132 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



riment, with an aitorapt to build a very important i done jour part, trust the rest lo the silent, unseen, 



theory on the narroweel possible loundalioa ol 

 fact. And never has a hastily Ibrraed or unaound 

 theory been more signally oveiihrown by subie- 

 quenl experience. Insiead, tlierelore, or saying 

 that it was just and ingenuous to reler the in- 

 jurious etiecia of the lime m qii^iiion lo (uaguesia, 

 we should rather say thai it was a hasiy and 

 unjust conclusion, and would never have been 

 put Ibrth by one acting under correct vievvo- ol' tlie 

 requirements of the inductive piiilosophy. 



But it is not against the possibility oi the in- 

 jurious nature of the Doncaster imicsiune, or ol 

 the correctness of iVlr. Tenant's experiments, lor 

 we care not a straw whether they are correct or 

 otherwise; but il is against the bioad doctrine 

 of the deleterious natuie of magnesian lime in 

 all its forms, a' tempted to be deduced Irom them, 

 that we contend. It is against the senseless re- 

 petition of this doctrine, unsupported as it is by 

 any subsequent experiments, by every unfledged 

 agricultural essayist, or every enthusiastic builder 

 ol plausible theories, tlmt we enter our protest. 

 Agricultural publications are extending iu circu- 

 lation every day, and are beginning to be looked 

 up to as sources of correct iniormaiion. It ia ol 

 importance, therelbre, that theories diametrically 

 opposed to every day's experience should not be 

 reiterated in them again and again, without 

 attempts being made to show their ulcer fallacy. 

 Lime, in some parts ol' our country, is a very 

 costly article lor manure, owing to the expense 

 of carriage. A young liirmer hi one ol these has 

 a poor exhausted larm. He sees in the Cabinet 

 and other publications lime highly recommended 

 as a manure, but he also sees essays prolessedly 

 written by practical men, wherein a is repeatedly 

 set forth that all magnesian lime is deleterious to 

 vegetation, and that each one whose liming has 

 not answered his expectation, relers. his disa])- 

 poinlment to this cause. He takes up the reports 

 of the different geological surveys lately made 

 in this country, and learns from them, as weil as 

 the pages of the Cabinet, that a very large pro- 

 portion of the limestones of our country are mag- 

 nesian, and many of them highly so. Would 

 not such a person probably rtafcoii thus : — I am 

 very poor as well as my land. This lime is a 

 very expensive thing. I shall probably get ol 

 this bad kind, as 1 am no judge of the ariicle. I 

 shall lay out my last dollar, and probably make 

 my land even worse than it now is. Would he 

 be likely to lime under such views? Would he 

 not more probably toil on from year to year as 

 poor as he began — still alraid to apply the great 

 renovator to hie soil ? To such, liovvever, we 

 would repeat, what we have already said, that 

 all the benefit which has been derived from lime 

 as a manure, to Pennsylvania and to a great part 

 of New Jersey and Delaware, has been derived 

 from magnesian lime. This is lact and expe- 

 rience ; the other is but theory based on a nar- 

 row foundation. Then let not this bug-bear ol 

 magnesian lime, set up by those who seem to be 

 profoundly ignorant of what is passing around 

 them, deter you from Ibllowing the bright exam- 

 ple set you by the enlightened farmers of south- 

 eastern Pennsylvania. Put on your magnesian 



mysterious operation of tlioee laws which govern 

 the material world, with the full assurance that 

 you will reap arich rewaid. S. Lewis. 



Uec. 28, 18 11. 



MAGNESIAN LI Ml:. 



From the same. 



Mr. Editor,— On reperusing the pages of 'he 

 hack numbcis of the Cabinet, a custom lo which 

 I confess 1 am much addicted, I find an ariicle at 

 jiage 339 ollheSih volume, on " Magnesian lime," 

 which I would wish to notice, lor the purpose of 

 drawing from the writer farther information on a 

 topic which still agitates the minds of some oCour 

 practical friends, although to him this must ap- 

 pear strange after what he has said lo settle 

 the question by a verdict which would seem to 

 admit of no af)peal : but as liicls are stubborn 

 things, and eye-testimony goes a good way with 

 a class of persons who are accustomed to judge 

 pretty much by the light afforded by that mode of 

 reasoning, I have wrought mysell up lo ihe point 

 ol encountering from your correspondent a vviiher- 

 ing glance that may possibly render me incapable 

 from ever looking into the sulject again ; and 

 yet that would be a pity, for liow could such 

 as I come to a knowledge of the truth, if we 

 were to give up one ol our seven senses, and 

 consent to be led by the doctors, seeing, as 

 we do, that none are more apt to difler llian 

 they? 



That the presence of magnesia in lime was 

 once believed to be injurious to vegetation, cannot 

 be denied. That il is now by many considered 

 rather advantageous than oiherwise that it should 

 contain a certain poriion of magnesia, would also 

 appear to be a lisct ; while others there are who 

 look upon its presence as neither beneficial or 

 hurtful, farther than robbing the lime of just so 

 much carbonate — to which slate ii returns on ex- 

 posure to the atmosphere — as it is found to con- 

 tain on analysis. Now which way lies the truth 7 

 And after Mr. Kinser has answered this question, 

 I would ask why is it thai lime, when quite pure 

 from magnesia, can be applied in almost any 

 quantity to land in almost any state, whether of 

 poverty or lenility, without injury to the crop, 

 while that which contains magnesia, to ttie 

 amount of about 40 per cent., cannot he used on 

 the same soils and under the same circumstances 

 to a greater extent than, say from -10 to 60 bush- 

 els per acre without manliest injury 1 We are 

 told that in England lime is given with impunity, 

 even to the amount ol 500 bushels per acre — 

 what would be the result if such exi ess were in- 

 dulged in here vviih lime containing 40 per cent, 

 of magnesia 1 II may be said the difference is in 

 the climates of the two countries, but I must he 

 permitted a difference of opinion. In the third 

 volume of the Cabinet, pp. 14, 17, there is re- 

 corded a series of experiments, ihe correctness of 

 which I was informed by the then editor of the 

 Cabinet might be impficitly relied upon, as they 

 had been copied from a diary or journal ihat had 



been kept by the writer while in the management 

 lime in such quantities as their experience may of certain estates in Wales, upon which they had 

 have pointed out. Shut your ears against this been most carefully conducted, lor the purpose of 

 senselesa clamor, and after you have faithfully | ascertaining the value of lime in agriculture, 



