160 



<S:iic jTarmcr'e ittontl)hj llisitor. 



of Wilier. Yet wnler and sand are more iimteri- 

 al tliuii every thing else in the economy which 

 reproduces the vegetable clothing of caiih's sur- 

 face. How very nnliiir, then, to compare lime, 

 a more costly ingredient, as a loss valuable ma- 

 terial, than s.iiid in the composition necessary for 

 a bettor production of the soil! 



We have no wish for controversy on agricul- 

 tmul topics: least of all would it be oiir desire 

 in the Visitor to engage in a dispute with the 

 veteran of the Massachusetts Ploughman. Had 

 he presented the subject of lime fairly in his 

 comments upon the o()iiiions of the Genessee 

 Farmer, we woidd not now take up the subject. 

 We publish the opiiiious of both for the sake of 

 the information which they impart, anxious that 

 the truth of fair experiment should be the guide 

 in this matter. 



The Genesee Farmer or the Farmer's Visitor 

 need either '■ attempt to prove that lime has been 

 more generally applied and with more success 

 than the excrements of horned cattle, horses, 

 sheep and hogs." These and other common ma- 

 nures all will admit to be most immediately ac- 

 tive and useful ; without the vegetable manm-es 

 or the influence of vegetation upon the soil, no 

 improvement may be anticipated. Neither lime 

 nor any other mineral manure can at once sup- 

 ply their place — the one cannot be a substitute 

 for the other; and it is hardly fair reasoning to 

 condemn the one, because it does not answer all 

 the ready purposes of the other. 



Mr. Buckininster will not attempt to gainsay 

 the fact that lliou?and/of farmers in Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, Dt-laware, Maryland and Virginia have 

 came to the extensive use. of lime, and that lliey 

 believe thai this to them has been a greater ren- 

 ovator of the soil than all other manures which 

 have been there applied. In some parts plaster, 

 which is the sulpluite of lime, is founrl tiie most 

 potent of the two. The best farmers who in the 

 middle States freely use lime are fond of al! the 

 "execrements" named as well as the " putrid 

 flesh of land animals or fish" when they can get 

 them, because they greatly aid the lime and other 

 mineral manures. IJut Mr. Buckminster must 

 yield a long step in his prejudice against the use 

 of lime us a manure, if he could see how nuich 

 lime has done towards making land fruitful 

 which was before unproductive ; and this, too, 

 where it has not been possible to procure the 

 aninuil and vegetable tnanures to be applied 

 any where. 



Lime does not generally abound in New Eng- 

 land, ei!|>eeially in the interior; it costs here, 

 even with the lessened price of transjiort since 

 railroad communication has lieen opened, twice 

 as cnuch as it does upon the Jersey or Pennsyl- 

 vania forms. If we use it here, we must use it 

 ns choice brandy or wines are used, by way of 

 medicine. 'I'he editor ol'tlie Visitor has been in 

 t!ie habit of using Tln>iiiaston lime by nay of 

 medicine upon hi.s miinuri! heaps more or less for 

 ten years ; lis believes he has gained some valiia- 

 blo information from the experiments thus far ; he 

 thinks he is wiser than lie was when he began. 

 The first few casks applied directly to the ex- 

 cremental manure of the stables disproved one 

 of the positions which we uiidLrotaiul i\Ir. IJiiek- 

 minster to lake, that lime fails to hasten the de- 

 noinposition of other maleriids — we found that 

 liniu was a lilllo too hasty in aciion when applied 

 to the animal and vegetable. iiiaYiures rich in am- 

 monia. We corrected our course in this respect 

 byapplying lime in Its causiic slate diicclly to 

 the malerlalii taken from n wet and acid muck 



bed ; and we believe we have at length discovered 

 the fact that as many ars three parts of our muck, 

 tempered and mollified by the operation of one 

 tenth of its volume of quick lime kept in con- 

 tact from early fall through the winter to the next 

 spring, mixed with one part of the common ma- 

 nure of stables, will make the whole mass a bet- 

 ter manure than the one-fourlli of stable manure 

 alone. We have been brought to believe that 

 lime as a deco;nposer of other ingredients in the 

 compost bed is worth the value of its cost even 

 at higher prices. It may not add to the inherent 

 value of the muck or other material on which it 

 operates — it decomposes and therefore fits them 

 lor more ready and effective use. 



Speaking of the value of common muck or 

 peat inud taken from the bog : many farmers be- 

 lieve it to be of little or no use applied to any 

 land — some are ready to give the opinion that it 

 poisons the growth of vegetables. The same 

 opinion is formed of plaster and lime in some 

 cases. The reason of this comes from the al- 

 most universal habit of applying the manures 

 exclusively for the crop first to be taken off: the 

 remote effects are not regarded, tmd from this 

 results the too general disregard of the value of 

 mineral manures. Where clear black muck was 

 spread over a ploughed field 8 years jirevious, we 

 could distinctly trace the growth of a full double 

 crop of clover feed in a pasture where each pile 

 of the muck was laid down to be spread. This 

 experience convinced us that there was scarcely 

 less intrinsic value in the muck bed than in the 

 stable manure. In some kinds of soil lime and 

 plaster seems to have little or no effect on its 

 first a[)plication — perha|)3 in a tenacious, clayey, 

 damp field neither will visibly operate in a series 

 of years. We have almost become converts to 

 the doctrine that in all soils they are of .some 

 value: quite sure are we of the fact that lime is 

 always useful, acting with stimulating animal 

 and vegetaHe manures, on those soils where po- 

 taloes, Inilian corn, or the cereal grains may bo 

 produced. 



