F A K Al E R 8 ' R E G 1 S T E K 



569 



nificent subject for one ; and, if in proper hands, 

 Grant Thorburn's, lor example, might prove of 

 great value to the seller of the seed. An adept 

 in the business would ask a dollar a grain for this 

 precious wheat, vvliich produces 230 buehels to 

 the acre, on poor, sandy and unmanured land. — 

 Ed. Far. lltio. 



ANTl-aiAGKESIA. 



From tlie harnicis' Cabinet. 



I have taken the Farmers' Cabinet, from the 

 commencement, vviih a desire oC receiving infor- 

 mation respecting the use of" hme for agrii'ullural 

 purposes ; and by perusing the pages thereoti I 

 find there are various and confliciing opinions re- 

 specting its use. There are those who are of the 

 opinion that 25 busliels to the acre are a suflicienl 

 (juantiiy, and oiiiers that 50 to 150, or more, are 

 not an overdose. In England, I understand, as 

 much as 500 bushels per acre are applied, and yet 

 I have never read of its being an over quantity. 

 The soil and climate lliere may possibly have some 

 share in preventing an injurious effect upon vege- 

 tation, but I consider llie principal cause is in the 

 quality of the lime, although I may be mistaken. 

 Having read an article on the value of lime as a 

 manure in the third volume of the Cabinet, con- 

 tinued from page 14 to 17, where it is stated iluit 

 llie effect of the lime in producing vegetation was 

 as instantaneous as barn-yard manure, and supe- 

 rior thereto, — it put me to thinking whetlier the 

 account was correct. But, considering tliat the 

 hmesione contained 03 per cent, of carbonate (of 

 lime I suppose) and, of course, little or no magne- 

 sia, or otiier poisonous qualities, it niuet be some- 

 tliing superior to the generality of lime used in this 

 country, and, from those considerations, I conclud- 

 ed the account might be correct. It is a question 

 with me, whether the lime that is the most profit- 

 alile for racking mortar is the most valuable lor 

 agricultural purposes; it may be that a portion 

 of magnesia in lime is of use in making a cement, 

 and worse than unless in agriculiure, lor it is inju- 

 rious to the growth of vegetables. 



Any person having poor worn-out land, and 

 wishiiiff to improve it, and being located wiihin 

 10 or 15 miles of lime, I advise him to lime, it will 

 |)ay therefor; but I do not mean lime containing 

 nearly half magnesia. As an instance of the ef- 

 fects of lime, I will mention only one, but it issufTi- 

 cient for my purpose: I, in company witli another 

 person, took lease, in the spring of 1S20, for (he 

 term of ten years, of a farm containing something 

 more than IGO acres of land, 100 acres cleared, 

 and commenced liming; (we hauled the siunes 

 aboui 11 miles and burnt liiem on the spot) and, 

 during that term, we put upon the firm thirteen 

 thousand bushels of lime, and cleared, li-ee of all 

 expense, thirty-five hundred dollars, principally by 

 sellinggrain; and changed thesaid liirm from one of 

 the poorest, to one of the best in the neighborhood, 

 although during the first years (as the saying is) 

 we hardly cleared our teeth, owing to the unpro- 

 ductiveness of the soil belbre liming. It has long 

 been a question with me, how sulphate and car- 

 bonate of lime act on vegetables : It was formerly 

 Vol. VIII.— 72 



! the opinion of many, that the use of sulphate in 

 agriculture was its hi trading powers; now, since 

 the experiments of I J. Davy are becoming known, 

 ihe o])inion is changing, and its use is that oi' 

 entering into the composition of the vege.tablc; 

 and it may be possible that it is of no direct use 

 to any vegetable, but when it composes a part 

 thereof; and carbonate may act something simi- 

 larly ; by heat, the water and carbonic acid are 

 burnt or driven off, and the stone is changed into 

 an oxide, and by the addition of water it becomes 

 an hyiirale, and then it has a powerful attraction 

 for carbonic, acid ; and, alter having received its 

 portion of carb'jinc acid and water, in my opinion, 

 ii becomes soluble, and is taken up by the roota 

 of vegetables and enters into their composition, 

 for vegetables are composed principally of carbon 

 and water. I consider the more soluble carbon 

 there is in any soil, the more food lor vegetables 

 that soil contains. 



1 think 1 should not have put pen to paper, if I 

 had not read in the Cabinet, lor April, an instance 

 recorded of the injurious effects of lime, from the 

 lesiimony of my friend JVl. S. K. of JVlorrisville, 

 and having been inlbrmed that there exists lime- 

 stone on the canal, or nigh thereto, above New- 

 hope, highly impregnated with magnesia, so much 

 so, that I consider ii unfit for agricultural purposes; 

 and, thinking that the lime used by M. S. K. 

 might possibly come from thence. I know of 

 nothing that fi-oms a part of what we call limestone, 

 pernicious to any soil except magnesia ; but we 

 ought to be cautious how we use lime before vvc 

 know its qualities. 



Anti-JVIagnesia. 



Lancaster County, 1th mo. 14, 1840. 



OLD WHEAT FOR SEED. 



In a recent conversation with Mr. William 

 Skinker of Fauquier, an old and experienced 

 farmer, he nienlioned that, for experiment, he 

 had sown a lew bushels (from 4 to 10) of wheat 

 of the previous year's crop, in each of his three 

 last seedings, and that he had found the product 

 of the old wheat always much better than that of 

 the new wheat sown adjoining. Indeed, he 

 thought the increase to be not much short of 100 

 per cent. lie could not assign any other reason 

 for the superinrity, except that by keeping the 

 seed wheat a year longer than usual, the imperfect 

 grains miglu lose their vitality, and leave nothing 

 to grow except those of the best quality. We 

 think this totally insufficient to produce the mani- 

 fest superiority which we are confident Mr. S. 

 saw, whether he was or was not nnslaken as to 

 its amount. But the experiment is worth repeal- 

 ing, and we hope it will be repeated by as many 

 of our readers as can conveniently obtain old seed 

 of good wheat. 



A year ago we heard slated, by a gentleman of 

 Cumberland, a still more remarkable fact, which 

 had been recently observed in that county. A 

 farmer had sown a few bushels of old seed along- 



