286 



Value of Lime. — The Fatted Calf. 



Vol. V. 



wool is lonsf, finer than some of the other 

 Flemish and Dutch races, and with more nu- 

 merous curves, and can be appropriated to 

 more valuable purposes. Tlioy have consi- 

 derable resemblance to the British, or rather 

 the Irish long-woolled breed, but they have 

 never quite cast off their original lean ap- 

 pearance and disinclination to fatten. They 

 are more prolific than any English breed : 

 their milk is valuable and is used in the 

 manufacture of a considerable quantity of 

 cheese of good quality. 



An anonymous French work, but published 

 by royal authority, in 1763, describes tiiis 

 breed of sheep by the name of Prises — the 

 wool curled, frizzled at its extremity, as 

 uniting in itself the perfections belonging to 

 every other breed, without their defects : its 

 walk is firm, its deportment noble, its form 

 well proportioned in all its parts, announcing 

 a good constitution and a healthy tempera- 

 ment, and exempt from the maladies so com- 

 mon to other breeds. The length of its 

 wool is in proportion to its height, and it does 

 not disfigure the animal as in the English 

 sheep, whose fleece is a burdensome weight, 

 especially at the return of spring. He car- 

 ries nothing about Iiim that in the least de- 

 tracts from his beauty : his wool is white and 

 without spot, and of a dazzling whiteness : 

 he is contented everywiiere, and everywhere 

 he becomes a citizen of the place he in- 

 habits." The carcass weighs from 90 to 130 

 pounds. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Value of Lime in Agrriculture. 



Mr. Editor, — It is said at page 55 of the 

 Cabinet, Vol. 5, that Lime to the amount of 

 500 bushels per acre has been laid on land in 

 England, to manifest advantage ; while here, 

 60 or 80 bushels have been tbund too much. 

 I see in a work at present before me, that in 

 Ireland it is not uncommon to apply it at the 

 rate of 400 bushels per acre, immense crops 

 of potatoes having been raised by its being 

 laid upon strong old lays broken up in .July 

 and August, and suffered to remain in that 

 state until ploughed again in the spring. Dr. 

 Anderson says he has had experience of it 

 in all proportions, from 100 to above 700 

 bushels per acre, upon a great variety of 

 soils, and that he always found its effect in 

 promoting the fertility of the soil to be in 

 proportion to the quantity employed, other 

 circumstances being alike ; yet an instance 

 is mentioned in the Nottingham Report, of 

 750 bushels having been laid on an acre of 

 cold clay soil, without any benefit whatever: 

 experiments have also elsewhere been tried 

 of its application on heavy land extremely 

 retentive of moisture, to the extent of 550 

 bushels per acre, which, after eight suc- 



cessive years, showed no perceptible differ- 

 ence arising from tiie quantity laid on : it 

 has, however, been on so many occasions 

 used at random, without inquiry being made, 

 or attention paid to the state of the land, 

 that without regard to these particulars, 

 much money has been uselessly expended, 

 and many attempts at improvement by it 

 have been rendered unsuccessful. A system 

 prevails in the cultivation of many estates ia 

 various parts of England, under which the 

 tenants are bound by their leases to fallow 

 the land at fixed periods, and to dress the 

 fallows with a certain quantity of lime — in 

 some parts of Kent to the amount of one 

 hundred bushels per acre — this period re- 

 curring generally every five years. Its 

 greatest value ha.«, however, been found on 

 heathy moors and wild mountain-land, where, 

 by spreading it in large quantities and per- 

 mitting it to become wasiied and grown in, 

 the most surprising effects have been expe- 

 rienced : after some time the heath and 

 coarse herbage disappears, and the whole 

 surface becomes covered with a fine pile of 

 grass, consisting of white clover and other 

 sorts of fine pasture grasses. It is labour 

 lost to lime soils that require draining — be 

 this always remembered. P. W. 



The Fatted Calf. 



Amongst the many splendid presentations 

 to the President, on the day of his inaugura- 

 tion, none will appear more in true keeping, 

 to the readers of the Cabinet, than that 

 which our friend, Mr. Isaac Newton, of 

 Springfield, Delaware County, Pa., had pre- 

 pared for the purpose, namely, a fatted Calf, 

 weighing 384 lbs. It was neatly dressed by 

 his own hands, and was brought to Wash- 

 ington well preserved, packed in ice. It 

 need not be added that the President re- 

 ceived the oflering with an expression of his 

 great regard for the agricultural interests of 

 the country ; taking occasion, in his reply, to 

 compliment the Friends as being amongst 

 the best of citizens and the best of agricul- 

 turists. Mr. Newton's address to the Pre- 

 sident, on the occasion, must be preserved : 

 it is worthy the imitation of all who might 

 be called upon future occasions to address 

 "the Executive;" it is plain, and goes at 

 once to the point, and, what will not be re- 

 lished the less by any one, pithy and short. 

 " W. n. Harrison, President of the United 

 States: I present to thee ' the fatted Calf,' 

 from Springfield, Delaware Co., Pennsylva- 

 nia, as a mark of gratitude, on seeing the 

 honest yeomanry of our country advanced to 

 the high station of the chief magistracy ; and 

 trusting that thee, with thy ruling arm, may 

 set an exemplary pattern to the American 

 people, such as was given to us by the im- 

 mortal Washington." 



