512 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



whole Tertiary formation, or at least tliat portion of it extending throufrh 

 the Atlantic States. The second is the swamp mud, which, rich with the 

 alluvial deposition of ages, fills nearly every depression of the surface ca 

 pable of retaining water, in the whole tide-water zone. 



Mr. Ruffin recommends the former as the best and most attainable fer- 

 tilizer on both of the classes of soils under examination. He seems to 

 think it adequate, of itself, to their full and permanent amelioration. I do 

 not desire a word which I shall say to bear, or even seem to bear, a con- 

 troversial tone toward the views of this ardent and enlightened friend of 

 Southern Agriculture. In expressing my dissent from them, my limits 

 and the occasion only permit me to allude to a few well-settled principles 

 and facts on which I have based my opinions. Lime acts mechanically 

 and chemically on soils. It stiffens loose and opens clayey ones. It is, 

 to a certain extent, one of the necessary constituents of plants ; it neutral- 

 izes acid substances in the soil ; it forms compounds, and promotes the 

 dissolution of existing ones, to prepare suitable food for plants ; and some- 

 times produces certain other minor beneficial effects. But its gieat, its 

 chief object, is to produce the food of plants by its chemical action on the 

 organic matter in the soil. Hence, says Johnston : 



" Lime has little or no eflfect upon soils in which organic matter is deficient;" and he far- 

 ther says : " Under the influence of lime the orgauic matter disappears more rapidly than it 

 otherwise would do, and that after it has thus disappeared, fresh additions of lime produce 

 no farther good effect ; . . . it causes the organic matter itself ultimately to disappear." 



" It is scarcely practicable," says Brown, ' to restore fertility to laud even of the best 

 natural quality, which has been thus abused ; and thm moorish soils, after being exhausted 

 by lime, are not to be restored." 



" An overdose of shell marl," says Lord Kaimes, " laid perhaps an inch thick, produces 

 for a time large crops, but at last renders the soil capable of bearing neither corn (grain) nor 

 grass, of which there are many examples in Scotland." " The same," continues Johnston, 

 " is true of hme in any fonn. The increased fertility continues as long as there remains an 

 adequate supply .of organic (animal and vegetable) matter in the soil ; but as that disappeai's, 

 the crops every year diminish both in quantity and in quality." 



" On poor araljle lands, which are not naturally so, but which are worn out or exhausted 

 by repeated liming and cropping, lime produces no good whatever." (Anderson, Brown, 

 Morton.)* 



Let us now turn to the opinions of some of the most eminent European 

 Continental writers. The celebrated Thaer in his " Principles of Agricul- 

 ture " (Section IV. Part I.) says : 



" On no soils are the effects of lime so beneficial as on those which contain a great quan- 

 tity of sour humus prejudicial to vegetation, or on those which have been supplied more or 

 less abundantly with animal manure tor a considerable period,, without receiving an appli- 

 cation of lime, or some other substance of a similar nature. In the latter case it is frequently 

 much more efHcacious than an amelioration of stable manm-e would be ; but it soon impov- 

 erishes the soil so much that in a few years it becomes indispensably necessary' to manure it 

 abundantly with rich animal or vegetable matters. As some portion of the humus, aJ- 

 thoush in all probability of an insoluble nature, always remains in arable hmd even when it 

 appears to be much exhausted, it of course follows that an application of lime will always 

 be productive of very marked efft-cts even on the poorest soils, because it \v\\\ call into ac- 

 tion all the nutritive particles which they contain. A second amendtnent of a similar natm-e 

 bestowed shortly after the first, will be productive of some, although in geneial of much less 

 benefit ; and the effect of each subsequent amelioration of ihis nature will be progiessively 

 diminished unless the soil receives an additional supply of humus. . . . The effect pro- 

 duced by lime on land of this nature (reclaimed bogs and marshes) is much more benefici;J 

 and durable than that of any other manure. On the other hand, repeated ameliorations of 

 lime will soon totally exhaust and impoverish poor and sandy soils, and reduce tliem to ab- 

 solute sterility, even though each separate application seems to be productive of some good 

 effect. . . ■ MiUiy persons who liave not riglilly comprehended the cause of the effects 

 produced by lime, prefer it to manure, and havi- believed in the jiossihility of doing entirely 

 without the latter ; but the total exhaustion of the soil which such a cotu'se of proceeding 

 must sooner or later produce, caused them to fly to the ojiposite exti-euie. ... An en- 



* See Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 139-142. 

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