1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



163 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE USE OF LIME AND ITS PKOPEK- 

 TIES. 



Mr. Editor: — Although not a farmer to any 

 great extent, having most of the time, for twenty- 

 five years past, been grinding grain for farmers, 

 yet 1 have had the opportunity to study Nature in 

 the development of the vegetable kingdom, and 

 have assumed as a motto, Hhat in order for a full 

 development of vegetables, there must he a com- 

 plete association of mineral principles in the soil." 

 As most of our soil, in the S'ew England States, 

 is deiicient in the principle of lime, the compo- 

 nent parts of which are, '"o mineral ylnten, and a 

 mineral alkali," and, as it is necessary for the 

 principle of alkali to be present in the sand or 

 silica of the soil, to enable the spongioles or 

 rootlets of plants to decompose so much thereof 

 as will be sufficient to give its body the necessary 

 stifl'ness to support the head, and the ripened 

 seed, I have come to the conclusion that lime 

 must be added to the soil as one of those princi- 

 ples which go to make up a complete association. 



I am very much gratified that the Agricultural 

 papers, and some of our farmers, are advocating 

 what I have inculcated for twenty years — the use 

 of lime as manure or food for vegetables ; but 

 yet they do not seem to understand rvhi/ they 

 should do so, or why lime is valuable as a ma- 

 nure. They say, that where they make use of old 

 plastering made of lime and sand — no matter how 

 old it is — as a manure, they receive great benefit 

 tlierefrom. Now, what are those wonderful virtues 

 which lie concealed in the old plaster ? If you 

 should taste of it, you v/ould not perceive that it 

 contained one particle of alkali, which, when it 

 wa^ first made, was so strong with alkali as to 

 corrode one's flesh. I have asked many with 

 whom I have conversed on this subject, what has 

 become of the alkaline matter that was at first so 

 apparent in the old plaster ? Some have conjec- 

 tured that it has evaporated — gone into the at- 

 mosphere, while others could not tell, yet they 

 thought that alkali could not evaporate. 



They rightly thought. The most intense heat 

 known to us cannot evaporate it, else it would 

 have escaped with the carbonic acid gas in 

 the process of calcination. Then where has it 

 gone to? what has became of it ? Answer — the 

 sand which constitutes a large portion of the 

 plaster had an affinity for the alkali of the lime. 

 An association was the consequeiice. The alkali 

 and the sand have united in one compound, and 

 is in a proper state for decomposition by the roots 

 of the vegetable kingdom. This is why the old 

 plaster has such wonderful virtues in it to make 

 plants grow — "the silica is rendered soluble by 

 associating with alkali." The lime stone, before 

 calcination, is of no more benefi*: as food for 

 plants, than granite or any other stone, even when 

 comminuted. The gluten of lime differs from 

 the gluten of clay, and when clay and lime are 

 mixed together, they form a very light and po- 

 rous soil — the tenacity of the clay being destroyed 

 by the lime; showing at once that lime is of as 

 much benefit to clay soils as to any other kind of 

 soils. Should the farmer see fit to dress his land 

 with an hundred bushels of lime to the acre, the 

 alkaline part thereof would soon all be taken 

 up by the sand in the soil, and would be there 



ready for the use of plants, until the whole had 

 passed into the vegetable form ; and the gluti- 

 nous part would combine with other ingredients 

 of the soil, together with such other manures 

 as the farmer does, or ought to apply thereto. 

 It would there be ready to impregnate his crops 

 of grain and grass with the phosphate of lime, 

 that most necessary of all principles to the 

 health, strength and firmness of the bone and 

 muscles of his animals — increasing their size, and 

 of course their value. 



Lime ought to, and will yet be considered in- 

 dispensable by the farmer in growing wheat and 

 the several grasses. Nor should he neglect to 

 apply all the manure he can command ; for the 

 more highly he enriches land by animal ma- 

 nures, so much the more he will need a good sup- 

 ply of lime. If he makes his land rich enough 

 to produce 3.5 bushels of wheat to the acre, he 

 must put in lime enough to produce a straw stijf 

 enough to support the heads of the wheat, and 

 keep it from lodging. Then th^ sap vessels will 

 be kept from bursting at a certain stage of its 

 growth, and forming a rust on the straw — having 

 strength and firmness enough to sustain the pres- 

 sure of the sap in its flow to the head for the pur- 

 pose of forming the grain or kernel. 



After I have thus far shown the chemical pro- 

 pensities of lime — its nature and action on the 

 soil for the benefit of vegetables and plants — its 

 use in saving a good crop of wheat, which, icith- 

 out it, would be a failure, by being spoiled by the 

 )-ust, or by lodging — must 1 appeal to the inter- 

 est of the farmer to induce him to use it? Then, 

 if by applying 10 bushels of stone lime, costing 

 $2,00 at the kiln, to the acre, will increase the 

 yield to 30 bushels of wheat per acre, which oth- 

 erwise would have yielded only 20 bushels, call- 

 ing wheat $1,00 per bushel — allowing $2,00 more 

 for going after the lime and putting it on the 

 land, you will receive the first year for your 

 money 1333 per cent, as interest! Is not that 

 better than to put it into a hank that may fail ? 

 Then consider the amount of hay you will cut 

 for several years to come, more than you would 

 without the lime, and of a far better quality for 

 your stock — rich in the phosphate of lime. 



Farmers of New England, if you wish to com- 

 pete with the fertile lands of the AVest — if you 

 wish to excel in your wheat, cattle, horses, sheep, 

 in the staple and fineness of your wool, in the fla- 

 vor of your butter, and in the quantity and qual- 

 ity of your cheese, sow lime on your lands, on 

 your meadows, on your pastures, not stingily, but 

 bountifully. Sweeten up the soil as your mothers 

 used to do with their sour butter-milk, by pour- 

 ing into it an alkaline substance to nutralize the 

 sour humus located therein, which now has only 

 a tendency to produce sorrel, raspberries, straw- 

 berries, moss and wild cherries ; and it will not 

 be long before your farms will assume a more 

 beautiful aspect — a richer dress of wholesome 

 life-giving vegetation. Instead of running over 

 100 acres of land to fill a 30 by 40 feet barn with 

 hay and grain, you will not, like the man of whom 

 we read, "pull down your barn and build larger 

 ones," but will be necessiated to make an addi- 

 tion of two or three more to hold your crops and 

 your stock. Instead of going over an acre and 

 a half or two acres to get a ton of poor hay mixed 

 with sorrel and weeds, you will be cutting from a 



