160 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



renders eandy soils more cohesive, it fijllows as 9 

 corollarj' of vvhai lias been said concerning lime 

 and clay, that tiie oilier two are more hoiriogeiie- 

 oiis in their nature; and liiat a kind of adhesive 

 atiraclion exists between thern, ihiis rendering 

 such soils more retenlive ol' moifture. 



" These are merely speourative opinions of the 

 writer, which may not be new toothers ; they are 

 so however to him. II'-: attaches no great import- 

 ance to them ; yet thinks them quite as reasona- 

 ble as some others that have been propagated on 

 higher authority." 



It is indeed an unquestionable and a very va- 

 luable effect of lime, and other calcareous ma- 

 nures, to render stiff" soils lishter, and light soils 

 stiffer. But so far Trom this being the sole or 

 main operation of lime, or mode by which it adds 

 to the productive power of soils, it is surpassed 

 by several. others, only one of which the author re- 

 fers to, (the neutralizing of acid principles,) and 

 that but to deny it, upon his mere ipse dixit. 

 If lime did nothing more than to alter the texture 

 of soils, (however beneficial that may he in ad- 

 dition to other more important benefits,) we 

 would readily admit that it would not be worth 

 applying. We do not pretend to unravel the 

 author's explanation of the modus operandi. It 

 is however not a little strange, and amusing, that 

 one, making such pretensions to science, and using 

 scientific terms so freely throughout the essay, 

 should make so gross a blunder, as is done in the 

 above extract, as speaking of "calx, calcium, 

 or quicklime," as synonymous terms, descriptive 

 of the same chemical substance. Calx was for- 

 merly u?ed,« before the general adoption of the 

 modern chemical nomenclature, to express the 

 very opposite oC quick-lime — that is, the carbonate 

 of lime, or lime, mild, and not quick. Kirvvap so 

 uses the term "calx" thronirhout his " Essay on 

 Manures," a work which Dr. Horton either has 

 read, or ought to have read before undertaking 

 to enliiihten the world on this subject. " Calcium'^ 

 which he twice uses as but another name for 

 quick-lime, and expressing precisely the same 

 sense, is neither quick-lime nor carbonate of lime — 

 but the metallic base which modern chemical disco- 

 very has shown to be one of the elements of lime. 

 It is no more lime than hydrogen is water, or 

 than soda is common salt. It is true that in a 

 feubsequent and totally distinct paragraph, the 

 author speaks of calcium in its proper sense. 

 That can only be accounted for by supposing 

 this paragraph to have been subsequently added 

 without noticing the contradiction to the lore- 

 going and more substantive part ; or that this was 

 put down immediately after consulting books, 

 and the two previous statements upon general 

 knowledge. 



or marl, (which is treated of as being a different 



manure from lime,) there is no mention in the 

 body of the essay ; and it is only after having 

 put down all the prose and also the poetry designed 

 for the article, that the author remembered, and in 

 a " postscript" .aientions this manure, which has 

 been so largely and beneficially applied in hia own 

 state, (Maryland,) to go no farther from his home. 

 All that he says on this branch of his general 

 subject is contained in the following lines: 



" Marls. — We have unaccountably overlooked 

 these valuable materials lor manure, and think 

 proper to say something concerning them here. 

 Marls are mostly found near tide water. They 

 abound from the Hudson to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 in the alluvial formation. They are of two kinds, 

 argillaceous and siliceous, with carbonate of lime. 

 In applying marl as a manure, attention should 

 be paid to this circumstance, as the siliceous will 

 be better li^r clayey soils, and so on the other hand 

 the argillaceous for sandy. The lime they con- 

 tain is either from decayed shells, or from shells 

 worn down by attrition. They are durable ma- 

 nures, and should not be neglected when they can 

 be obtained at a reasonable expense." 



To green-sand, the writer gives something more 

 of space. He has never seen the earth, but sug- 

 gests that its valuable constituent, for manure, is 

 not carbonate of potash, as some preceeding scien- 

 tific investigators have taught, but carbonate of 

 soda, which he supposes (for what reason he has 

 not stated) they mistook for the other. The new 

 suggestion is perhaps worth as much aa the old, 

 which it is opposed to ; and Dr. Ilorton's opinion 

 on green-sand has the additional merit of being 

 less likely to mislead, by the authority of his name 

 and scientific reputation. 



THE MARqUlS OF TWEEDDALES DRAIN- 

 TILES MACHINE. 



From tlie Farmers' Magazine. 

 This machine will make 10,000 drain-tiles a 

 day, one man and two boys to attend it, and 20,- 

 000 uf ffat tiles for the drain tiles to lie upon ; but 

 if the tiles are broad, for rooting, it will maKe 

 12 000 a day. These draining tiles are fifteen 

 inches long, so that three machines would make 

 in one season (of thirty weeks) as many tiles as 

 would lay a drain from London to York. Now, a 

 man and two assistants will only make 1,000 

 drain-tiles in a day, and these only one (bot long, 

 which is 1,000 leet per day ; so that if the drain 

 be laid at a distance of twenty-five feet, it will 

 make in one day sufficient titles for six acres. The 

 advantages are — 1st, the tile is much stronger 

 from being compressed, and less pervious to wa- 

 ter ; it is not only compressed, but it is smoothed 

 over, which gives it a surface as though it were 

 oflazed. They are capable of being made of a 

 much stiffer clay than usual ; and in nine cases 

 out of ten the flay may be used directly on being 

 dug, if passed through the crushers, being much 

 drier. Clay unfit for bricks and tiles, by the com- 

 mon method, is available by the machinery. The 

 expense of draining will be paid in three years, 

 but not unfrequently in one. 



