lOG 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



to do so by parinir and burning, as, by the appli- 

 cation of beat, a portion of the lime, now con- 

 verted into carbonate, from being so long buried 

 and in close contact with the soil, would be 

 freed fi-om its acquired acid, and restored anew 

 to its original state of purity when first applied 

 — or, in other words, be reconverted into tpiick- 

 lime — and would thus be rendered capable of 

 exerting a renewed action on the peaty sub- 

 etances present, and, from its recovered causti- 

 city, again promote the various processes of 

 decomposition and recomposition so favorable to 

 the development of healthful and luxuriant 

 vegetation. 



3. The action of lime on clayey or aluminous 

 soils is as follows : — 



It operates both in the fertilization and com- 

 minution of clayey soils. Prom the minuteness 

 of its particles, they easily insinuate themselves 

 into the clay. On the particles of lime, too, 

 encountering any enclosed organic matter in 

 tliese aluminous masses a strong action imme- 

 diately takes ])lace between the lime and such 

 matter, ^vhich, by combining with, disorgan- 

 izing, and reducing such organic matter, destroys 

 the continuous solidity of the clay which con- 

 tained it : and from this, with the evolution of 

 the gases and other attendant action, the stub- 

 bom clay at length becomes cellular. 



4. In sandy .soils, lime operates beneficially 

 as follows : — 



It is w^ell known that sand (silica) differs 

 much from clay (alumina) and lime, in two im- 

 portant characteri.stics particularly. Both lime 

 and alumina have a great affinity for organic 

 matter and moisture, and retain both these sub- 

 stances by a powerful attraction ; sand has no 

 such affinity, and on tliis depends its barrenness. 

 It is merely commingled with organic matter 

 at any time, never chemically combining with it 

 in any quantity, and retaining it by no degree 

 of attraction whatever, in this way it offers no 

 resistance to the rapid escape of such sub- 

 stances by combinations with the components 

 of moisture deposited by the atmosphere and 

 the constituents of the atmo.sphere itself; and 

 tlie fructifymg properties of the manures are 

 thus quickly withdrawn from the .soil, and 

 escape from it, in the aerial form, into the atmo- 

 sphere. Besides this, they are washed away, in 

 part, by heavy rains and superabundant moist- 

 ure, beyond the reach of tlie root fibres of the 

 crop they were intended to nourish. To cure 

 these defects, lime is applied. From its affinity 

 for moisture, it attracts it from the atmosphere, 

 and, when voluntarily discharged from this 

 source, promotes its retention in the bodj' of the 

 ^oU. By combining with any organic manures 

 that may be added to the soil, it prevei.ts their 

 •wastelul and too rapid escape ; and thus, bj- 

 rendering the soil more retentive of moisture 

 and organic substances, and improving its tex- 

 ture and consi.steuce, emmently promotes and 

 increases its fertility. 



After the explanation we have just given, it 

 is difficult to see how lime can be dispensed 

 with in tlie improvement and perfecting of any 

 soil, unless that soil should be naturally calca- 

 reous. Such a soil efi'ervesces powerfully 

 with acids, and is thus easily detected by the 

 most untutored inquirer. The only case in 

 which we found lime to produce no great sen- 

 sible or perceptible beneficial effect, or verj' little, 

 was when superabundant moisture existed. But, 

 even vihere the soil had been previously ex- 

 hausted bv overcropping and bad cleaning, we 

 •214) 



have found quick-lime, by destroying insects and 

 their larviE, and the seeds and roots of noxious 

 and unprofitable plants, and by converting these, 

 as already explained, into \\hole8ome nutriment 

 for succeeding crops, a most useful coadjutor, in 

 connection with a well-conducted fallow, in re- 

 storing vigor and energy to the most exhausted 

 subject. W'^here former injudicious applications 

 of lime had been made, ^ve can recommend no 

 efficient restorative but a copious supply of or- 

 ganic manure and rest in grass. 



One instance of abuse of lime we may par- 

 ticularly notice here. Thirty jears ago and 

 upwards, lime, at the rate of ~'00 bushels of hot 

 shells an acre, was spread on between 100 and 

 200 acres of verj' light siliceous, open, dry, gra- 

 velly .soil, scarcely 200 feet above the level of 

 the sea, and within a mile of the coast, between 

 lat. 57^ and 58"^, in north Britain, and being 

 treated rather sparingly on some occasions, in 

 after cropping, as to manure, till v,'ithiu the last 

 eight years, though correctly fanned by the ro- 

 tation of turaip, barley, and haj- seeds, and hay 

 followed by pasture for one year, and some- 

 times two years, it has not and will not recover 

 this overdose for a long time to come. 



Although the soil was poor, the lime, being 

 new to iti" exhausted at first all its organic mat- 

 ter, and produced wonderful crops for some 

 years; but at length it came to be, that, in 1839, 

 rather an unfavorable season, and frequently 

 previously in a field of upwards of twenty-five 

 imperial acres, there was not produced twenty 

 quarters (160 bushels) of oats, and the quality 

 not so good as the dressings of a veiy rich and 

 productive crop. It will be a very expensive 

 and unremunerating process to recover this soil 

 by rest and manure. Some parts were, at the 

 same rate and at the same time, manured with 

 lime containing a trace of magnesia, and these 

 portions of the surface are still quite distinguish- 

 able from the remainder by a vegetation of an 

 aspect if possible more miserable, sickly, and 

 attenuated than that which covers the general 

 surface. 



5. We now come to consider the effects of 

 Lime on a deleterious subsoil. On this subject 

 we can also venture to say a little, from some 

 experience and attentive ob.servation in the im- 

 provement of waste land, and from extensive 

 draining of arable and waste in the progress of 

 improvement. 



Subsoils frequently hold in their composition 

 deleterious sub.stances, which consist principally 

 of the salts of iron or manganese, and some 

 acid, resembling the gallic and acetic, derived 

 from the decay of vegetable substances. We 

 have witnessed tlie benefit in these instances of 

 the application of quick-lime. In the first place, 

 the Ihnc attracts and combines with the acid.s, 

 by which means the salts of iron and mangan- 

 ese are neutralized, and the acid adhering to 

 the lime is not merely rend(-red innocuous, but 

 converted into a po.sitively fertilizing substance. 

 Where any sourness, or vegetable acid in any 

 form, exists in the soil or subsoil, which very 

 frequently happens on examining the composi- 

 tion of waste lands with a view to improvement, 

 and which has been caused by the long exist- 

 ence and periodical decay, while in its unre- 

 claimed state, of a worthless vegetation, if lime 

 be applied, it immediately combines with and 

 neutralizes the effects of such di-literious com- 

 ponents, destroying the acid by withdrawing its 

 carbonaceous matter and oxygen, aiid thus, be- 

 coming a carbonate of lime, materially adds to 



