FARMERS' REGISTER 



527 



latinjT and mechanical matter — and, as affording 

 in relation to one of its conspicuous component 

 parts, the means ol" profit, from which the cotioii 

 j)lant could betoie derive no assistance. 



Lime. — As preliminary to t'.'ir comments on 

 this head, the committee would invite the atten- 

 tion of the society to Edmund Rufiui's interest- 

 ini^ and instructive es&ay on calcareous manures. 

 No treatise on any agricultural subject, emanating 

 from the American press, has eifectcd such valu- 

 able results, not ordy in this country but in Eu- 

 rope. In regard to Virginia, it has literally con- 

 verted an abandoned soil into li-uilful and luxuri- 

 ant fields. 



Lime is never found naturally in a pure state. 

 It occupies a middle region between sand and 

 clay. It benefits the former by rendering it more 

 firm and adhesive, and the latter by making it 

 less so. Deprived of its water anil carbonic acid 

 by fire,* it is called quick lime. Combined with 

 carbonic acid in common limestone, tlie shells ol 

 marine animals, &c., it is known as mild lime, or 

 the carbonate of lime. With a friable mi.xture of 

 clay, it receives the appellation of marl.f The 

 sulphate of lime (gypsum or plaster of Paris) is 

 composed of sulphur and oxygen, and the phos- 

 phate|ol'lime, is the basis of bone manure. Whilst 

 lime (caustic or quick lime) is a powerful promoter 

 of putrelaciion, lis carbonate (mild liuic) retards 

 that process. The former is only used where 

 there is an excess of organic matter. It recoin- 

 hines so quickly with carbonic acid, if exposed to 

 the aimosphere, that, where its solvent powers 

 are needed, it should be applied as soon after it is 

 slacked as possible. Mild lime, in the form ol' 

 ground or powdered shells, by preventing the too 

 rapid decomposition of vegetable subsiances, per- 

 Jbrms a highly useful function. Fur this reason, 

 no sudden increase of flMiilitv is to be expected 

 from calcareous manures. When it is considered 

 that, in our hot climate, the pulrelactive process is 

 reftdily brought about, and that our lands, from 

 their light and porous nature, are too liivorable to 

 the escape of the volatile parts given out by fer- 

 mentation, any substance that, whilst it attracts 

 moisture, will yield food only to the growing 

 plant ; that will combine with and fix manures in 

 ihe soil ; (sand has no power in holding vegetable 

 and animal manures,) that will impregnate the 

 earth with aliment drawn li^om the atmosphere ; 



* The heat that is evoh'cd in the process of slack- 

 insj lime, is the caloric of the water, (for wliich it pos- 

 sesses so strong an affinity, that it will absorb one- 

 fourth of its weight of that fluid, and yet remain 

 perfectly dry,) as it passes to its solid slate, and does 

 not proceed from the lime as is sometimes supposed. 

 — Parkes. 



t "Pure mnrl, when dry, is almost as white as 

 chalk, and much lighter than common soil. "When 

 wet, it is of a light gray color, especially if it contain 

 much organic matter. When wet, it is plastic and ad- 

 hesive ; when dry, it falls into a fine powder. Found 

 almost exclusively in swampy grnund, generally in 

 quite wet swamps, and is always covered by a stra- 

 tum, often several feet thick, of bfick vegetable mat- 

 ter approaching to peat. It i-esembles white clay and 

 sand. To find it make use of a pole — some will ad- 

 here." — IT. Colmaii, Coiamissioncr for the Agricultural 

 Survey of Massachusetts. 



X Cotton gives 1 per cent, aslics, of wliicli 17 per 

 cent, is composed of phosphate of lime and magnesia. 

 — Br. Dana. 



that will hasten the ripening of the crop, and that 

 will neutralize acids, possesses properties of rare 

 value to the planter. Such a substance is mild 

 lime. 



All soils destitute of calcareous matter have 

 acid properties; and, on the high authority of Mr. 

 RufTin, such s(dls possess the power of reducing 

 to powder the comminuted shells, which by the 

 plough or otherwise may be mixed with them. 

 The quantity of mild lime used to the acre is li-orn 

 fifty to three hundred bushels — to he renewed in 

 ten or fifteen years. The best shells, whether 

 oysier, clam, or muscle, are those from which the 

 living principle has recently been taken. Such 

 are infinitely to be preferred to the calcareous beds, 

 which on the edges ol" our rivers have been 

 bleaching perhaps for a century. The first con- 

 tains mud and animal matter, and is otherwise 

 richer in its saline ingredients. If no oiher efforts 

 be made by the planter in this business, than to 

 burn and use as a manure the oyster shells which 

 the industry of his negroes may have thrown 

 about their dwellings, he will confi?r on them, aa 

 lar as their health is concerned, and on his lands, 

 especially wdiere broom-grass is wont to grow, a 

 benefit of incalculable magnitude. 



Mr. Ruflin, as a prudent admonition to those 

 who may be disposed to try the virtues of calca- 

 reous manures, says, "its benefits must necessa- 

 rily be gradual, never (juickly perceptible, nor can 

 it be expected at all. unless on soils uiuhr melio- 

 rating culture, which will allow more to return to 

 the earth than is taken off." In confirmation of 

 this opinion, he gives i he result of" twefve 3e.ir.s' 

 trial of liming very poor land sown in wheat. 

 The first three years, the average product was 

 five bushels and one-third ; the next three — eight 

 bushels, and the last three, ten bushels and a half; 

 thus doubling his crop mainly (the land rested two 

 years in four, and was not grazed.) from a single 

 though heavy dressing of mild lime. 



The committee cannot conclude their report 

 without submitiinrr a few reffectiiuis suggested by 

 Professor Shepard's communication. To chemi- 

 cal science alone nre we indebted for the inlbrma- 

 tion it imparts. From no other source could light 

 have been shed upon a matter so repleie with 

 interest to the owner of sea-island lands. " Agri- 

 cultural chemistry," said Sir Humphrey Davy, 

 " has lor its ohjecis all those changes in the ar- 

 rangements of matter connected with the growth 

 and nourishment of plants ; the comparative va- 

 lues of their produce as fiiod ; the constitution of 

 soils ; the manner in which lands are enriched by 

 manure or rendered fertile by the different pro- 

 cesses of cultivation. Inquiries of such a nature 

 cannot but be interesting anil important, both to 

 the theoretical agriculturist and to the practical 

 farmer. To the first, they are necessary in sup- 

 plying most of the fundamental princip-les on 

 which the theory of the art depends. To the 

 second, they are useful in affording simple and 

 easy experiments for directing his labors, and for 

 enabling hiiri to pursue, a certain and systematic 

 plan of imjirovement." "Man," he elsewhere 

 beautifully remarks, " must consider the vegetable 

 i kingdom, not as a secure and unalterable inheri- 

 tance, spontaneously providing (iir his wants, but 

 as a doubtful and insecure possession, to be pre- 

 served only by labor and extended and perlected 

 by ingenuity." An acquamtance with the lundu- 



