3G0 



F A R M E US' REGISTE R 



tions of very small dressings — making lesson the aver- 

 age, than tour bushels of lime to the acre, annually. 

 This small amount, if really as efficacious as is alleged, 

 would cost so little in labor and money, that the limits 

 of the region capable of being limed may be very far 

 extended. It would not matter though the applica- 

 tions should require to be repeated forever, provided 

 the annual returns gave good profit upon the annual 

 expenses: and far greater will be the profit, if (as we 

 think) the soil ultimately will no longer require such 

 repetitions — or only at very distant intervals of time — 

 and still ba a highly productive, because it has been 

 made a calcareous and fertile soil. Ed. Farm. Reg ] 



[No.G 



On the different modes of improving the soil. 



To improve the soil is to modify its compo ition 

 in such manner us to render it mure fertile. 



This definition, which might be extended to 

 manures charged with vegetable mould [humus] 

 or animal substances, which also modify the com- 

 position of the soil, is limited by French agricul- 

 ture to substances which act upon the soil, or upon 

 plants, without containing any notable proportion 

 of animal or vegetable matter. 



It issaid that manures, [putrescent or enriching,] 

 serve for the nutriment of plants. But it is 

 the same as to substances improving to ihe soil, 

 which furnish to it matters which it needs to be 

 fruitful, and which furnish to vegetables, \\\o 

 earths and saline compounds which enter as es- 

 sential elements in their composition, their texture, 

 and their products. Such improving substances 

 ought well to be regarded as nutritive.* 



Thus lime, marl, and all the calcareous com- 

 pounds employed in agricultrue, since the) lurnish 

 lime and its compounds, winch sometimes form 

 half of the fixed principles ol vegetables, ought 

 also to be considered as aliments; or, what comes 

 to the same, as furnishing a part of the substance 

 of vegetables. Thus again, wood-ashes, pounded 

 bones, burnt bones, which furnish to vegetation 

 the calcareous and saline phosphates which com- 

 pose a sixth of the fixed principles of the stalks, 

 and three-Jourths of their seeds, ought well to be 

 considered, and surely are, nutritive. 



What, then particularly marks the distinction 

 between manures which improve the soil [amende- 

 ?)iens,~\ and alimentary manures, [engrais,2 is, that 

 the former furnish, lor the greater part, the fixed 



*The two classes of manures which are described 

 generally above, are conveniently designated in French 

 each by a single word. "Engrais," which we can on- 

 ly translate as manure, is limited in signification to such 

 substances as directly enrich soils, and feed growing 

 plants — and "amendemens," signifying substances 

 which alter and improve the constitution, texture, and 

 indirectly, the fertility of soil, but the operation of 

 which is not to furnish food tc plants. In speaking of 

 the action of these different classes, the sense may be 

 rendered, though not very precisely, by the words "en- 

 rich," and "improve" — but there is no one English 

 term that will convey the meaning of either class of 

 substances. "Alimentary manures" will be used for 

 the first class, and "manures improving the constitu- 

 tion of soil," or some similar awkward, but descriptive 

 phrase, can only render the meaning of the word 

 "amendemens" — useless "improvers" could be tolera- 

 ted as a substitute, for convenience. Tp. 



principles of vegetables, the cart lis, and salts, 

 which are not met with ready formed, neither in 

 the soil nor in the atmosphere: while alimentary 

 manures furnish a small part of the volatile prin- 

 ciples which are abundantly diffused throughout 

 the atmosphere, whence vegetables draw them, 

 by means of suitable organs: and what is most 

 remarkable.is, that the vegetable, b} receiving the 

 fixed principles of which it has need, acquires, as 

 we shall see, a greater energy to gather for its 

 sustenance the volatile principles which the atmos- 

 phere contain:-. 



The greater part then of soils, to he carried to 

 the highest rate of productiveness, require ma- 

 nures to irflprove their constitution. Alimentary 

 manures give much vigor to the leafy products — 

 but they multiply weeds, both by favoring their 

 growth and conveying their seeds — and they often 

 cause crops [of small grain] to be lodged, when 

 they are heavy. Manures which improve the 

 soil, more particularly aid the formation of the 

 seeds, tjh e more solidity to the stalks, and prevent 

 the laliing of the plants. Shit it is in the simulta- 

 neous employment of these two means of fertili- 

 zation by which we give to the soil all the active 

 power of which it is susceptible. They are ne- 

 cessary to each other, doubling their action recip- 

 rocally: and whenever thej are employed togeth- 

 er, fertility ones on without ceasing — incri 

 instead of diminishing. 



The greater par! of impro\ ing es are 



calcareous compounds. Then- elleet is decided 

 upon all soils which do not contain lime, and we 

 shall see that three-lburlhs, perhaps, oi' the lands 

 of France are in that state. The soils nol calca- 

 reous, whatever may be their culture, and what- 

 ever may be the quantity of manure lavished on 

 them, are nof suitable for all producls — are often 

 cold and moist, and are covered with weeds. 

 Calcareous manures, by giving Ihe lime which is 

 wanting in such soils, complete their advan i 

 render the tillage more easy, destroy the weeds, 

 and fit the soil lor all producls. 



The. improving substances have been called 

 stimulants; they have been thus designated be- 

 cause it was believed that their eflecl consisted 

 only in stimulating the soil and the plants. This 

 designation is faulty, because it would place these 

 substances in a false point of view. It would 

 make it seem that they brought nothing to the 

 soil, nor to plants — and yet their principal effect 

 is to give to both principles which are wanting. 

 Thus tin- main elleet of calcareous manures pro 

 ceeds from their giving, on the one hand, to the 

 soil the calcareous principle which it does not con- 

 tain, and which is necessary to be able to devel 

 ope its frill action on the atmosphere — and on the 

 other hand, to vegetables, the quantity which they 

 require of this principle, for their frame-work and 

 their intimate constitution. Jt would then be a 

 better definition than that above, to say that to 

 improve the soil is to give to it the principles which 

 it requires, and does not contain. 



Importance of manures which improve the constitu- 

 tion of soils. 



The question of improving manures is of great 

 interest to agriculture. This means of meliora- 

 ting the soil is too little known, and above all, too 

 little practiced in a great part of France — and yet 

 it is a condition absolutely necessary to the agri 



