22 



NhW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Boston, Wednesday Evening, August 1, 1832. 



LIME, ASHES, ATMOSPHERICAL 

 MANURE, &c. 



AVe are sorry not to be able to coincide in opin- 

 ion with cm- resp.ected eorrespondeut, wliose com- 

 munication was given on the first pnjre of our 

 last paper, July 35. But the topics in wbicli we 

 differ are not merely speculative, and a regard to 

 our duty as an Editor obliges us to take notice of 

 tenets which we think erroneous, tliough sanction- 

 ed by the liigh authority of an eminent cuhivator. 



B. observes tliat " Professor Eaton and yourself 

 maintain that carbonate of lime causes fertility by 

 its chemical operation upon the soil or atmosjihere. 

 I hold the negative." Again 15. says "quick lime 

 is soluble in water. Carbonate of lime is insolu- 

 ble." 



We will liere produce respectable authorities to 

 support our assertions. Monk's Agricultmal Dic- 

 tionary, an English work of acknowledged merit, 

 under the head Manure states that " By the fer- 

 mentation that it [viz. lime] induces, the earth is 

 opened and divided, and by its absorbent and alka- 

 line quality it iiniles the oily and watery parts of 

 the soil. It also seems to have the property of col- 

 lecting the acid OF -rHE MR which it readily forms 

 into a neutral salt of great %tse in vegetation." 



This process seems very much like " chemical 

 operation upon the soil and atmosphere," but we 

 have other and still higher authority to the same 

 effect. Dr Darwin makes the following observa- 

 tion. 



"Another means by whicli vegetables acquire 

 carbon in great quantity may be from limestone 

 dissohed in loater, which though a slow process 

 occurs in innumerable springs of water, which 

 pass through the calcareous or marly strata of the 

 earth, as those of Matlock and Bristol in passing 

 through limestone, and those about Derby in pass- 

 ing through marl, and is brought to the roots of 

 vegetables by showers, which fall on soils in 

 which limestone, marble, alabaster, fluor spar ex- 

 ist. By this solution of mild caleareuus earth in 

 water, not only tlie carbon of carbonic acid, not 

 yet made into gas, but the lime also, with whicli 

 it is united becomes absorbed into the vegetable 

 system and thus contributes lo their nutriment both 

 as so much calcareous earth and so much carbon. 



"Another mode by which vegetable roots ac- 

 quire carbon, I suspect to be their disuniting car- 

 bonic acid from limestone, in its fluid, not its 

 gaseous state ; which the limestone again attracts 

 from the atmosphere and consolidates ; or from 

 other matters included in the soils. First, because 

 lime is believed by some agricultors who much 

 employ it, to do more service in the second year 

 than in the first ; that is, in its mild state, when it 

 abounds with carbonic acid than in its caustic 

 state, when it is deprived of it. 



" Secondly, that the use of burning lime seems 

 to be simply to reduce it to an impalpable powder 

 almost approaching to fluidity, which must facili- 

 tate the application of the innumerable e.xtrem- 

 ities of vegetable fibres to the incalculable in- 

 crease of its surface, which may thence acquire 

 by their absorbent power the carbonic acid from 

 those minute particles of lime, as fast as they can 

 recover it by chemical attraction from the inanimate 

 substances in their vicinity."— Darwin's Phytologia, 

 Section x. 46 and 48 



Mr John Young in his able " Letters of Agri- 

 cola", says, "If the necessary quantity of lime be 

 given to land, and properly mixed with the soil, it 

 is a thing of much less moment tlian v,e are apt to 

 imagine, whether it be applied in its caustic or 

 mild state, and for this reason that there is a con- 

 stant jirogression from one lo the other, and in the 

 end it is sure to be saturated with its full meas- 

 ure of carbonic acid." He then says, in substance, 

 that when pure quick lime is applied to plant.* 

 they turn yellow, and wear all the symjitoms of a 

 sickly and debilitated state of e.xistence ; eVen 

 grass itself may be eomplelely killed by ivatering it 

 leilh a solution of lime. 



Dr Deane observes, "By experiments made of 

 late, it has been clearly proved that plants are 

 nourislied by fi.xed air, (carho7iic acid gas,) of which 

 it is known that lime contains a large quantity. It 

 has been proved by the experiments of 3Ir Lavoi- 

 sier that one third part of calcareous earths, and 

 particularly of limestone consists of fixed air. 



" But besides affording to plants this nourish- 

 ment, lime acts as a mamire, by altrarting and im- 

 bibing the oils and acids which are contained in ihe 

 earth and atmosphere. It not only collects these 

 ingredients of vegetable food, but so alters them 

 as to tit them to enter the roots of ])lants. With 

 the acids it forms a salt, which by mixing with the 

 oils, becomes a saponaceous mucilage, which is 

 the true pabulum for the nourishment of plants." 

