THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



203 



dily dissolve lime, and there are probably as ma- 

 ny calcareous sails as there are known acids. 



Lime coniracis the living fibre, and ihereCore 

 possesses asiringont powers ; it is also a powerlul 

 antacid and stands liiifhiy recommended in chro- 

 nic diseases ol'ihe skin, cancer and ill-diijesled 

 Bores : it is used also in diseases depending on 

 jnxiiy and debility of the solids, as in diarrhcea, 

 diabetes, scroliila and scurvy. This earth neu- 

 tralizes noxious air. Calcareous countries are for 

 the most part free from infectious diseases ; while 

 sandy and clayey soils of the same climate are 

 subject to levers. Where ihefe is no calcareous 

 earth, the inhabitants should wash their rooms 

 annually with lime ; strew it before their donrp, 

 lime the trunks of their fruit and ornamental 

 trees, and it will have the double eflect ofpreserv- 

 ins: health and destroying insects. 



Lime after having been deprived of fixed air 

 unites with it again with great eagerness. This 

 process goes on so rapidly, that quick-lime, by { 

 being exposed to the open air, will grow mild 

 again by the absorption of carbonic acid. 



''■ Lime powerfully atiracts the carbonic acid, of 

 which it was deprived by heat, and that acid is uni- 

 versally diffused through the atmosphere (though 

 in a very small proportion, and is produced by 

 every decomposing putrescent substance. Con- 

 sequently caustic lime, on land, is*continually ab- 

 sorbing and combining with this acid ; and, with 

 more or less rapidity, according to the manner of 

 its application, is reiurning to its former state of 

 mild calcareous earth. If spread as a top dress- 

 ing on grass lands — or on ploughed land, and 

 superficially mixed with the soil by harrowing — 

 or used in composts with fermenting vegetable 

 matter — the Hme is probably completely carbo- 

 nated before its causticity can act on the soil. 

 In no case can lime, applied properly as manure, 

 long remain caustic in the soil. Thus mogt ap- 

 plications of lime are simply applications of cal- 

 careous earth, but acting with greater power at 

 first, in proportion to its quantity, because more 

 finely divided, and more equally distributed." 

 See "Calcareous Manures" chapter viii. page 33. 

 From the avidity with which these two bodies 

 unite in ordinary circumstances, it has been 

 imagined that quicfi-lime acted upon land, or 

 manures, by hastening putrefaction ; that is by 

 disorganizing animal and vegetable manures, 

 and depriving them of iheir fixed air. Lime, in 

 the absence of carbonic acid, unites with various 

 other acids of the soil, tempering their stimulant 

 and corroding properties. This sometimes hap- 

 pens, but the carbonic acid of the atmosphere 

 unites with lime as soon as it is given to the soil. 

 In order then to derive the greatest benefit from 

 this mineral as a manure, it should be immediate- 

 ly covered with the plough, to exclude atmo- 

 spheric air; it will then more readily unite with 

 the carbonic acid of the earth, and hasten the 

 decomposition of animal and vegetable matter. 



The wonderful effects produced on land by gyp- 

 sum, or plaster of Pans, seem to astonish the 

 farmers, and yet these effects are produced by the 

 action of lime alone and not the combined action 

 of sulphuric acid and lime which forms gypsum : 

 unless the carbonate of lime and sulphate ol 

 lime undergo decomposition when given to the 

 soil, they are inert, and can exert no influence on 

 vegetable or animal matters. 



These salts may undergo slow decomposition 

 when applied in fine powder; but if we wish' to 

 renovate our lands speedily we nmst use quick- 

 lime. 



The plaster of Paris will be decomposed by 

 the IbllowiiiiT sails, when given to our hinds : 



1st. By the niiraie of potash (saltpetre.) 



2(1. By the nitrate of foda. 



31. By the muriate of soda (table salt.) 



4th. By the carbonate of potash (vegetable 

 alkali.) 



5ih. By the carbonate of soda (mineral alkali.) 



The sulphate of lime, is more apt to underuro 

 decomposition from the various agents in the 

 earth and atmosphere, than the carbonate of lime; 

 for none of these salts, that is, the nitrate of so- 

 da, muriate of soda, carbonate of potash, or car- 

 bonate of soda, will readily decompose the carbo- 

 nate of lime. When gypsum and the nitrate of 

 potash are united, a double elective attraction 

 takes place; the potash of the nitre attracts the 

 sulphuric acid of the plaster of Paris and forms 

 sulphate of potash, and the disengaged nitric acid 

 unites with the lime and forms the nitrate of lime.. 

 When plaster of Paris is applied to soils impreg- 

 nated with muriate of soda, (table salt) a dou- 

 ble elective attraction also takes place. The 

 sulphuric acid unites with soda, and forms Glau- 

 ber's salt, and the muriatic acid unites with lime 

 and forms the muriate of lime. This double 

 decomposition will not hasten the growth of plants^ 

 for the sulphate of soda and muriate of lime can- 

 not decompose animal and vegetable manures. 

 Gypsum then should not be given to lands on 

 the seaboard, or to soils impregnated with muriate 

 of soda, or table salt, because the lime is lost by 

 its union with muriatic acid. 



But why this chemical process? Let us drive off 

 tlie sulphuric and carbonic acids by heat, and give 

 the pure lime in its caustic state to our lands. It 

 will then immediately commence action, by con- 

 densing the principles of the atmosphere, attract its 

 moisture, and at the same time seize upon every 

 blade of grass, every leaf and indeed all kinds of 

 vegetable and animal matters and hasten their 

 decomposition by robbing them of carbonic acid. 

 1 find in the •' Medical Repository," (he follow- 

 ing review, vol. i. p. 346. "Agricultural Inqui- 

 ries on Plaster of Paris, Also, Facts and obser- 

 vations, on that substance as a manure, &c. By 

 Richard Peters." With great pleasure we an- 

 nounce this small publication, which is intended, 

 as the author modestly says, " to invite as well as 

 to give information," and which is collected chiefly 

 from the practice of farmers in Pennsylvania. 

 The subject of manures appears, as yet, to be 

 in need of much further elucidation than it has 

 hitherto received ; and on scarcely any article of 

 the whole tribe of fertilizing substances is a ra- 

 tional theory more wanted than in the case of 

 gypsum. Mr. Peters has proceeded in the pro- 

 per way to come at a right understanding of this 

 subject, by laboriously and patiently collecting, 

 not only the facts which fell under his own eye, 

 but those which occurred to the intelligent farmers 

 of the country around him. 



"The mode adopted to collect information was 

 by a circular letter, containing about a dozen 

 queries. To these queries answers have been re- 

 turned by Messrs. West, Frazer, Price, Hand, 

 ;Curwen, Sellers; Duffield, Wharton, Roberts, 



