294 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



larged and increased in value no ic.^s than in bulii 

 by the addition of more recent lights and later 

 experience, is designed to be commenced some 

 time within this year; and in the appropriate 

 parts, whether of reasoning or of statements of 

 practice, the alleged existing delects of sufficient 

 fulness or particularity will be had regard to, and 

 supplied when deemed requisite. Referring then 

 to the last edition of the " Essay on Calcareous 

 Manures," or, when that is really deficient, to the 

 next forthcoming, for whatever may he here 

 omitted, we will proceed to give such answers 

 on particular points as may appear necessary. 



(6.) In the preceding paragraphs, the writer 

 seems to have withdrawn his previous denial (as we 

 understood it) of the general benefit of and gene- 

 ral necessity for calcareous manures on soils ; and 

 to become their eulogist in as general and as strong 

 terras as we should be disposed to use. But still 

 we would desire to bring back the discussion to 

 the ground on which it was raised, viz. : the par- 

 ticular facts of the failure of Mr. Turner and 

 some of his neighbors (in some or most cases of 

 trial) to obtain any benefit from liming. We 

 were before sure that Mr. Turner did not enter- 

 tain the slightest doubt of the facts of success 

 alleged by the several individuals to whose prac- 

 tice he has now particularly referred ; and we are 

 just as far from doubting his failures, or the oc- 

 currence of such facts in his practice as served to 

 form his belief of his applications being failures. 

 But the business is not to defer to authority, no 

 matter how good, but to try to reconcile these 

 apparently opposing facts and results, by present- 

 ing all the circumstances of both modes of trial. 

 This we have aimed to do, in former publications, 

 and at great length, as to our results, both suc- 

 cessful and unsuccessful, and will add any de- 

 ficient particulars that may be hereafter required. 

 In regard to the opposite results of Mr. Turner, 

 the circumstances arc stated so slightly and so 

 generally, that it may be presumptuous for us 

 even to pretend to judge of the causes of their 

 failure ; but nevertheless such causes as seem 

 probably to have operated, and such reasons as 

 seem to apply, will be mentioned. 



We understand from the former concise and 

 general statement and present repetition of Mr. 

 Turner, merely that he (and two of his neighbors 

 also) applied lime to soils almost naked and bar- 

 ren, and found no effect or benefit whatever 

 therefrom. Now, though we believe that there 

 was a great mistake as to there being no effect 

 ultimately produced, still we would freely admit, 

 (and it would be precisely what we would have 



anticipated and predicted of such an application, 

 and such circumstances,) that there would be no 

 early and obvious improvement — perhaps not 

 enough to be distinguishable, and certainly not 

 enough to be profitable, without putrescent mat- 

 ters being also applied at the same time, or after- 

 wards. The great and most beneficial operation 

 of calcareous earth as manure is to combine che- 

 mically with putrescent manure, or any matters 

 serving to feed plants, and thereby "^" in 

 the soil these otherwise fleeting and wasting 

 matters. If there were no such enriching or ali- 

 mentary matter in the soil, of course no such be- 

 neficial fixing action of lime could take place — 

 and on an exceedingly barren soil, exhausted by 

 tillage and close grazing to the lowest possible 

 degree, this action might be so little as not to be 

 perceptible. Nearly all our own practice and ear- 

 lier cultivation have been on originally bad soils 

 and very poor and exhausted lands; but except- 

 ing the numerous and extensive galls of the 

 washed slopes and hill-sides, we had no expe- 

 rience of land so excessively poor as Mr. Turner 

 described his to have been when he commenced 

 operations, and when (as is presumed) he applied 

 the lime. But even though no early benefit from 

 applying marl or lime be seen when applied to 

 naked galls, or to other almost as barren land, 

 the application would give to such land the power 

 of combining with, holding, and thereby receiving 

 benefit from, putrescent manures (or any vegeta- 

 ble matter) aderwards to be applied. Now we 

 presume (in the absence of any express state- 

 ment) that this land so limed by Mr. Turner, 

 without benefit as he supposed, has been since 

 heavily and repeatedly dressed by putrescent 

 manure, and, like his land generally, has been 

 highly improved by such lavish manuring. 

 Now suppose that the small quantity of lime be- 

 fore applied has actually and fully performed its 

 office ol' fixing in the soil as much of the alimen- 

 tary matter since given as it could connbine with, 

 this small effect, however valuable in proportion 

 to its extent, would be lost and invisible, amidst 

 the ten-fold greater quantity of putrescent matter 

 applied every three years, and which was, as 

 we infer, mostly wasted for want of lime to com- 

 bine with. According to a previous statement 

 of Mr. Turner's, (p. 151, 2,) he found his applica- 

 tions of putrescent manures, (much of it rich ma- 

 nure from town stables, 1250 bushels to the acre,) 

 to show "an evident (ailing off in the second, 

 and especially in the third and fourth crops [or 

 years.] Thismadea second manuring necessary ; 

 and," he adds, " I am now convinced that exces- 

 sively poor lands, such as mine were, cannot be 

 made permanently rich under three distinct manur- 