To the most scientific, inasmuch as all soils 

 differ, anil even the same field is dilfereiilly 

 charged with the mineral material giving ihe 

 greatest present produciiou, there can be no ab- 

 solute rule as to what will and what will not bo 

 most usefully ajiplied. The experience of every 

 man on his own premises must be the best 

 teacher. No man who cannot afford it should 

 risk nuicli for any untried experiment. If any 

 man shall learn one thing ciu'tain, his experience, 

 if he be intelligent and ready to coinuumicatc,' 

 may come in aid of hundreds of others. We 

 believe that we have discovered, for the benefit 

 of our New Eugland soil, in a different and 

 scantier use than that of the farmers of Jersey 

 and Delaware, a double value iii common quick 

 lime either air or water slacked when applied 

 first to Ihe compost heap from one-tenth to oiie- 

 iwcntielh of its volume. 



The generous use of compost manure, of which 

 lime is one ingredient, wo are free to say, on all 

 soil producing corn, rye, oats, &'c., will impart a 

 streuglh and stamina to the stalk of the growing 

 grain which will .secure it against rust and blight 

 that is ijuite common in laud highly charged 

 with the stimulating mauiire.s of excrements of 

 cuttle and horses. 



Where lime or potash aliouiiiU in any field, it 

 can be of lillle present use lo apply theiii : where 

 both ingredieuls have been exiraclod or have al- 

 ways b'eu defi.'iiiut, wo cannot doubt eilhor may 

 be well applied. The roots of all trees and oth- 



er vegetation, according to our theory, are al- 

 ways operating a change in the soil where they 

 grow — converting the mineral qualities, wheth- 

 er rocks, gravel or Baud, into their particular use, 

 leaving the qualities for which one crop is not 

 wanted in the state which will best apply to an- 

 other and a different crop. 'I'his principle af- 

 fords us the insight into the value of a constant 

 change and rotation of crops. The land, long 

 superficially cultivated, divested of all the min- 

 erals producing crops, may seem to be worn out. 

 Nature alone, without artificial aid, may sooner 

 or later resuscit;ite the most barren soils. The 

 naked sand banks of the desert result rather 

 from the operation of the wind and atmosphere, 

 keeping it in perpetual motion, than from the 

 want of any inherent quality of the soil to pro- 

 duce. Where the action of the winds can be 

 stayed, it has been found that the sand barrens 

 of Cape Cod which have remained such for 

 hundreds of centuries, may be converted into 

 fruitful fields with probably less than ten ])cv 

 cent, addition of clay or other alumina. 



Our tlieory in relation lo the application of 

 lime,tested by an experience which we are ready 

 to verify, would be that as the medicine of ma- 

 nures it may be well applied to the usually cul- 

 tivated soils of New England where limestone is 

 not an original ingredient, to good advantage. — 

 To our use, it has been the great agent preserv- 

 ing our potato fields from blight and I'ol, expel- 

 ling noxious weeds, and especially sorrel, filling 

 out our oats to the greatest production, and even 

 adding to each acre bushels of corn in seasons 

 which have passed after it was laid on. Our 

 faith fully in the iheory of ihe Genessee Farmer 

 has not been shaken by either the ridicule thrown 

 over it, the facts or the reasoning of the veteran 

 farmer and" editor of Framingham. 



To .Measure Ha;/ in Iht Mow or Siacl: — More 

 than twenty years since, 1 copied the following 

 method of measuring hay from some jjublicatioi], 

 and, having reiilV'd its general accuracy, J havr 

 both bought and sold hay by it, and believe ii 

 may be useful to many larmers, where the means 

 of weighing are not at hand. 



IMultiiily the lenatli, breadih, and height into 

 each other, and, if the hay is somewhat settled, 

 ten solid yards will make a ton. Clover will 

 take from ] 1 to 12 yards for a lon.-^^lbany Cull. 



Set out Tkkks. — A single tree in front \>i' 

 your house will conti?r the follok\ing beneljis : 

 It will iiierease the value of your estate — it will 

 aliord a shade for the children to play in — it will 

 be grateful to Ihe passing stranger — it will invite 

 the birds to its branches, who will repay you in 

 rich crushes of free music — it will add to Ihe i;ity 

 or town — it will prove you to he a person i>[' 

 wisdom, taste, liberality ami public spirit. Will 

 you not, then, do ihe simple deed which secure-; 

 these great benefits.' Now is the season to pre- 

 pare tiir it ; to purchase your trees and select 

 your positions. 



JX7='Tiansplanling in winter, wilh frozen ball^-. 

 of earlli, is a well known and very capilal mod.' 

 of moving large gpecimens of evergreens It re- 

 qliires time and patience, and ihe co-operaiion 

 of several hands ;ind a sled with a pair of horses 

 or cattle, &c.: but as trees skilfully removed in 

 this w,iy, suffer but little by the removal, and as 

 they may be made lo produce considerable fi- 

 li'i-l immediately, it is a mode deservinjj the nt- 

 tenlion id' all ornamental pkinteiv. 



Horticu'luri.il. 



Seco.nd Crop. A liunoh of raspberries were 

 brought into our office, this week, by i\lr. Win. 

 Pope of Ibis place. They were part of the sce- 

 ruid crop picked from the bushes ibis sea.soii. — 

 Tlie bushes were procured from .Maine.— .S/i»r/ 

 iiiirJi Obsfri'ti: 



