SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 61* 



lightened and scientific agriculturist will soon perceive tHt the use of lime can never super 

 sede that of dung, but that it renders this kind of manure more energetic in its action. . _. . 



In many places where its ameliorating effects were known and appreciated, many agricul- 

 turists have calculated that marl would prove a cheaper manure than stable dung ; and 

 have, consequently, determined to do without the latter altogether ; and, therefore, have 

 diminished their stock of cattle, and sold their hay and straw. It may easily be imagined 

 that as soon as the chemical effects of the marl ceased to operate, as must be the case when 

 the land no longer contained undecomposed or insoluble substances, the soil became sterile, 

 and a second marling was incapable of producing any beneficial effects, there being no hu- 

 mus for it to act upon." 



Petzholdt, in his " Lectures to Farmers on Agricultural Chemistry," 

 (Lecture X VII.) says : 



" Quick -lime greatly accelerates the decomposition of humus, whether of animal or vege 

 table origin, inducing a more speedy liberation of its salts than would otherwise take place. 

 This is the reason quick-lime has proved so advantageous in the cultivation of bogs ; the 

 lime not only accelerates the decomposition of the humus, but it may be said altogether to 

 be the cause of the decay of humus, which, as it exists in peat, is scarcely by itself under- 

 going the process at all. . . . Where there is neither humus in the soil, nor undecom- 

 posed silicates, the application of lime as manure will be useless. ... So much, how- 

 ever, is deducible from all experience, that the mere application of marl to an exhausted soil 

 is of no use whatever, unless it is earned on the field in such quantities as to constitute a 

 new soil, covering the whole surface to the depth of a foot. ... In a chemical point of 

 view, marl is not of any value except where tke soil requires a supply of lime. . . Tha 

 other minei-al constituents of marl are far too inconsiderable in amount to be reckoned upon.' J 



Chaptal, in his " Chemistry applied to Agriculture," (Chap, iii., Art. 2,) 

 thus expresses himself : 



" It is acknowledged that lime is principally useful upon fallow lands which are broken 

 up ; upon grass lands, whether natural or artificial, which are prepared for cultivation : and 

 upon muddy lands, which are to be put into a fit state for culture. It is well known that in 

 all these cases there exists in the land a greater or less quantity of roots, which, by the ap- 

 plication of lime, may be made to serve more immediately for manure, by the solubility it 

 will give to the new products formed by them. . . . Independently of this effect, which, 

 in my opinion, is the most important, lime exercises other powers, which make it a very 

 valuable agent in Agriculture." 



These authorities might be multiplied ad injinitum. 



On the alternately too loose or too hard soils of the dry and barren lands 

 of the tide-water zone, lime would doubtless have two salutary effects 

 the mechanical one already noticed, and it would furnish one necessary 

 food of plants. But of its power to render these soils, or the exhausted 

 ones of the middle zone, anything more than transiently fertile, there is no 

 probability, if they are, as I suppose them to be, generally rather, and 

 sometimes very, destitute of organic matter. This destitution I infer from 

 ocular examination ;* also from the fact that they are covered with little 

 vegetation, with the exception of the long-leaf pine, to produce by its an- 

 nual decay a store of organic matter; and, finally, if this organic matter 

 existed in these soils in any considerable quantity, they would not be ster- 

 ile. They probably possess the ordinary inorganic constituents of dry 

 Tertiary and granitic soils, and no properties directly deleterious to vege- 

 tation. Organic matter, then, in my judgment, is what they principally 

 stand in need of to render them fertile. Now, by applying lime to them, 

 it would undoubtedly do good t in two ways, as before admitted; but the 

 considerable temporary apparent amelioration, as evinced in some instances 

 Ly the increased growth of vegetation, is factitious, for the lime is only act- 

 ing with and exhausting the little organic matter in the soil, to leave it to 

 greater eventual sterility. Hence the saying that " lime enriches the father 

 but impoverishes the son," is a true one when the lime is applied to soils 

 possessing but a small proportion of organic matter. On such, lime soon 



* I have seen no analyses of these soils, and mean therefore as I say, simply, examination by the eye 



