302 



More about the Anti-Septic effects of Lime. — Orcharding. Vol. V. 



caustic lime, (so as not to burn them to ashes,) 

 when, it' the chips mixed and covered with 

 lime rot, and are converted into "mould," 

 sooner than those that have no lime applied 

 to them, you may forward a copy of tlie Farm- 

 ers' Cabinet to every respectable farmer in 

 " Kishacoquillis Valley,'''' including Arator, 

 and send the bill to Agricola, and he will 

 pay it. 



Sir H. Davy's name is introduced by Ara- 

 tor to strengthen his position ; and there is no 

 dpubt that when he gives the result of his 

 own experiments, great reliance can be re- 

 posed in them. But is this the case in the 

 present instance? I have the last London 

 edition of his Lectures on Agriculture, pub- 

 lished by his brother John Davy, who is one 

 of the greatest chemists of the age, now be- 

 fore me. Sir IL was not a practical farmer, 

 and it don't appear that he had experimented 

 on this subject; but his brother states in a 

 note, page *297, that " The manner in which 

 lime acts in agriculture requires furtlier and 

 minute investigation, and is a most important 

 subject for inquiry. From the experiments 

 I have made, I have satisfied myself that it 

 arrests equally vinous and putrid fermenta- 

 tion." 



Hay ward, who was a practical farmer and 

 a man of science, published a most valuable 

 work on agriculture in 182.5, and in his re- 

 view of Sir H.'s observations on lime, page 

 190, says — "It (that is lime) prevents the 

 fermentation, and I have always found this 

 to be its peculiar property. Cruikshank made 

 many experiments on fermentation, and in- 

 variably found, whenever he added a fourth 

 substance to the three which compose saccha- 

 rine matter, no fermentation took place ; he 

 tried lime, and, at another time, a small quan- 

 tity of potash, and the addition of either pre- 

 vented fermentation. He (Sir H.) speaks of 

 lime as a septic, and of its assisting and has- 

 tening putrefaction; but, as before shown, 

 lime possesses a directly opposite quality; it 

 not only prevents, but arrests putrefaction, and 

 is therelbre, in fact, anti-septic ;" page 198, 

 Hay ward. 



Agricola started in life with the same opin- 

 ions of lime as Arator, but in undertaking to 

 convert dead animals and vegetable matter 

 into mould by the use of lime, on the plan of 

 the "chip" experiment, he was completely 

 defeated, for instead of rotting, as was e.x- 

 pected, they were preserved from putrefaction 

 much longer than similar matter without 

 lime. 



In Vol. III., Farmers' Cabinet, pages 20, 

 27, 77, 152, and 250, and in some other parts 

 of the same work, essays may be found de- 

 tailing: experiments, &c., by different writers 

 on this subject, which can scarcely fail to in- 

 terest If Arator will call on the editor of 



the Cabinet, he will direct him to a place not 

 far distant, where he can see common boards 

 which have been exposed to every change of 

 the elements for thirty-four years, and are 

 now as sound as at first; and tiie only pro- 

 tection they have had from putrefaction has 

 been the application of a little " quick-lime" 

 annually. It is believed these boards have 

 been thus exposed for twenty years longer 

 than above stated, but positive testimony only 

 extends back for thirty-four years. 



Main, in his work on poultry, London, 1839, 

 page 320, has a chapter on preserving eggs, 

 in which it is stated, that " three eggs, very 

 sweet, were found in the wall of a church at 

 Milan, after a residence there of three hun- 

 dred years." Capt. R., of Philadelphia, a 



respectable gentleman, who has often been 

 to China, says that he has taken eggs, im- 

 mersed in milk of lime, to Canton and back 

 to Philadelphia without decay. In this case, 

 if lime was so prone to cause putrefaction, it 

 might have been supposed they would have 

 been rotten before they were outside of the 

 Capes. 



Every old woman who ever wielded a 

 white-wash brush, knows the preserving ten- 

 dency of lime; and where is the person to 

 be found, who does not know, that when it is 

 put into privies, or foul sinks, or applied to 

 putrescent matter of any kind, that it sus- 

 pends the evolution of tliose gases which are 

 always disengaged during the process of pu- 

 trefactive decomposition. Agricola. 



P. S. Please start the experiment with 

 " chips" and lime as soon as possible, as I am 

 anxious to know the result. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Orcharding. 



Mr. Editor, — Having until lately led a 

 city life, and now being thrown by circum- 

 stances (not, however, against my inclination) 

 into the country, I am obliged to commence 

 seeking information anew. I observe that 

 your columns are open to inquiries, and avail 

 myself of their medium, the more willingly, 

 as I hope, in endeavouring to profit myself, I 

 may elicit information which your reader3 

 generally will find interesting. In return, I 

 will promise to keep a strict record of matr 

 ters and things as they transpire, and send 

 you particulars, should any facts meet my ol>. 

 servation which I think would be generally 

 interesting. 



The farm on which I am, has a great num- 

 ber of fruit trees — apples, pears, cherries, 

 &c. — which are of the best kinds, and for- 

 merly yielded an abundance of the finest 

 fruits — but, from many years' neglect, the 

 fruit is now, in most instances, almost worth- 

 less. At first view, I thought I should be 



