206 



Magnesian Lime. — Ploughing Stiff Soils. 



Vol. VI. 



May not then all this pother and hubbub 

 which have been raised about the deleterious 

 nature of magnesian lime be owing, so tar as 

 it may be countenanced by experience, to the 

 want of proper attention to its peculiar quali- 

 ties, and the consequent mistake of using it 

 in too large quantities 1 Should a farmer, ac- 

 customed to use the mild lime, put on the 

 same quantity per acre of magnesian lime as 

 of the former, he could scarcely fail to ruin, 

 or seriously injure his land, while a less quan- 

 tity might have been used with great advan- 

 tage. 



In England it seems to have been well as- 

 certained that mild lime is highly valuable 

 as a manure, and we think that the experi- 

 ence of Pennsylvania has proved beyond a 

 reasonable doubt that the magnesian variety 

 can be used with great advantage for the 

 same purpose. The most prominent ques- 

 tions which would seem now to remain unde- 

 cided are, as to the comparative value of the 

 two kinds of lime to the farmer, and whether 

 each can be applied with equal benefit to all 

 crops indiscriminately, or whether one kind 

 of lime be better suited to some kinds of crops, 

 and the other to other kinds *? 



That much larger quantities of mild than 

 of magnesian lime can be applied without in- 

 jury to a given quantity of land seems highly 

 probable; but will it produce a correspondent 

 increase of crops'? This is an important in- 

 quiry, particularly where lime has to be car- 

 ried a great distance. For if it requires 200 

 bushels of mild lime to produce as great an 

 effect as 100 bushels of magnesian, there 

 would evidently be no economy in the use of 

 the former, unless the magnesian cost more 

 than double the price of it. 



Again, there is some reason to suppose 

 that mild lime is better adapted to the pro- 

 duction of grasses than the magnesian, or at 

 least there will not be found so much differ- 

 ence in the proportion between the product, 

 and the quantity of the different kinds of lime 

 used in these as in some other crops. But 

 this is only a conjecture, and requires to be 

 verified by extensive, varied, and long-con- 

 tinued experiments before any reliance can 

 be placed on its correctness. 



Let then all those who feel an interest in 

 the subject, and have an opportunity of pro- 

 curing both kinds of lime, bend all their en- 

 ergies to the solution of these problems, by 

 varied, well-conducted, and long-continued 

 experiments, and give the result to the pub- 

 lic ; by these means they will be adding to 

 our stock of useful knowledge, and do n)ore 

 towards deciding the whole question at issue 

 than by merely writing essays on it till 

 doomsday. 



S. Lewis. 



Mar. 3, 1813. 



rioughing Stiif Soils. 



It is a generally received maxim among 

 intelligent farmers, that the more perfectly 

 soil of this character is pulverized by judi- 

 cious and thorough ploughing, harrowing and 

 rolling, the more prolific will it be in its pro- 

 ducts. This maxim is, we think, founded on 

 common sense and reason, and justified by the 

 practice of centuries; and we are pleased to 

 find, that a greatly increased attention is be- 

 ing paid to its importance, from which we 

 augur the happiest results. The propriety 

 of ploughing such soils deeply, we are also 

 pleased to find is becoming fashionable. But 

 still there is one thing that we desire to see 

 gaining upon the affections of husbandmen — 

 we mean subsoil-ploughing. There can be 

 no question, that the greater the depth to 

 which the plough may penetrate into a health- 

 ful subsoil, the better will be the chance of 

 the plants finding pasturage. An objection 

 with many has obtained against deep plough- 

 ing, because, in some instances, the mellow 

 and productive surface-soil, which had been 

 meliorated by the culture and application of 

 manures for an age, had been turned down, 

 and its place supplanted by subsoils not only 

 infertile, but possessing properties noxious to 

 healthful vegetation. Tiiis is all very true 

 — and it is equally true, that the fertility of 

 such soils was not restored until after appli- 

 cations of large stores of animal and calcare- 

 ous manures. This, however, is not so much 

 the fault of deep ploughing, as it is the result 

 of the improper method of doing it. Therein 

 we maintain the error lay; and it is our in- 

 tention to promote an avoidance of that error, 

 by pointing out the method by which it may 

 be accomplished. Although we are the ad- 

 vocates of deep ploughing, in order to provide 

 ample pasturage for plants, we are only so 

 fir so, as good and not injury will result 

 therefrom, and, therefore we propose that 

 while the share-plough only penetrates so far 

 as the earth may have been previously turned 

 up, in the course of cultivation, that it shall 

 be followed, in the same furrow, by a subsoil- 

 plough, 60 constructed as to loosen without 

 turning up any portion of the subsoil. If by 

 this operation, two or three inches additional 

 depth at a time, be laid open to the action of 

 sun and air, and the meliorating influence of 

 the decomposing manure covered up by the 

 first plough, by the succeeding year, one-half 

 of the loosened surface, in depth, may be 

 brought to the surface with decided advan- 

 tage; and, if necessary, to that extent, may 

 the subsoil-plough be employed to pxenetrate 

 beneath the point at which the first experi- 

 ment was made. We say this, because to ua 

 it is evident, that the causes and agencies of 

 which we have spoken, will, in the tnterim,' 



