30G 



Report of the Committee on Agriculture. 



Vol. VIII. 



We are indebted to William D. Bowie of the Mary- 

 land Senate, for the following Report, which will be 

 found particularly adapted to the reading of the intel- 

 ligent farmer. It contains many facts in relation to 

 lime and its action, which we are apt to find w rapt up 

 in too much scientific matter. It is vaUiable on this 

 account: it may be understood without much chemical 

 knowledge.— Ed. 



Keport of the Committee on Agriculture, 

 relative to the Application of Lime to 

 the diiferent qualities of Soil, and the 

 use of Calcareous matter for Agricultu- 

 ral purposes. 



In obedience to an order of the House, of 

 the 21th January. 



The Committee on Agriculture, to which 

 was referred the order submitted by Mr. 

 Smith, on the 27th of January, beg leave to 

 report : 



That an increased production from the 

 soil, effected by the application of lime, has 

 by no means been a discovery of modern 

 times. As it exists in marl, it was long used 

 by the ancient Greeks, who probably knew 

 not that they were applying lime. The 

 Romans were aware of the value of marl, 

 but its existence in Italy was not known till 

 after the fall of the Roman Empire. When 

 they pushed their conquests into Gaul and 

 Britain, they found the barbarian farmers, as 

 they were considered, manuring their lands 

 with marl, which they have continued to do 

 to the present day. The application of cal- 

 cined stone or lime to land in Europe, com- 

 menced at a later period, perhaps but little 

 before the beginning of our era. The Chi- 

 nese now use it, and no doubt, have been in 

 the practice from a remote period. Since 

 the revival of letters the attention of scien- 

 tific men has been devoted to the rationale 

 of its action upon the land. They made 

 little progress, however, until within a few 

 years past. The discoveries of Saussure, 

 Davy, Chaptal, Sprengel, Boussingault, and 

 a host of other eminent inquirers into the 

 relations of chemistry to agriculture and 

 vegetable and animal physiology, laid before 

 the world a mass of valuable facts, which 

 the gigantic mind of Liebig has enabled 

 him to generalise, and to develope liglit and 

 certainty where much darkness and mystery 

 formerly existed. The principles adopted in 

 his investigations, brought him to conclusions 

 which seem evidently founded upon the im- 

 mutable laws of nature. We may safely 

 assert that a new era has dawned upon ag- 

 riculture and physiology. 



On the continent of Europe, where it is 

 esteemed the duty of the different govern- 

 ments to encourage agriculture, as far as 

 lies in their power, we find many able men 



under their fostering care, devoting them- 

 selves to the important occupation of bring- 

 ing science to the aid of agriculture, and a 

 flood oflight is being shed upon the subject of 

 rendering the soil more productive. In Eng- 

 land we find them fully alive to the subject: 

 her nobles and gentry, who were in times 

 past disposed to rest their claims for honour- 

 able distinction upon their success in making 

 war upon their enemies, or upon one an- 

 other, are now found entering the lists to 

 compete with each other, in the less chival- 

 ric, but certainly more useful occupation of 

 raising turnips. The princely fortunes of 

 many of her land holders, enable such as 

 require it, to get efficient aid from the in- 

 vestigations of scientific men. The works 

 of Professor James F. W. Johnston, who is 

 exclusively devoted to agricultural chemis- 

 try, are republished in this country as fast 

 as they issue from the press in England. 

 They are of inestimable value to the farmer. 

 A few years since, there would have been 

 little use in making the inquiries now pro- 

 posed to the committee, for the reason that 

 there were too few data to start with ; the 

 subject was so much veiled in mystery, that 

 we could have said little more to the farmer 

 than, " that as experience proves, that lands 

 cannot for a long period be profitably culti- 

 vated without the application of lime in some 

 form or other, it is expedient to use it." 

 Now, however, such a wide field of research 

 is opened to us, that we find it difficult to con- 

 fine ourselves to those branches of investiga- 

 tion that we can complete within the time we 

 have allotted for making this report. While 

 we regret that the lateness of the period 

 when the subjects were committed to our 

 charge has prevented a more full examina- 

 tion, and a more systematic arrangement 

 of the matter, we hope, our exertions 

 will be found to throw some light on this 

 interesting subject, and be of some little 

 practical use at least, to our agricultural 

 community — and make still more manifest 

 the importance of further pursuing the sub- 

 ject of the application of science to agricul- 

 ture, so that we may keep pace with the 

 improvements of the age. 



Of the properties of lime and some of its 

 compounds the most important to agricul- 

 ture. 



Lime is not, as was formerly supposed, a 

 simple substance; it is composed of a me- 

 tallic substance called calcium united to 

 oxygen. When pure it is a white, brittle, 

 earthy solid, having alkaline properties, 

 whose specific gravity is to that of water 

 as 2.3 to 1. It is per se one of the most 

 infusible of known bodies, having a strong 



