LIME AS A FERTILIZER. 



107 



its own value a8 as a fertilizing iugredient. 

 Tli.s we have tested freciueutly, so as to satisfy 

 ourselves of the effieiency of an application of 

 lime in all such cases, and of the i)erlLct propri- 

 ety of recommending it to an improver whose 

 chemical knowledtje may not be sufficient to 

 conduct the simple process of analyses if he 

 should have any good ground for suspicion from 

 the (lark color of the .subsoil, or any other fami- 

 liar and often locally understood symptom that 

 such latent causes as we have been describing 

 ai"e operating against his interest. 



The salts of the protoxide of iron amount to 

 thirty-eight, with nine double salts, making to- 

 gether lorty-seven salts of the protoxide of iron ; 

 and these are generally soluble in \sater. The 

 known salts of the peroxide of iron amount to 

 flirty-three, with twelve double salts, making 

 tit'ty-tive salts of the peroxide of iron, and they 

 arc all .soluble in the same menstruum. .Most 

 of tlie salts of mimganese are soluble in water, 

 and on their precise degree of solubility depends 

 their destructive and injurious cftects. The 

 salts of iron, where water abounds in the .soil, 

 gradually form, by combining with the earths, 

 as ■we have often seen, a most impervious and 

 injurious subsoil ; but on being freed, by drain- 

 ing, of excess of moisture, and broken up, and, 

 more effectually still, if trench-ploughed after 

 draining, and thus partially exposed to the fruc- 

 tifying and pulverizing action of the atmos- 

 phere, such a subsoil will be speedily rendered 

 innocuous ; and, if lime be thereSl'ter applied, 

 the cure is conij)lete ; — and, after resting a little, 

 a soil thus prc()ared may be converted to the 

 purpo-;es of jirolitable culture. 



6. We have already, under head 2, shown the 

 effects of tlie application of lime in improving the 

 texture, constitution, and general fertility of the 

 soil. We may now add here, that when cal- 

 careous matter is deficient in soil."?, it will be 

 highly beneficial to supply it even in the state 

 of native carbonate, and without calcination, if 

 a supply can thus be more cheaply and con- 

 veniently obtained from the sweepings of the 

 highway.*, which often contain a considerable 

 admi.xture of carbonate, or from any other na- 

 tive calcareous deposit, such as shell or clay 

 marl, or calcareous sand, &c. Clay marl is best 

 adapted to sandy or siliceous soiLs, and shell 

 marl and calcareous sand to clayey or alumin- 

 ous soils or stiff' loams. However, when too 

 easily obtained, such advantages are sometimes 

 abu.sed ; .several instances of this kind have 

 come under our observation, and we may here 

 mention one as an example. On an estate in 

 North Britain, where a very valuable and ex- 

 ten.sive marl depo.sit exists, permis.sion was 

 given to the tenantry to apply this substance to 

 their farms free of all charge : their holdings 

 chiefiy consisted of light siliceous and very shal- 

 low i)eaty .soils, and the proportions were left to 

 their own discretion. This deposit was verj' 

 rich in calcareous matter. It was used with 

 something like su.spicion and distrust at first in 

 any great quantity, but some favorable results 

 so raised tlie expectations of the tenantry that 

 they heaped on their land an unlimited bulk, 

 and the con.sequence was, that a few years of 

 fruitfulne.ss and of injudicious, and too often in- 

 cessant cropping were succeeded by j'early in- 

 creasing sterility and loud and fruitle'ss lamenta- 

 tions. The soil, of course, will require the same 

 treatment to recover it as if it had received an 

 over-do.se of unmixed lime. 



7. The quantity of lime which might be ap- 

 (51. 5) ^ 



plied to the soil in different cases is a most 

 important subject; also, whether it seems most 

 beneficial to apply lime in large quantity ;md at 

 long intervals, or in smaller quantity and at 

 shorter intervals ; and we shall endeavor to be 

 as explicit and intelligible on the subject as wo 

 possibly can. 



In a deep peaty soil there is little danger that 

 the proper quantity of quick-lime will be ex- 

 ceeded, and carbonate may be applied in al- 

 most any probable quantity. We need only 

 instance as grass-grounds the famous Orcheston 

 meadows. In a sandy soil there is scarcely 

 more danger that this will be the case with car- 

 bonate, neither will it be so with caustic lime, 

 provided it be ^vell mixed beforehand with 

 clay or common soil containing a proportion of 

 organic matter, such as old turf dykes or pond 

 scourings, or suchlike substances. When a soil 

 contains a fourth part of alumina, (a stiff' wheat 

 soil,) and lime is to be applied lor the first time, 

 it should never be in less quantity, at the verj- 

 least, than 150 bushels of shells, heaped measure, 

 to the acre. A third part of this quantity should 

 be repeated on occasion of every third fallow 

 thereafter, to keep up a desirable activity in the 

 soil, a great proportion of the first applied quan- 

 tity having by this time disappeared and been 

 washed away by natural agencies ; and on each 

 occasion of a fallow, when no lime is applied, 

 from one cwt. to two cwt. of nitrate of soda or 

 potash to the acre should be cai-efully sown 

 over the young wheat or turnip crop, as it may 

 happen, a moist morning being selected for the 

 purpose ; and this will not only nourish and 

 stimulate the young plants, and effectually de- 

 stroy the numerous tribe of insects and their 

 larvaj, so peculiarly destructive to the turnip 

 crop in its first stages, but what is not appropri- 

 ated of it by the plants descends vs'ith the mois- 

 ture into the soil, and immediately acts upon the 

 lime, no^v chiefly become a carbonate, by de- 

 priving it of its acid, and restoring it to its ori- 

 ginal state of purity, when its caustic properties 

 are restored, and it again operates with the 

 same activity as when first applied to the soil. 

 It is necessary to apply the 150 bushels in the 

 first instance to insure the ett'ectual solution of 

 the natural and necessarj' acoumulation of the 

 iu.soluble organic matter which must occur in a 

 soil which has been covered with vegetation of 

 any description ; but a small application every 

 thii-d fallow, with the alkaline application to 

 each of the two intermediate fallows, will there- 

 after prevent any such useless accumulation of 

 insoluble organic matter, which needs must 

 otherwise increase in the soil from the annual 

 decay of the root fibres and other accidental and 

 necessarj- remains of the different natural herb- 

 age, plant.s, and crops of the previous rotation. 



When a soil is composed of four parts in five 

 of silica, the remainder being principally alu- 

 mina and organic matter associated with a por- 

 tion of impalpable siliceous powder, it may be 

 made a superior turnip .soil, and incalculably 

 improved by the application of carbonate of 

 lime in large quantity ; but about 100 heaped 

 bushels of shells to the acre will be a sufficient 

 dressing of caustic lime on a first application to 

 the soil, care being taken that a fair allowance 

 of manure is always supplied at each recur- 

 rence of a fallow, and it may be repeated in the 

 same proportion and at the same periods (a third 

 to every third fallow thereafter) as we have just 

 recommended in clayey soils. The quantity of 

 nitrate of potash or soda, be it observed, to be 



