THE FARMERS' CABINET, 

 AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTKD TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Productions of the Earth will aiwaya be in proporlion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. VI — No. 9.] 



4th mo. (April,) 15th, 1842. 



[Whole No. 87. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Klagiiesian Lime, No. 3. 



Perhaps, strictly and scientifically speak- 1 

 in£r, there is but one variety of lime, that is, 

 pure lime uncombined with any other sub- 

 stance. But in common lan^uagre we say 

 there are different varieties of lime, meaning 

 thereby that the properties of lime are modi- 

 fied by its being combined or mixed with 

 other earths, .such as magnesia, clay, sand, 

 &c. And as this common language is quite 

 sufficient for all common purposes, we shall 

 take the liberty of using it in its common ac- 

 ceptation on the present as on former occa- 

 sions. Lime in a pure or uncombined state 

 is not found in nature. It may however be 

 procured in a nearly pure state, in the large 

 way, from the finer kinds of chalk, and some 

 varieties of sea-shells, by merely calcining 

 them. It appears also that some varieties of 

 limestone in England, probably belonging to 

 the upper secondary class, furnish it in nearly 

 a pure state. To this variety of lime the 

 term mild lime is sometimes applied in contra- 

 distinction to magnesian or hot lime. 



It is probable that but a very small portion 

 of the limestone on the south-east side of the 

 Alleghany Mountain would furnish this kind 

 of lime, most of it having a large portion 

 of magnesia in its composition. The secon- 

 dary limestonesof our western country, parti- 

 cularly some of the upper portions of them, may 

 furnish the mild lime. These are questions, 

 however, by no means decided, and which 

 will require much further investigation before 

 they can be. Btit enough is known to war- 

 rant us in saying th;it a large portion of the 

 limestone of south-eastern Pennsylvania 

 yields the magnesian lime. 



It appears from abundant testimony that a 

 much larger portion of mild lime can be ap- 

 plied, as manure, to a given quantity of land, 

 than of the magnesian variety. But whether 

 a benefit can be obtained from it in proporlion 



Cab.— Vol. VI— No. 9. 



to the quantity used, over the other variety, 

 seems not so clearly ascertained. In the pre- 

 sent state of knowledge, the contrary doctrine 

 would appear the most probable. I recollect 

 to have read somewhere (though I have not 

 the work at hand to refer to) that as much as 

 400 bushels of mild lime have been puton an 

 acre in England with good efl^ect, and that if 

 this kind of lime be left neglected in heaps, 

 the grass will grow up through the outskirts 

 of them, and instances have been known of 

 grass growing entirely over the heaps. In 

 the account of the application of lime to land 

 in the Forest of Brecon, in South Wales, to 

 be found at p. 14 of vol. 3 of the Farmers' 

 Cabinet, it is stated that the quantity puton 

 was from 30 to 60 barrels (of 30 gallons each) 

 to the acre at a dressing, that is about from 

 100 to 200 bushels per acre, we presume. It 

 is also stated that a dressing of 35 barrels, or 

 near 120 bushels per acre, without any other 

 manure, produced a yield of wheat 50 per 

 cent, greater, than another part of the same 

 field dressed with dung, but without lime, 

 and this too on a soil exhausted by constant 

 cropping. From our knowledge of the effects 

 of magnesian lime in this country, and from 

 the description given of the limestone in the 

 article above referred to, it seems probable 

 that it was the mild lime that was used. 



At p. 348 of vol. 4 of the Farmers' Cabinet 

 an account is given of a kind of lime procured 

 from a particular side of the Valley (the 

 Great Valley of Chester county we presume 

 is meant), which, when placed in heaps for 

 slakina', the grass grew up through it where 

 the lime was several inches in thickness, 

 while a lime procured from the opposite side 

 of the valley destroyed all kinds of vegetation 

 under the heaps, if left lay for any considera- 

 ble time. The former of these is probably a 

 mild or pure lime, or nearly approaching it, 

 — the latter a hot or magnesian lime. It is 

 a fact well known to our farmers that the 

 common or magnesian lime of Pennsylvania 

 cannot be applied in anything like the quan- 

 tities above mentioned without very materi- 

 ally lessening the sub?equent crops, both in 

 quantity and quality, and sometimes render- 

 ing the land entirely unproductive for years. 

 But it is equally well known to them that, 

 applied in smaller quantities and in a proper 

 manner, it is highly beneficial. 



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