162 ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICAL USE OF LIME. 



king'clom, is so laudably and economically squandered by our 

 sons of the soil. If lime be added to it in any form, the 

 same preci])itate will occur, with considerable reduction of 

 colour ; and thus we are enabled to sum up the qualities of 

 quick-lime in the space of a few lines. 



1. If applied to g-reen vegetables, quite hot from the kiln, 

 it will destroy the tissue and carbonize the substance, itself 

 being' brouglit into the state of mild lime or chalk. 



2. As powdered or air-slaked lime, it will directly kill 

 slug's and molluscous vermin, acting- by its peculiar attraction 

 for water. 



3. As an alkali, it will neutralize acids of every description, 

 and hence is peculiarly usefid if dusted over trees infested 

 with lichens. 



4. Its affinity for humic acid is predomiunnt, as we have 

 seen ; and, therefoi-e, it becomes a specific remedy, wherever 

 there is a redundance of inert decayed vegetable remains. 



5. According' to high chemical authority, it is capable to 

 liberate potassa from clay and granitic rocks, and to set it at 

 liberty from its combination with flint as an insoluble silicate 

 of ])otassa. 



6. It is a mistake to suppose that quick-lime renders 

 vegetable and animal remains soluble. These substances are 

 partially soluble, as we have seen in the three alkalies ; but 

 the precipitate formed by the addition of lime is not soluble, 

 or, at any rate, it is so far fixed that it will remain long 

 quiescent in the ground, from which it can only be taken up 

 in very small quantities and by slow degrees, according to 

 the capacity of the vegetable for such food. 



Lime, then, acts as an antidote of redundant humous 

 matter, attracting and fixing its acid as an innocuous 

 humate ; and thus, upon the above principles, I hope that I 

 have established unequivocally the importance of lime as a 

 prime agent and corrective. 



Farmer^s Magazine, Nov. 1846. 



