LIME. 



LIMB. 



of necessity, bear a larger proportion than that j crops, is far greater than is generally understood* 



which is more free from vegetable or animal 

 remains. The quantity usually applied is much 

 too luriie, and the dressing too often repeated 

 without proper consideration; and it is not until 

 the land becomes absolutely overcharged with 

 lime, that the farmer begins to have a sus- 

 picion that his land is tired of it. In Ire- 

 land it is sometimes applied to old pasture 

 leys intended for potatoes, at the rate of 400 

 bushels per acre ; and on some of the moors 

 in Derbyshire, 1500 bushels per acre have been 

 found not too large a quantity. In Scotland 

 the quantity usually applied for light land is 

 about 160 bushels per acre; for stiff clay soils 

 from 240 to 360 bushels. On the stiff clays 

 of the Weald of Kent, the quantity usually 

 employed is about 100 bushels per acre, and 

 that is often repeated every 5 years, on the fal- 

 low before wheat. 



Lime may be as readily produced by burning 

 limestone with peat as with coals ; the heat pro- 

 duced is amply sufficient, and the heat moss ea- 

 sily managed. 



According to the views of Professor Daub- 

 ny and M. Prideaux, lime operates beneficially 

 on some soils, by promoting the disengage- 

 ment of potash and other substances, where 

 these exist in the mineral materials, thus con- 

 verting dormant earthy or saline constituents 

 into agents active in the promotion of vegetable 

 growth. The soil of a field exhausted by long- 

 continued cropping, was found to yield double 

 the quantity of potash, after being dressed 

 with lime. The action, therefore, of lime upon 

 the earthy matters of many soils, is exceed- 

 ingly beneficial. The frequent application of 

 lime, however, tends to exhaust such soils, by 

 the rapid reduction of the proportion of their 

 potash, which is not only furnished more copi- 

 ously as a constituent to the growing crops, 

 but by dissolution in the water becomes drained 

 from the land. 



Although beneficial, from these chemical ef- 

 fects exerted /aver the soil in setting free and 

 rendering active some of its most fertilizing 

 agents, it is generally admitted that the greatest 

 benefit derived from the use of lime, is from its 

 action upon the vegetable and animal matters 

 with which it is brought into contact, when 

 introduced into the soil. In numerous trials 

 made by Professor J. F. W. Johnston, lime ap- 

 peared to produce very slight benefits upon lands, 

 in which organic (animal and vegetable) matter 

 was deficient. 



An ordinary liming will rarely amount to 1 

 per cent, of the entire weight of the soil. It 

 requires about 400 bushels, or 12 or 15 tons of 

 burned lime, per acre, to add 1 per cent, of 

 lime to a soil 12 inches deep, or 2 per cent, when 

 the depth is only G inches. The good effects of 

 lime are most decided, when used as a top dress- 

 ing and kept near the surface. A much smaller 

 quantity wfll answer, when applied immediately 

 upon bein-j slak"d with water, as in this state 

 lime is quite soluble, but very slowly so, after 

 it has bi-t-n exposed to the atmosphere and be- 

 come like chalk. See CHALK. When after 

 slaking it has become too wet, so as to be ce- 

 mented into lumps, these decompose so slowly, 

 that they may be almost regarded as a dead 

 ?oss. 



The amount of lime taken from the soil by 



Prof. J. F. W. Johnston states the weight of 

 lime thus carried off in 25 bushels of wheat 

 at 9 Ibs. ; 50 bushels of oats 9 Ibs. ; 38 of barley 

 at 15 Ibs.; 2 tons of rye-grass 33 Ibs.; 2 tons 

 red clover 126 Ibs.; 25 tons of turnips 140 Ibs.; 

 9 tons of potatoes 270 Ibs. This includes the 

 lime in all its forms, and especially the all im- 

 portant phosphate in the grain. To this great 

 source of exhaustion of the soil, must be added 

 the lime which combines with several acid mat- 

 ters, forming compounds more or less soluble in 

 water, in which state it is drained from the 

 land, or sunk into the earth beyond the reach of 

 plants. 



Although light soils are most readily ex- 

 hausted of lime, they possess 'the great advan- 

 tage over heavy clays, of allowing the car- 

 bonic acid in rain water more ready access 

 to the roots of plants, and atmospheric air 

 more ready entrance to all decomposing ma- 

 nures, s'.icri as bones, fish, rape-cake, &c. Thii 

 may afford an explanation of the cause why 

 lime, as well as other fertilizers, frequently 

 fail to show prominent benefits on certain 

 lands. In order to act most favourably, they 

 need the presence. of carbonic acid and atmo- 

 spheric air. 



There is perhaps no other country so rich- 

 ly endowed with this earth as England, for, 

 to say nothing of its great strata of chalk, 

 how endless are the masses and varieties of 

 limestones. Let us not therefore neglect, but 

 extend, by every means in our power, the 

 use of the treasures we possess ; for by so 

 doing we may not only increase the fertility 

 of lands already (like the more tenacious clays 

 for instance) in some degree productive of 

 food, but we can bring into cultivation, by 

 the judicious employment of this powerful 

 earth, the most sterile peats, the trembling 

 bogs, the most worthless heaths : the infe- 

 rior plants, such as the acid sorrel, are ba- 

 nished by its influence, and the soil which 

 once only held the stagnant water impregna- 

 ted with unwholesome vegetable and mine- 

 ral matters, is now made to produce the most 

 useful of the cultivator's crops ; and the im- 

 provement, too, is of even national import- 

 ance, for such land's not only furnish addi- 

 tional employment to the labourer, but they 

 now purify an atmosphere which their ex- 

 halations in an unimproved state once cor- 

 rupted. 



" Much has been written and said relative tc 

 the preservative and destructive effects of lime 

 on organic manures, from which we learn that 

 it operates both ways, according to its chemical 

 state. If employed as quick-lime, and placed 

 in contact with organic matter, its alkaline pro- 

 perties would lead us to infer a decomposing 

 influence, which is confirmed by experience; 

 but the effect is of short duration, and is suc- 

 ceeded by the reverse operation, that of pre- 

 serving such matter from farther decomposi- 

 tion. The truth is, if we could insure a con- 

 tinuance of its caustic state, we might be 

 equally sure of its constant decomposing pow- 

 er, but by this action it generates carbonic 

 acid from the organic matter uniting with it 

 and forming a neutral carbonate, which either 

 acts like other salts in preventing decompo- 

 sition by its presence or catalytic influence, or 



