No. 7. 



Splitting Timber and Constructing Fences. 



103 



boHate of lime, (at least in a state of ground 

 limestone,) being so nearly insoluble in water 

 as to produce no effect on vegetables growing 

 in soil containing it. 



Various facts, m connection with reflection 

 on the combinations that must take place 

 when lime is incorporated with the soil, fur- 

 nish strong ground for concluding that it is 

 only in a state of super-carbonate that the 

 great beneficial action of lime is produced. 



We cannot, by grinding, destroy the at- 

 traction of cohesion in limestone; there will 

 be two or more atoms adhering. While this 

 is the case it never will be converted into a 

 super-carbonate. Destroy the attraction of 

 cohesion, as the result shows is done by burn- 

 ing and slacking, and it will ultimately be 

 converted into super-carbonate, when incor- 

 porated with the soil ; is then soluble in wa- 

 ter, and acts beneficially or injuriously, as the 

 quantity is in accordance with the wants of 

 the plant, or in excess, as other manures do. 



I have been in the practice of using lime 

 for 25 years ; there is little of the land I oc- 

 cupy that has not had 200, and some 300 

 bushels per acre, applied in that time. In 

 my first applications, it was slacked, spread, 

 and incorporated with the soil as soon as 

 practicable from the kiln. But for more 

 than 20 years I have spread but little that 

 has not lain from 3 to 12 or more months, and 

 when spread avoided all means that would 

 incorporate it with the soil, that necessity 

 did not urge for the accomplishment of other 

 objects. Tills change was the fruit of a 

 doubt of the ultimate utility of using lime to 

 hasten the decomposition of vegetable matter 

 contained in soil under regular cultivation,* 

 and that this questionable advantage was all 

 I conceived I had to place against the known 

 and certain result that by so applying it, it 

 would be converted into carbonate at the ex- 

 pense of a material contained in the soil that 

 then was, or in future would become capable 

 of supporting a vegetable, and that so far as 

 it could be converted into carbonate before 

 mixed with the soil, was clear gain ; and 1 

 regard my experience as having fully sus- 

 tained the conclusion. Whether the experi- 

 ence of others has or has not satisfied them 

 which is the preferable mode of using it, 

 they must admit that it is a question of great 

 practical importance, as it would require the 

 greater part of the barn yard manure made 



■ This doubt was the result of a conchision produced 

 by careful observation of natural phenomena, that any 

 substance ttiat has once formed a part of a living fibre, 

 was by the natural decomposition of that fibre placed 

 in a condition more readily to re-enter into a new race 

 of living fibre, than the same substance obtained from 

 the mineral kingdom, or by the destructive analysis of 

 vegetables, and that lime did not effect the natural de- 

 composition, but destructive analysis, and as far as it 

 'tarried it absorbed the product. 



on any farm of 100 acres to furnish the car- 

 bonic acid that would saturate 800 bushels, 

 80 pounds to the bushel, of pure magnesian 

 lime, containing 8 per cent, magnesia; and 

 all that is not saturated before incorporation 

 will become so at the expense of a material 

 in the soil, that the farmer must depend on 

 his barn yard for the means of restoring, ex- 

 cept applied to an acid soil, and so far as the 

 neutralising of acid is taken into account, it 

 is past controversy, the efi^ect will be the 

 same whether mild or quick lime be used. 



Delaware county, 10th month, 27th, 1837. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Remarks oix Splitting TimTjer and Conw 

 stmcting Fences* 



I send for publication the description of 

 a process for splitting timber, which may be 

 new to some who read the Cabinet, and in 

 some cases such as dividing large Hemlock 

 logs and others of a similar character may be 

 useful. 



A cylindrical hole, (say one inch in diame- 

 ter,) is made in the object to be split, extend- 

 ing to or beyond the centre of it, and a 

 charge of gunpowder in quantity according to 

 the required force, is deposited in the bottom 

 of the hole, and a screw bolt rather more 

 than one inch diameter, with a hole about 

 one-eighth of an inch diameter through the 

 centre from one end to the other, is turned 

 into the hole by means of a wrench acting 

 on a square at the upper end ; the hole in the 

 centre is then filled with powder, which 

 serves to conduct fire to the charge at the 

 lower end. When the timber is split the 

 bolt adheres to one of the parts. 



In this way timber can be advantageously 

 converted into rails, where it cannot by ordi- 

 nary means. All timber which is clear of 

 knots, and splits easily, and which will con- 

 tinue sound during one rotation of crops, (say 

 ten years) is suitable for rails to make an an- 

 gular (or Virginia) fence, because the ex- 

 pense of converting the same into rails and 

 afterwards reducing it in size for fuel will be 

 no more than reducing the same quantity to 

 a similar size for fuel at first. 



Such rails as cannot reasonably be ex- 

 pected to last during this period, should be 

 excluded from fences intended to remain 

 stationary thus long, and be reserved for 

 fences of a more temporary character or con- 

 verted into stakes and fuel. 



Fences composed of strong materials, — 

 and made of a uniform height are the 

 most economical, because the cost of making 

 and keeping in repair for such stated period 

 is less than upon any other plan ; and animals 

 are not taught to leap over them, as when 

 they are weak and of different heights. 



