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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPTEMBER IS, 1S33. 



From the American Farmer. 

 OH THE USE OF LIME IN AGRICULTURE. 



Sir — Agreeably to your request, I now commu- 

 nicate to you my experience in the use of lime in 

 husbandry. 



1st. While with my father in England, I assis- 

 ted to set out large quantities of lime as a manure. 

 It was applied to all soils upon his farm, viz: moss 

 or turf, clay, black or yellow loam and sand loam. 

 We put on from two to three hundred bushels the 

 acre. I have seen land that before liming was so 

 poor that it would bear nothing but bent and moss, 

 after liming give the heaviest crops of oats and 

 wheat for ten years, and 1 have no doubt it would 

 have produced good crops for ten years longer, 

 with suitable alteration of grasses. 



2d. I have set out lime on my farm in this coun- 

 try, on stiff clay and on loams, in considerable 

 quantities. It has been particularly beneficial on 

 the clay. I had one field which woidd produce 

 nothing of consequence until I limed it; after 

 which I sowed it with rye and grass seeds. Both 

 the grain and grass were good, and it is now cov- 

 sred with a fine rich sward. I have used lime for 

 several years, and my confidence in its benefits 

 Lave not at all been diminished. 



3d. I am satisfied that lime is a preventive of 

 smut in wheat, rye, oats and barley, if the seed, 

 previous to sowing, is steeped in brine or lime wa- 

 ter, and rolled in fresh-slacked lime. And I am 

 equally satisfied it will destroy the insect, or Hes- 

 sian fly, in the young grain, if sown in the morn- 

 ing when there is a heavy dew on the crop. Some 

 years ago I sowed some spring wheat, and as I 

 had no salt on my farm to make brine, I took 

 stone lime, and slacked it in a tub of water ; and 

 when the water was as warm as I could bear my 

 hand in, I put in the seed, skimmed off the light 

 matters which floated, and continued stirring the 

 grain for half an hour or more. The grain was 

 then sown ; and when it came into its third or 

 fourth leaf, although it looked well, I sowed fresh- 

 slacked lime over the field while the dew was up- 

 on it. — The crop was very good ; while all my 

 neighbors, except one, lost almost their entire crop 

 of spring wheat. This one happened to be pas- 

 sing while I was sowing the lime on my young 

 grain, and at my suggestion, went home and sow- 

 ed it upon his own also, and I understand had a 

 good crop. 



4th. In the spring of 1823, 1 had about three acres 

 of winter wheat, a portion of which looked very 

 yellow when the snow went oft'. I directed this 

 to be sown with lime ; but on visiting my farm 

 two weeks afterwards, I found it had not been 

 done, and that the whole field assumed a like yel- 

 low appearance. I had the whole immediately 

 sown with lime; the grain immediately improved 

 in appearance, and 1 had a tolerable crop, though 

 not so good, I think, as I should have had if the 

 lime had been sown two weeks earlier. 



Mr. Ebenezer Cady, of Duanesburgh, at my 

 suggestion, adopted my method last spring, of 

 steeping his seed, rolling it in lime, and sowing 

 fresh-slacked lime upon hisyoung grain. The ex- 

 periment was so successful, that his wheat was 

 considered the best in the country. 



6th. I have applied lime successfully upon cu- 

 cumbers, and other garden vines, to protect them 

 from the yellow bug ; taking care to repeat it as 

 often as the wind or rain blew or washed off that 

 which had been before applied. Half a bushel of 



lime mixed with the earth of an anthill, will ef- 

 fectually destroy a colony of these insects. 

 Your friend, 



William Chapman. 



From the Exeter News Letter. 



Mr. Gerrish — Should you think the following is 

 of any consequence to the farmers in Rockingham 

 County, you will please give it an insertion. 

 TO FARMERS. 



It has long been a practice of farmers to break 

 up their ground and plant it for 2, 3, or 4 years 

 before sowing it with wheat, believing that the 

 ground must be very mellow before wheat would 

 grow in any quantity to insure a crop. — I would 

 inform them that I broke up an acre of hard clay 

 and loam which was bound and killed out with 

 barn, or, as some call it knot grass. On about 2 

 of this acre I sowed one bushel of common Spring 

 Wheat the 18th day of April — and on the 3d day 

 of August I cut the same. — Having threshed it, I 

 find I have 15 bushels of pure nice wheat — free 

 from any smut or wild seeds. 



Yours, Nath'l Rundlet. 



From the Temperance Recorder. 

 WATER OP LIME-STONE DISTRICTS. 



The following letter of Professor Stevens, of 

 New York, will be read with interest by all who 

 are exposed to the inconvenience he mentions. 

 We are glad to have it in our power to give the 

 opinion of one deservedly eminent in his profes- 

 sion, on a subject of such importance, especially 

 as we know that the opinions of medical men, in 

 cases of this kind, have great influence. 



New York, 6th June, 1833. 

