98 



Lime. 



Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Lime* 



Several essays havingf appeared in the 

 Cabinet indicating tiie opinion that maone- 

 sian lime was injurious to the growth of 

 plants, and as the lime which has been so ex- 

 tensively and so beneficially used in Pennsyl- 

 vania, is understood to be almost exclusively 

 of that character, I have been induced to 

 make some examination into the subject, and 

 to extract from recent works the opinions of 

 some distinguished authors. Bakewell, in his 

 geology, page 390, says, " On the summit of 

 Breedon Hill, in Leicestershire, I have seen 

 a luxuriant crop of barley, growing on land 

 that had borne a succession of twenty pre- 

 ceding crops without manuring. This is 

 more deserving notice, being in an exposed 

 and elevated situation, and upon the very hill 

 of magnesian limestone, which has been so 

 frequently referred to, by chemical writers, as 

 peculiarly unfavourable to vegetation." " The 

 magnesian lime acts more powerfully in de- 

 stroying undecoinposed vegetable matter than 

 common lime, and its effects on land are more 

 durable: hence it is in reality of greater 

 value in agriculture, as a much smaller quan- 

 tity will answer the same purpose." 



Our great limestone valley, so noted for 

 the unsurpassed fertility of its soil, overlays 

 the magnesian limestone, and the soil is un- 

 questionably composed of its elements almost 

 exclusively, so that this fact alone should 

 cause a doubt about the injurious effects of 

 magnesian earth, unless it be found to exist 

 in much larger proportions than seems to be 

 the case in any of our ordinary limestones. 



If lime was applied to the grass sod as a 

 top-dressing, instead of being spread on tlie 

 corn or wheat grounds, immediately before 

 planting or sowing those crops, all the bene- 

 fits would be derived from its application, and 

 tlie evil produced occasionally by its causti- 

 city would be avoided. 



If some correspondent of the Cabinet 

 would make an accurate experiment with the 

 two kinds of lime, putting the same quantity 

 per acre, on land of the same quality and un- 

 der the same circumstances, and furnisli the 

 result for publication, the question of compa- 

 rative value would soon be determined. 



Subjoined is a translation, from a French 

 work, of an essay on the subject of magne- 

 sian lime, which is extracted from the Journal 

 of the Franklin Institute. Z. 



" ON THE INFLUENCE OF NATIVE MAGNESIA IN 

 THE GERMINATION, VEGETATION, AND FRIC- 

 TIFICATION OF PLANTS, BY ANGELO ABBENE. 



It has been thought that the presence of 

 magnesia may be numbered among the vari- 

 ous causes which render land sterile, because 



it has been remarked that magnesian soils 

 have an arid character. 



This opinion has begun to lose credit since 

 Bergman, on examining the composition of 

 fertile soils, considered magnesia as one of 

 their principal constituents. 



Professor Giobcrt has made many trials, to 

 discover the parts which the native magnesia 

 acts that is found in several arable lands. 



In the vicinity of Castellamonte and Bal- 

 dissero, this substance is abundantly diffused, 

 in soils which are cultivated v.'ith great suc- 

 cess, and on which a vigorous vegetation pre- 

 vails. There are many localities in Pied- 

 mont and other places, where the double car- 

 bonate of lime and magnesia abounds in cul- 

 tivated territories, which produce beautiful 

 crops. Giobert has inferred from tliese expe- 

 riments, 1st, that native carbonate of magne- 

 sia is not adverse to the fruition of plants; 

 2d, that in consequence of the solubility of 

 magnesia in an excess of carbonic acid, the 

 earth may exert an action analogous to lime*, 

 3d, that a magnesian soil may become fertile 

 when used with the needful quantity of ma- 

 nure employed. 



The consequence which naturally fiowa 

 from these facts is, that the magnesia has been 

 dissolved in an excess of carbonic acid and 

 water, and enters, like lime, into the compo- 

 sition of the sap, and ought to be found in 

 the plant like potash, lime, oxide of iron, &a 

 This M. Abbene has assured himself of by 

 the analysis of the ashes of plants which ve- 

 getated in magnesian mixtures. He has also 

 tried, by comparative experiments, the ques- 

 tion, whether the influence of magnesia in 

 vegetation is analogous to that of lime. The 

 conclusions which he thinks are deducible 

 from these trials are: 



1st. Native magnesia is not unfavourable 

 to the germination, vegetation and fructifica- 

 tion of plants, but appears favourable to these 

 functions. 



2d. Magnesia, being soluble in an excess 

 of carbonic acid, exerts an action similar to 

 lime, and when a soil contains magnesia not 

 sufficiently carbonated, a remedy is found in 

 the addition of manure, which, by its decom- 

 position, furnishes the needful carbonic acid. 

 The amelioration will be the more efficacious 

 if the land be well stirred up, because the air 

 will then better perform its office. 



3d. When, in arable soils, both lime and 

 magnesia exist, the first is absorbed in pre- 

 ference by plants, because it has a greater 

 affinity for carbonic acid. 



4th. In sterile magnesian soils, it is not to 

 the magnesia that the sterility is tu be attrir 

 buted, but either to the cohesion of their 

 parts, to the want of manure, clay, or other 

 ingredients, to the great quantity of oxide of 

 iron, &c. 



