194 



Operations of Lime in Agriculture. 



Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Operations of Lime in Agriculture. 



A POOR MAN SHOULD LtME — A RICH ONE CAN LIVE 

 WITHOUT IT. 



The essay of A. S. R. on lime, in the last 

 No. of the Cabinet, is valuable, as it tend.s 

 towards a developement of a true theory of 

 the action of that most important article in 

 agriculture. The attempts heretofore made 

 to explain its beneficial action, on the gratu- 

 itous assumption of its hastening the putre- 

 faction of vegetable or animal matter, have 

 entirely failed — not being founded on facts. 



That lime, and all the alkaline earths and 

 alkalies are antiseptics, and tend to impede 

 or diminish the tendency to putrefaction, may 

 be easily tested by any person disposed to 

 make the experiment. 



Having, some years since, caused lime to 

 be applied to both animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter with a view of reducing them speedily to 

 a state of decomposition, I was much sur- 

 prised and disappointed in finding that pre- 

 cisely the contrary effect was produced by it; 

 and when I was brought to reflect on the 

 subject, I could recur to numerous cases 

 where it had been used with complete effect, 

 to preserve from destruction the substances 

 it was placed in contact with. 



The destructive decomposition of quick 

 lime, when mixed with vegetable matter, is 

 no more an argument in favour of its pro- 

 ducing putrescence, than it would be to say 

 that fire was the best means of producing the 

 same efi^ect; and it is scarcely to be supposed, 

 that a farmer would ever think of burning a 

 stack of straw or corn fodder, with a view of 

 converting it into manure. 



All the alkalies and alkaline earths are 

 well known to be highly beneficial to agri- 

 culture, and it is believed that this benefit is, 

 at least in part, owing to their counteracting 

 the too rapid decomposition of vegetable mat- 

 ter in the soil. 



The action of lime in agriculture is be- 

 lieved to be as follows, viz : 



1st, After it has had time to become dis- 

 solved by the action of water holding car- 

 bonic acid gas in solution, which never fails 

 to dissolve it, it penetrates and permeates 

 every particle of a tenacious soil, and renders 

 it more loose and friable, so as materially to 

 extend the pasture of the roots of plants, 

 because they can, by extension, procure nu- 

 triment from every portion of it. 



It also more readily admits the nutricious 

 solutions, produced by rains, to make ad- 

 vances by capillary attraction to the spon- 

 gioles of the roots which take it in. 



2d. The increased friability of the soil 

 produced by lime, enables it to hold much 

 more water in solution without injury to 



plants, and when there is a deficient quanti- 

 ty of rain to promote healthy vegetation, this 

 excess, which is retained as by a sponge, is 

 gradually given out to the parched earth, and 

 the nutriment which is held in solution, is 

 conveyed to the hungry mouths of the plants, 

 and keeps them in health and vigour, at a 

 time when those growing on a soil which has 

 not been rendered loose and friable by lime, 

 are ready to perish for want of food. Hence 

 the application of lime, acting in concert 

 with thorough tillage, is the best known pro- 

 tection against the destructive effect of ex- 

 cessive droughts. 



3d. Lime, by impeding the putrefaction of 

 manure, prevents the too sudden and too 

 rapid formation of its solution, by which it is 

 liable to great waste, by being sunk too deep 

 in the soil or otherwise lost, when the plants 

 are in an infant state, and do not require so 

 large an amount of food to be cooked sud- 

 denly. Hence the effect of manure is more 

 enduring and regular in its operation where 

 lime has been judiciously applied to the soil. 



4th. The alkaline character of lime ena- 

 bles it to neutralize the acidity of the soil, • 

 and, by that means, to furnish a more sweet 

 and palatable food for plants, and they in 

 turn are rendered more sweet and nutricious 

 for man and animals to feed upon. J 



5th. Lime is a specific food for plants in a f 

 greater or less degree, according to their na- 

 ture — for it is found by analysis to be a com- 

 ponent part of them, and must therefore have 

 been taken up in their food. 



The best mode of applying lime is believed 

 to be on the grass sod, as the carbonic acid 

 gas is most abundant in the surface soil, and 

 the grass soon covers the lime and keeps it 

 moist, when the dews and rain, taking the „ 

 gas into solution, come in contact with the ■ 

 lime and dissolve it; it then penetrates the m 

 soil in every part, and when the roots of M 

 plants or otlier causes rob the solution of its t| 

 e.xcess of carbonic acid, down falls the car- 

 bonate of lime, and prevents the adhesion of 

 the particles of the soil ; hence its friability. 

 This alternate solution and deposition of the 

 lime wi'll continue to take place in the soil, 

 until it is wholly taken up by the crops, or 

 has sunk beneath the reach of the fibres of 

 the roots. 



Forty or fifty bushels of lime applied to an 

 acre of stiff land, will produce a greater 

 effect in altering the constitution of the soil, 

 than five thousand bushels of sand, in conse- 

 quence of the more thorough incorporation 

 of the former with the soil — it being distri- 

 buted when in a state of solution, and reach- 

 ing every particle of the adhesive mass, and 

 applying to it a non-adhesive substance. 



VVhen lime is applied to a loose sandy soil, 

 the sand not being pervious to its solution, it 