 B. says, " carbonate of lime is ijisoZui/c." Oth- 

 er great mert say that it is soluble. Now if the 

 latter were not true we should have no water 

 which is called hard icater, or water naturally im- 

 pregnated with lime. Indeed we have scarcely 

 ever heard of a mineral spring in wliicli lime was 

 not one of its constituents. If B. will analyze 

 tlinse of Ballston and Saratoga he will find car- 



An^st 1, 1832. 



we will say a word about our own " agricultural 

 quackery." B. slates as follows. "You cautioned 

 your readers not to permit in any case unleached 

 ashes or lime in a caustic state, to come in con- 

 tact with the seed corn or young j.lants. I treat- 

 ed Ihe caution I must confess with rather unbe- 

 coming levity ; but must yet persist in raying, that 

 it was altogelbcr uncalled for, certainly in the case 

 where the admonition was so gravely applied." 

 ^ The article which caused the animadversion of 

 B. was written in consequence of a request 

 (which preceded it, and was published with it,) 

 by a correspondent, in these words : "Will you or 

 some of your correspondents inform me through 

 the medium of your pajier, the method of apply- 

 ing lime in growing Indian corn ?" And after 

 stating some other particulars which we omit for 

 the sake of brevity, the writer says, "To this query 

 an ansiver is of importance."* &c. How then can 

 B. "persist in saying" that our caution "was al.-o- 

 gether uncalled for ?" It was called for and an 

 answer stated to be « of importance." In this 

 answer having described the method of a Mr 

 Bugbee of using lime mixed with other sub- 

 stances, we then dismissed that part of the subject 

 and penned a new paragraph as follows : 



" The farmers of Rensselaer County, N. Y. say 

 that ashes or quick lime ought always to be ap- 

 plied to tlie top of a corn hill innnediately after 

 planting," &.c. Then followed the supposed :nis- 

 dircclioii of the Editor which B. calls -one o:lier 

 specimen of agricultural quackery," viz. " But 

 neither unleached ashes, nor lime in its caustic 

 state, sliould in any case come in contact with the 

 Eccil corn or the young plant." 



We cannot perceive "levity" or wit in accusing 

 a man of quackery in his profession. Indeed the 

 accusation is rather of a grave description. But as 



bonate of lime is one of their constituents; and of( '^ '^ wholly without foundation in the alleged in- 

 coiirsctbat he is not correct when he asserts that stance it is to us " idle wind." 

 " carbonate of lime is insoluble." It is moreover! We have said what we thought would be con- 

 owing to the solubility of limestoneY\n water that I ("'"sive on the subject of (pdck lime as a destroyer 



of vegetation. If Sir John Sinclair recom- 

 mended quick lime for burning useless and 

 noxious vegetation, and B's lime is not hurtful to 



lands naturally supiilied with lime may in time 

 quire renewed application of the same substance. 

 The lime originally in the soil was taken up by 

 crops, or had made its way in watery solution to 

 the neighboring streams. 



With regard to Professor Eaton's assertion that 

 "cultivated vegetables receive their c/ife/ nutri- 

 tious matter from the atmosphere," we have little 

 to add to what we have already said on this sub- 

 ject. We had supposed that very few persons 

 were ignorant of the fact that the atmosphere con- 

 tained food for plants. Sir Hum))bry Davy s.iys, 

 "no one principle affords the pabulum of vegeta- 

 ble life ; it is neither charcoal nor hydrogen, nor 

 azote, nor oxygen alone ; but all them together in 

 various states and various combinations." All 

 these substances exist in the atmosphere and are 

 occasionally imbibed by plants. Col. Taylor's ag- 

 ricultm-al treatise, entitled " Arator," styles the at- 

 mosphere a " vast ocean of vegetable food." But 

 when he undertook to prove that said ocean was 

 the principal source of vegetable food he failed en- 

 tirely ; and we never attempted to support any 

 such position. Vegetables we believe derive a part, 

 but not in general the chief part of their nourish- 

 ment from the atmosphere. Indeed we thought 

 this not a controverted subject ; and should as 

 soon have thought of attempting to prove that 

 there was caloric in the sunbeams of July, as that 

 the atmosphere contained nourisliment for plants. 



But leaving Professor Eaton to defend himself, 



the "vitality of seeds and plants," we can only 

 say tliat one is more caustic than the other. 

 There may be as much difference as there is be- 

 tween live or burning coals, and the hot or cold 

 ashes, produced by the combustion of such coals. 

 Much depends on the original qualities of lime- 

 stone, on the intensity and duration of the heat in 

 burning, &c. &c. Indeed there are as many de- 

 grees in the causticity of lime and ashes as there 

 are steps in ascending the Alleghany. But, as 

 this is is a subject of much importance to agricul- 

 ture we shall probably resume it, without ref- 

 erence to any strictures or opinions embraced 

 in the present controversy. 



Unleached ashes may or may not be sprinkled 

 on young plants of Indian corn with impunity. 

 The safety of the application depends on the 

 strength of the ashes, the quantity applied, and the 

 age of the corn. In our younger days we actual- 

 ly did destroy, and that without a felonious inten- 

 tion, a goodly nimiber of hills of corn, just as they 

 were peeping above ground, by strong dry wood 

 ashes. Ashes contains a substance called potassi- 

 um, which will burn with great vehemence in con- 

 tact with water. This is combined with carbon, ox- 

 ygen, &c, &c, without which it would burn plants 

 as quickly as a lighted match will set fire to gun 



* See N. E. Farmer, vol. x. p. 350. 



