SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 513 



lightened and scientific ajnculturist will soon perceive that the use of lime can never super 

 sede that of dung, but that it rendtTS thi»kind of manure more energetic in it8a<;tion. . . . 



In many i>laces where its aniclioralinLr t'tVects weie known and appreciated, many agricul- 

 turists have calculated that marl would jirove a cheaper manure than stahle 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 wjjen 

 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." 



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

 (Lecture XVIL) 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 aj)plication 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 suriace to the depth of a foot. ... In a chemical point of 

 vie\v, marl is not of any value excej)t where the soil requires a supply of lime. . . The 

 other mineral constituents of marl are far too inconsiderable in amount to be reckoned upon." 



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

 thus expresses himself: 



'*■ It is acknowledged that lime is principally useful upon fallow lauds which are broken 

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

 ujion 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- 

 jilication of lime, may be made to sei-se 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 Agiiculture." 



These authoxities might be multiplied ad wfinitum. 



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 (juantity, they wonhl not he ster- 

 ile. They probably possess the ordinary inorganic constituents of dry 

 Tertiary and granitic soils, and no properties directly deleterious to veo^e- 

 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 in two ways, as before admitted ; but the 

 considerable temporary apparent amelioration, as evinced in some instances 

 by 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 impoveri.shes 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 annlyses of these soils, and mean therefore aa I 6&y, simply, examination by the eye. 

 (1033) 33 