 Dear Sir, — In an excursion, several years 

 since, through the extensive rauge of limestone 

 country, which forms a large portion of the north- 

 ern and western parts of this state, I had to ob- 

 serve an almost universal recourse to brandy, as a 

 corrective of the effects of limestone water. — 

 Your philanthropic labors in the cause of temper- 

 ance have undoubtedly produced a great change 

 in the habits of travellers, as well as of others — 

 still I apprehend that the belief in the propriety 

 of taking brandy as a medicine to prevent or re- 

 move the effects of impure water, is too universal, 

 and fraught with too many bad consequences not 

 to deserve a special notice ; and the subject ac- 

 quires great importance, when we consider that 

 disorder of the bowels affects a very large majori- 

 ty of all those who use, without being accustomed 

 to it, impure, and particularly limestone water-; 

 and the occasional seventy of this disorder, and 

 the inconvenience to which, even in its mildest 

 form, it subjects the traveller, are such as to lead 

 him to seek a preventive or a remedy. Brandy 

 is neither the one nor the other. 



The habitual brandy drinker more rarely es- 

 capes a disorder of the bowels from the first use of 

 impure water, than the temperate man. An in- 

 crease of his usual potations seldom gives him im- 

 munity. As a means of cure after the disorder 

 lias begun, the use of ardent spirits often induces 

 chronic affections of the viscera, usually an inflam- 

 ed condition of the inner lining of the stomach, 

 causing excessive burning, and inability to retain 

 any thing that is swallowed. 



The salts of lime held in solution are chiefly 

 precipitated by boiling. In this city our tea-kettles 

 soon become encrusted with a thick coat from the 

 deposit of them, and by just so much is the water 

 purer after having been boiled than it was before. 



Boiling therefore being the grand corrective of 

 hard water, it is much to be desired that the keep- 

 ers of hotels in limestone districts should cause 

 such water, instead of that which is, to he offered 

 to their guests. Cold toast water made entirely 

 with boiling water, could not fall to be acceptable 

 to those who know its value. It is at once a pre- 

 ventive and a cure. Where this cannot be ob- 

 tained, mint tea, prepared by adding a few drops 

 of the essence, to hot waterand sugar, which may 

 be found at most bars, may be substituted, if be- 

 fore dinner. After the looseness has come on, it 

 will be right to avoid watery fruits and vegetables. 

 If it be slight, no other attentions will in general 

 be required. I am, &c. 



Alex. II. Stevens. 



This is no new invention, by some thousands of 

 years. The Romans often boiled water for drink- 

 ing, and then cooled it by setting the vessel contain- 

 ing it in snow, which they preserved as we do ice. 

 The country about Rome is a "Limestone District." 



PICKLES. 



Happening in at the house of a gentleman, a 

 few months since, he remarked that he had adopt- 

 ed a new method of preserving cucumbers, or 

 making pickles, and as proof of its excellence, pro- 

 duced some prepared according to his system. 



As it was new to me, it may possibly be so to 

 some of the readers of the Farmer. Take of com- 

 mon sour cider, such as cider drinkers usually de- 

 nominate hard, a quantity sufficient to cover the 

 cucumbers intended to pickle, and put it into a 

 vessel proper for the purpose. Gather your cu- 

 cumbers when of the right size, without scratch- 

 ing or bruising them — rub or wash them clean, 

 and put them in the cider — stir them occasionally, 

 and if a scum rises let it be taken oft", and they 

 will gradually become pickles of the first quality, 

 green, hard, and of fine appearance. Peppers, 

 and other condiments, may be added as required. 

 I cannot vouch for the invariable success of this 

 mode, but in the hands of my friend I know it op- 

 erated admirably, and the expense and trouble are 

 so small, compared with some other methods, that 

 it is well worthy a trial. W. G. 



Otisco, 1833. 



UNIVERSAL MILL. 



In this mill, both the stones are made to revolve, 

 but the upper one receives its motion from that of 



the lower, in a way to be presently described 



The lower stone is ^ixed firmly upon a vertical 

 shaft, which is made to revolve by the application 

 of any suitable power, and with any required speed. 

 The upper stone is made smaller than the lower; 

 say one fifth less in diameter, and it is placed so 

 as not to be concentric with it ; it may, for exam- 

 ple, be so situated, that the peripheries of the two 

 stones will coincide on one side, whilst on the op- 

 posite side one-fifth of the diameter of the lower 

 stone will be exposed. The upper stone is kept 

 in its place, and its pressure regulated by means 

 of a screw passing through a beam above it, the 

 point of which bears upon a bridge piece in the 

 middle of the eye. It will be at once evident that 

 the revolution of the lower stone will give a slow- 

 er and peculiar revolution to the upper. A hopper 

 is to rise above the eye of the upper stone, and 

 other requisite appendages are employed. Metal 

 may, in some cases, be employed instead of the 

 stones for grinding. — New Monthly. 



