LIME AS A FERTILIZER. 



105 



period in the rotation for the application of lime. 



W ith a view to economy and efficiency both, 

 this must be when the land is preparing for a 

 fallow or fallow crops. It should always in this 

 case be applied as a hydrate. At this time an 

 opportunity is otrered, when the land is in pro- 

 gress of tillage at any rate, of intermixing and 

 thoroughly incorporating the lime with the soil, 

 when it immediately acts, as before stated, upon 

 any insoluble organic substances which it may 

 contain ; and, instead of remaining dormant, in- 

 active, and useless, as these substances had 

 been during the previous rotation, they grad- 

 ually form combinations with the lime, which 

 become partially soluble in water, and 

 thus, when lime is judiciouslj' apphed to a fal- 

 low, it is one reason for a smaller quantity of 

 manure sufficing. This, of course, will only 

 happen when there has been an accumulation 

 of tibrous and insoluble organic matter in the 

 soil, which is always the case in newly im- 

 proved land, and where tlie soil, though in cul- 

 tivation, has never previously undergone liming, 

 and more particularly if it contains in itself little 

 native calcareous matter. 



With regard to the crops to w^hich lime is 

 found most beneficial, we shall begin with the 

 Ccrealia, and of tliese we shall speak to wheat, 

 barley, and oats. We know, in imiumerable 

 instances, that wheat is groNvn on soils previ- 

 ously incapable of yielding an abundant or re- 

 munerating crop. We do not doubt that this is 

 partly owing to the previous ope|^tion of effi- 

 cient draining, as die most ignorant agriculturist 

 is now aware of the fact, that the application 

 of manures, organic or inorganic, is compara- 

 tively fruitless without attention to draining, as 

 a preparative, in the first instance. 



From the previous application of lime to a 

 fallow, we see a very moderate allowance of 

 manure — consisting either of bones, themselves 

 containing a large proportion of phosphate of 

 lime — and various combinations of decaying 

 organic substances, produce an admirable crop 

 of turnip, and tlius prepare the way for a ricli 

 and luxuriant crop of barley, and this, too, on 

 soils that riiuged fonnerly very low indeed in 

 the scale of fertility, but have been quickened 

 into life and productiveness by the presence of 

 this new agent. We have seen also a very 

 superior crop of barley fi-equently produced on 

 barren moorland, by the simple application of 

 lime, and with a very little addition indeed of 

 in-nutritious and ill-prepared manure in our own 

 island, at an elevation of 8U0 or 900 feet, and 

 between latitude 57^ and .")8'-', and this too on a 

 soil, to say the most for it, of average barren- 

 ness. 



As to the oat crop, in the rotation, we have not 

 observed that it is by any means proportionally 

 so much improved by the application of lime. 

 But this may be accounted for by the great ex- 

 haustion of manure caused by the luxuriance of 

 previous barley crops. In high and cold local- 

 ities, -where oats are cultivated as the principal 

 grain crop for winter fodder, and the lime 

 applied and harrowed in above the plowed 

 natural lea, the effect on the crop has been very 

 beneficially apparent, particularly and chiefly 

 where the land had been well drauied before 

 tlie application of the lime. The improvement 

 in the succeeding pasture-grass was, if possible, 

 still more remarkable and lasting. This is easily 

 accounted for when we consider that the cold in 

 this countrj-. at considerable hights, and the con- 

 sequent low natural temperature of the contained 

 (213) 



water in the soil, together tend to retard the de- 

 composition of any portion of the fibre of the 

 growing natural herbage that may be left un- 

 consumed on the surface. But when lime is 

 applied, it immediately dissolves tliis fibrous de- 

 posit, which has been, from the above causes, 

 unceasingly accumulating, and converts it into 

 wholesome and abundant nourishment for a 

 higher and more useful class of plants. At 

 great hights, then, and in cold localities generally, 

 the effects of lime are particularly striking, and 

 also very lasting, after draining. 



Of the Leguminous crops, we may say un- 

 hesitatingly, from what we have observed, that 

 they caimot be cultivated with any success \vith- 

 out the previous application of lune, unless 

 where abundance of native calcareous matter 

 exists in the soil. The bean, indeed, and, so far 

 as we have observed, tlie potato crop, are ex- 

 ceptions to this rule ; although we have seen 

 lime, in compost with earth or old turf dykes, 

 give a most productive and valuable crop of 

 potatoes. 



Whether spread on the surface of pasture-land 

 alone, or in compost -with earth, or applied with 

 a crop and grass seeds, with a view to pasture, 

 it never fails to call into existence the dormant 

 seeds of the superior grasses in the soil, and to 

 nourish and facilitate the growth of tho.se that 

 may have been confided to it by the agi-iculturi.st. 

 This is a fact placed beyond all dispute. It is 

 a never-failing fertilizer of grass land. 



2. The efiects of lime on peaty soUs are the 

 folio-wing : — 



Peat is kno^vn to contain two substances in- 

 imical to vegetation, and eminently preventive 

 of the changes and interchanges, the decompo- 

 sitions and recompositions, necessary to afford a 

 supply of genial nourishment to a superior class 

 of vegetables. These injurious substances are 

 tannin and gallic acid. But let u« consider for 

 a moment the composition of these inimical com- 

 pounds, and -we shall find that we have it in our 

 [)0wer, by a simple process, to convert them 

 into substances most friendly to the advance- 

 ment of superior vegetation, and in this form 

 contributing highlj' to the fertility of soils. We 

 find on analysis that they are composed of llie 

 following constituent proportions : — 



Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxyeen. 



Tannin 52.59 3.825 4.3.583 



Gallic Acid, 56.64 5.00 38.36 



We have .shown in the first part of this essay, 

 that quick-lime and hydrate have a powerful 

 affinity for carbonaceous matter and oxygen. 

 This known, with the assistance of the above 

 analysis, it is at once clear ho-w they operate be- 

 neficially on peaty soils. It is'evident that, by 

 appropriating a jiortion of the carbon and oxy- 

 gen, the lime neutralizes the acid in both these 

 substances, itself becoming a carbonate ; and, 

 by this change, substances that were fonnerly 

 destructive to fertility, combining in part with 

 the lime, are resolved into their simple elements, 

 and, assuming a new character, gradually be- 

 come capable of sustaining an improved vege- 

 tation. Of cour.se, as we bave already .shown, 

 the lime will act on the fibrous vegetable re- 

 mains in tlie soil, combine with them, and con- 

 vert them by degrees into soluble and fructifying 

 nutriment ibr vegetables. If, after peaty lands 

 have been once limed, it should be found advis- 

 able, for any cause, to break up a lea, (and this 

 sliould be as seldom as po.ssible, such lands being 

 better laid to grass,) it would be an improvement 



