No. 9. 



Magnesian Lime, 6fC. 



293 



ingly, raising beans in abundance, of which 

 they had better kinds than I have lately 

 seen ; and to save seed, they would pick by 

 hand the earliest pods, hang them in a bag, 

 and not shell them until wanted to plant : the 

 same also with their peas, amongst which I 

 never saw a bug. Of cabbage for early kinds, 

 they sowed the seed on a scaffold five or six 

 feet high, to prevent the small fly from eat- 

 ing the plants; and after this fly was done, 

 then they would sow their winter and sour- 

 krout cabbage broadcast. 



" To save cucumber seed, they took those 

 that grew nearest the root, puncture the blos- 

 som end, and lay that downward on a slant- 

 ing board, sticking the butt-end full of oats, 

 which on growing would extract the mois- 

 ture, never taking out the seed until required 

 for planting. The seed from the melon was 

 scraped out and dried without washing, on 

 coarse paper in the shade, never using it after 

 two years old, convinced that the glutinous 

 liquid was essential to vigour of growth and 

 fruitfulness. Description cannot convey a 

 correct idea of the elegance of the manage- 

 ment of these good, honest people ; but let the 

 best fanners of the Eastern states at the pro- 

 per season take a tour to Bethlehem, Naza- 

 reth, Greatendali, and Christian Spring, in 

 Northampton county, where all the estates 

 belong to the society of the Moravian bre- 

 thren, and they must admit them to be 

 amongst the best farms in the United States, 

 and that the emigration from Germany has 

 been the making of Pennsylvania." 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Magnesian Lime, &c. 



Mr. Kditor, — Allow me, through the co- 

 lumns nf the Cabinet, to say a few words, by 

 way of making some brief inquiries. I have 

 been reading with great interest, the conflict- 

 ing views lately presented in it, upon the 

 subject of magnesian lime. With us of Ches- 

 ter, nothing has been more common than for 

 our farmers to notice and remark upon the 

 diflferent effects produced upon the soil by 

 lime, obtained almost in the same vicinity, 

 without being aware of the chemical proper- 

 ties that gave rise to it. The lime of Coates- 

 ville, for instance, is very different from some 

 not more than half a mile distant further west, 

 thousrh all in the valley. 



That of the village is very white — excel- 

 lent for whitewash and plastering — maintains 

 its stone form a considerable time after being 

 burnt ; and destroys vegetation when put on 

 heavily, or where it has lain in heaps upon 

 the ground. Other lime, farther up, is of a 

 darker colour (called with us "the black 

 lime"), falls much sooner, swells more when 

 slaked, and does not destroy vegetation under 



the circumstances that the other would. Will 

 some one inform us whether these manifesta- 

 tions attending the "black lime" are those 

 which denote the absence of magnesia; and 

 whether the former manifestations denote its 

 presence ?— and if these are not the criterions 

 to judge by, what are"? If the one is more 

 valuable to the farmer than the other, then it 

 is very important that we should have a mode 

 of judging, and discriminating between the 

 two, that would be accessible to all — for all 

 cannot, or at least will not, attain such a 

 knowledge of chemistry, as will enable them 

 to judge of the relative merits of the two 

 qualities of lime by chemical analysis. 



Some of our farmers here have favoured 

 the one quality and some the other. Some 

 have supposed that the effect upon vegetation 

 produced by the former, was an evidence of 

 its superior strength; and that therefore, if it 

 did seem to be injurious at first, it would 

 afterwards do much more good, as its effects 

 would be more lasting. But if the injurious 

 effect is produced by being in combination 

 with a foreign substance, and not by its supe- 

 rior strength as lime, then it is very import- 

 ant for our farmers to know the fact. We 

 say, then, " let there be light." 



Without knowing any of the authors that 

 have taken a part in the discussion of the 

 subject through the medium of the Cabinet, 

 I could not however but "wonder" whether 

 some of them were not sellers of lime and 

 limestone, particularly the friends of the su- 

 perior efficacy of magnesian lime; other- 

 wise I should be at a loss to discover a suffi- 

 cient motive for the use of some very unne- 

 cessary epithets in their communications, — 

 and even then, I doubt whether such reason- 

 ing will be taken for argument. 



Again, I notice some writers advocating 

 carting the manure from the yard through 

 the winter into the fields, preparatory to 

 ploughing in, or spreading upon the surface 

 in the spring. Now, our best farmers here 

 think it a great object to keep their manure 

 in the dry as much as possible ; and to this 

 end, many of them have very extensive shed- 

 ding, covering as much of the yard as prac- 

 ticable. Is not the latter plan preferable, and 

 does it not greatly increase the value of the 

 manure'! Is long undecomposed manure, aa 

 we generally find it in our yards in the spring, 

 in a suitable state to spread upon the surface, 

 either of mowing or pasture fields; or even 

 for ploughing under? If it is, would it not 

 be the interest of the farmer to spread it upon 

 the field intended for corn the next year, pre- 

 paratory to ploughing down the ensuing fall, 

 or next spring? In that case, the corn-crop 

 would be benefited, and the following one 

 also, whether of wheat or oats. Is the fall 

 the proper time to plough for corn, whether 



