212 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



it there, and who had laid some fifteen miles of 

 these pipe drains on his farm, and is still putting 

 down some 1000 to 1500 feet a year. It costs 

 him, he estimates, 28 cents a rod, and he thinks 

 he makes no investment on his farm which pays 

 so well as this. Stiff, tenacious soils, become less 

 compact, and more open and friable, by being 

 drained ; under heavy rains they do ,not run to- 

 gether, and form mortar, as before, which pre- 

 vents their baking under drought. Another ben 

 efit is, that crops will not winter-kill on this land 

 as they will on many others. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IS LIME A FERTILIZER ? 



BY R. B. HUBBARD. 



To decide this question, we must first fix the de- 

 finition of fertilizer. 



In Webster, I find the following definitions : — 

 " Fertilize, to enrich, to supply with the pabulum 

 of plants, to make fruitful or productive." "Ma- 

 nure, any matter which fertilizes land." "To ma- 

 nure, to apply to land any fertilizing matter, as 

 dung, compost, ashes, lime, fish, &c." 



If the lexicographer is admitted as good author- 

 ity in agricultural chemistry, the question is set- 

 tled. To fertilize is to supply the food of plants. 

 To manure is to fertilize ; and fertility is produced 

 by furnishing the soil with vegetable, animal and 

 earthy pabulum, or food, such as dung, lime and 

 fish. Therefore lime is a fertilizer. 



But the editor of the Ploug}rman,\flio seems to 

 have a vocabulary of his own, and to have studi- 

 ously expunged from it every scientific term, even 

 for common things, denies that lime is a fertilizer, 

 in any sense of the term. He goes further, and 

 asserts that lime has no more fertilizing properties 

 than sand. 



Now, Mr. Editor, while I join issue with the 

 Ploughman, in his major premise, I most cheerfully 

 concede the minor. I admit that lime is no more 

 a fertilizer than sand. But I maintain that both 

 lime and sand are fertilizers, — that they are indis- 

 pensable to the growth and maturity of a very large 

 portion of the products of the soil. 



By analysis the following facts have been es- 

 tablished : — 



In burning 1000 lbs. of wheat, 11.77 lbs. of ashes are left. 



Do. do. do. straw, 35.18 lbs. are left. 



Of these ashes, from the wheat, .96 lbs. is lime. 



Do. do. do. 4 00 lbs. is silica. 



Do. do. do. straw, 2.40 lbs. is lime. 



Do. do. do. 28.70 lbs. is silica. 



In 1000 lbs. of barley, 23J lbs. of ashes are left. 



Do. do. straw, 52.42 lbs. ashes are left. 



In the former, 1.06 lbs. is lime, and 11.82 lbs. is silica. 

 In the latter, 5.54 lbs. is lime, and 38.56 lbs. is silica. 

 In 1000 lbs. of oats, 26 lbs. of ashes are left. 



Do. oat straw, 57J His. of ashes are left. 

 In the former, 0.86 lbs. is lime, and 19.76 lbs. is silica. $ 



In the latter, 1.52 lbs. is lime, and 45 88 lbs. is silica. 

 In 1000 lbs. of red clover, there is of lime 27.80 lbs., of silica 

 3.61 lbs. 



In 1000 lbs. of white clover, there is 23.48 lbs. of lime, and 

 14.73 of silica. 



From this analysis it appears that both lime and 

 sand enter somewhat largely into the composition 

 of grains and grasses. And it can easily be shown 

 that they are indispensable ingredients ; that the 

 stalk of corn could no more stand erect, without 

 silex, than the bones of the animal frame could 



sustain the weight imposed upon them without 

 lime. 



Admit, what cannot and will not be denied, that 

 these inorganic substances are indispensable to the 

 growth and health of the plant ; and does it not 

 follow, that they constitute a portion of the food, 

 the pabulum of the plant? Now we have the best 

 of authority for saying that to fertilize is to furnish 

 food for plants. 



The hair of animals contains iron. This metal 

 is indispensable to the growth of hair. I would 

 not recommend to a hungry man to make a supper 

 of iron filings ; yet it cannot be denied, that, so 

 far as iron is necessary to the proper development 

 of this animal product, it is a nutriment, — it is to 

 the animal what lime is to the vegetable. 



The same is true of the bones. Without phos- 

 phorus and lime there could be no bones. The 

 disease called the rickets is supposed to proceed 

 from a deficiency in the food of the proper ingre- 

 dients of bone, or from some defect in the organs 

 of assimilation. 



Now are not the bones a part of the animal 

 frame, as well as the muscles? And is not an es- 

 sential ingredient, of the former, nutriment, as well 

 as an ingredient of the latter? The milk which 

 the infant draws from its mother's breast, contains 

 lime and phosphorus, which enter into the compo- 

 sition of the bones, — iron for the hair, and carbon, 

 nitrogen and hydrogen for the muscles. It would 

 be manifestly unphilosophical to say that a part 

 of these ingredients are nutritious, and a part not. 



In nature's alembic a compound has been pre- 

 pared of such simples, and such only, as are es- 

 sential to the healthy growth and development of 

 the whole animal frame. This compound we de- 

 nominate nutriment, and each and every one of 

 the simples nutritious. 



So in the vegetable kingdom. As lime and sand 

 enter into the composition of plants, and are es- 

 sential to their healthy growth, we feel warranted 

 in affirming that they constitute a part of the nu- 

 triment of plants, — that they are fertilizers. 



If by analysis it be found that there is a defi- 

 ciency of lime in the soil, when you would sow 

 wheat, rye, oats, clover, or any other crop in the 

 ashes of which lime is found, you must supply the 

 deficiency by sowing carbonate or sulphate or phos- 

 phate of lime. 



When clay superabounds, sand is the best ma- 

 nure. 



The same is true of all the ingredients of plants. 

 The secret of skilful farming consists in finding 

 out what the soil needs, and in supplying the same 

 economically, or, in fertilizing the soil, if need be, 

 with sand. r. b. h. 



GRASS SEED. 



In the warehouse of Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse, 

 Mason & Co., we have examined some herds' grass 

 seed which surpasses any that we have ever seen 

 before in its cleanliness and perfection of develop- 

 ment. Under a magnifier not a foul seed or bit of 

 chaff can be noticed ; and the seeds have a bright- 

 ness as though varnished. The crop was raised 

 by some English and Scotch emigrants on some of 

 the finest timber lands in New Brunswick. The 

 >nly weed they found there the first two years was 

 i bunch of Canada thistles, on a spot where a 



