when it had merely squandered the present, and an- 

 ticipated the use of. the future active value. If all 

 the vegetable matter was coarse and inert, the action 

 of quick-lime thereon would be altogether beneficial; 

 and altogether injurious, if the vegetable and animal 

 matters were ready, or rapidly becoming ready, for the 

 use of plants. These renjarks apply oidy to lime in 

 its caustic state, and not at all to it after it has become 

 carbonated, or mild, by exposure to the air. For some 

 additional information in this subject, "Querist" is re- 

 ferred to the Memoranda of the farming of the late 

 Fielding Lewis of Weyanoke, in No. 1 cf Vol. I. of 

 the Farmers' Register.] 



For the Fanners' Register. 



DESULTORY REIMARKS ON FERMENTING, PRE- 

 SERVING, AND APPLYING OF PUTRESCENT 

 BIANURES. 



The preservation and proper use of putrescent 

 manures form the most important of all tlie opera- 

 tions of the farmer, and occupy a large portion of 

 the mass of instructions contained in the numer- 

 ous Avorks on agriculture. Yet there is no impor- 

 tant subject less understood than this, which forms 

 a subject of investigation for every theorist, and of 

 coiitinued use for every practical farmer. The 

 general (perhaps I may say universal) want of 

 knowledge on this subject will appear least strange 

 to those who have given it most consideration; 

 and young and inexperienced agriculturists are apt 

 to think more highly of their opinions in this res- 

 pect, than they will after having increased their 

 value by twenty more years of investigation and 

 practice. Every one knows, that putrescent vege- 

 table and animal matters collected from any 

 sources — accumulated in any manner — and appli- 

 ed to land at any time — will generally serve to in- 

 crease the amount of vegetable products. But 

 the best and most economical mode for these ope- 

 rations, under various circumstances, is what no 

 one knows — and even to approach that end, will 

 require qualifications which very tew (if any) in- 

 dividuals possess. For a full and satisfactory in- 

 vestigation, there would be needc-d the well weigh- 

 ed aiid compared opinions of the chemist, and the 

 physician, as well as ol the judicious practical farm- 

 er. We should know what are the spontaneous 

 changes and the various jiroducis of every stage 

 of the fermentation and put reliiction of vegetable 

 and animal matter— and whether the.se products 

 of fermentation vitiate the atmosphere and are in- 

 jurious to health; and how such effects are to be 

 restrained or remedied — and the rules thence de- 

 rived, to be confirmed by results obtained, and ob- 

 servations made, by practical cultivators. But 

 thouffh no one person may be able to do jus- 

 tice to the whole subject, very many of the rea- 



