168 



FAKMKRS' REGISTER- 



[No. 3 



It carries with it the surplus of alimentary ma- 

 nure, wliicli the surplus of product demands lor 

 its sustenance. Light soils, sandy or gravelly, 

 are not tired by a repetition of this compost. No 

 country nor author charges lime used in this state 

 with having been injurious to the soil. In short, 

 this means,°seems to us the most sure, the most 

 iife-ellil, and the least expensive mode of applying 

 lime as manure." This experiment, as might 

 have been anticijiatcd, was attended with success. 

 The next experiment was the application of 4000 

 bushels oi' quick-lime on 24 acres of land that had 

 been ploughed in the preceeding autumn. We 

 have no inlbrmation as to the previous condition 

 of the land ; whether. calcareous or not, whether 

 rich or poor, whether abounding or deficient in 

 vegetable matter, !t may be fairly inferred, how- 

 ever, that the land was poor, (for regarding lime 

 as a manure it would be naiural to ap|)ly it to the 

 poorest land,) and that the scanty coat of inert 

 vegetable matter that was ploughed down in the 

 i'aU, had been in a great measure decomposed be- 

 before the application of the lime in the spring. 

 Now to say nothing of the excessive quantity ap- 

 plied, any one at all acquainted with the properties 

 oi' quick-lime, might have predicted with certainty, 

 (hat this application of it upon a naked soil, con- 

 taining little or no insoluble vegetable matter, 

 woukfbe without effect, or positively injurious. 

 The following extract from Davy's Agricultural 

 Chemistry, a very high authority, is to the point. 

 "The solution of the question, whelhcr quick-lime 

 ought to be applied to a soil, depends upon the 

 quantity of inert vegetable matter that it contains. 

 The solution of the question, whether marl, rnild 

 Ume, or powdered lime-stone ought to be applied, 

 depends upon the quantity of calcareous matter 

 already in the soil. All soils which do not effer- 

 vesce with acids are improved by mild lime, 

 and ultiiuately hy q\i'ick-\lme, and sands more than 

 clays." 



The last and "most distinct experiment," was 

 the application of 100 bushels of quick-linie per 

 acre on a field of clover in the month of May, 

 which was turned in early in June, when the clo- 

 ver was in blossom. This application, Avliich the 

 writer seems to consider perfectly conclusive of the 

 question, signally failed ; the wheat crop on the 

 limed land having been barely sufficient to deli-ay 

 the expense of cultivation! Nor is this to be won- 

 dered at. So utter a disregard of the principles of 

 science, and the lessons of experience, could not 

 have been attended with any other result. On^ 

 this subject we again quote the hiijh authority of 

 Sir H. Davy: "When a soil, deficient in calcare- 

 ous matter, contains much soluble vegetable ma- 

 nure, the application of quick-lime should always 

 be avoided, as it either tends to decompose the 

 soluble matters, by uniting to their carbon and 

 oxygen, so as to become mild lime, or it combines 

 with the soluble matters, and forms compounds, 

 having less attraction for water than the pure vege- 

 table substance." In the experiment under con- 

 sideration, quick-lime is applied to a croj) of green 

 clover, one of the most succulent and soluble 

 plants in nature, and immediately turned in so as 

 exclude the atmosphere. Now what is the neces- 

 sary consequence? The quick-Ume, which natu- 

 rally tends to absorb carbonic acid and become 

 mild, being excluded li-oin the atmosphere, the 

 usual source lor supplying that acid, naturally 



combines with the carbon and oxygen, the main 

 constituents of the clover, and which imited, Ibrm^ 

 carbonic acid, and becomes again the carbonate of 

 lime, and by this process the rich soluble vegeta- 

 ble manure of the clover, on which the princij)al 

 reliance for the crop of wheal ought to have been 

 placed, is destroyed ; and the inconsiderate expe- 

 rimenter, instead of this abundant supply of ali- 

 mentary manure, has on his land one hundred 

 bushels of carbonate of lime, which might have 

 been obtained at much less expense in the shape 

 of marl, effete lime, ground-shells, or pounded, 

 lime-sione. 



<'Quick-lime, (says Sir H. Davy,) whether in 

 powder or dissolved in water, is injurious to 

 plants." The only immediate beneficial effect 

 arises from its power of decomposing inert vege- 

 table matter, and it is not until it re-absorbs car- 

 bonic acid and becomes mild that it seems to pos- 

 sess the peculiar virtues attributed to calcareous 

 manures, in the 'Essay' on that subject, of correct- 

 ing the acidity, improving the texture, and in- 

 creasing the productive powers of the soil, by corn- 

 combining with and fixing putrescent manures. 

 Whatever may be the cause, there can be no 

 doubt of the fact that lime acts in a very limited 

 degree on the first crop after it is applied. It is a 

 prevailing; opinion in Pennsylvania, that a wmter 

 must pass belbre its effects are fully developed. 

 M. Puvis, who seems to have been thoroughly 

 informed on this subject, thus expresses himself: 

 "To secure the effect of lime on the first crop, it 

 ought to be mixed with the soil sorxie time before 

 the' sowing of the crop ; however, if it is used in 

 compost, 'a is sufficient that the compost may have 

 been made a long time previously." And many 

 of the experiments detailed by the author of the 

 article in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, already^ 

 quoted, go to prove that the beneficial efl'ects of 

 lime are^not experienced until the 2d or 3d year 

 after its application, unless it is aided by a liberal 

 dressing of manure. Lime should never be appli- 

 ed under the delusive belief that it is an alimen- 

 tary manure. It should be considered not as the 

 food, but the physic oi" the earth. Our poor acid 

 soils may be compared to a dyspeptic patient, with 

 a voracious appeiite, but a disordered digestion. 

 Neither too much food nor physic will be of ser- 

 vice. But as a dose of magnesia administered to 

 the dyspeptic will correct the acidity and restore 

 the functions of the stomach and make "digestion 

 wait on appeiite," so a proper quantity of lime or 

 other calcareous matter,, administered to such soils, 

 will correct their acidity, restore their digestive 

 powers, and fit fhem for the assimilation of vegeta- 

 ble food, which the judicious farmer will not fail lo 

 supply in sufficient abundance. 



In the course of the foregoing observations, we 

 think it has been established that for agricultural 

 purposes, there is no material difference between 

 shell and stone-lime; that the value of lime in 

 agriculture is sustained by science and authority; 

 tiTat its beneficial operation, when properly ap- 

 plied, has been fully vindicated by the first expe- 

 riment of the writer under consideration ; and the 

 fiiilure of his other experiments been satisfactorily 

 explained, upon rational and scientific principles, 

 without in the least degree impugning the value 

 of this, to us on tide-water, inestimable improver 

 of trie soil. 



We had designed to close this communication 



