No. 8. 



Trifolium Incarnnlum. 



251 



retard the process of dncomposition. It has 

 often boon spread on heaps of manure, and on 

 cornstalks, for the purpose of decoi/iposinff 

 them, but I have yet to learn, that it h:is pro- 

 duced any other elFect, than to retard lliat 

 process. Straw and cornstalks arc bleacheii 

 of a beautiful yellow color by lime; but tlieir 

 decomposition is not hastened but retarded 

 by its presence. 



I have made numerous inquiries of respect- 

 able, intelligent farmers who are in the Jn.bit 

 of using lime, on this subject, and have with- 

 out an exception so far, found them to concur 

 in the opinion that lime retards decomposi- 

 tion. Botli before, and since the appearance 

 of M.'s essay, the question was propounded 

 to a number of chemists of the first standing 

 who, witliout an exception, gave the opinion 

 that lime was an antisccptic. 



The putting of lime into privies is to pre- 

 vent putrefaction and the consequent disa- 

 greeable effluvia; and it is often applied to 

 the carcasses of dead animals for the same 

 purpose. 



Some years since, the writer, then holding 

 the same views of the decomposing tendency 

 of lime which M. now espouses — for that was 

 the orthodox creed when he was young — un- 

 dertook to have a dead horse converted into a 

 BoUible manure without any unnecessary de- 

 lay, and the plan adopted was, to sail him 

 well inside and out with quicklime and then 

 to cover him up with earth, like a potato 

 heap. He was visited often and examined, 

 but the process was not found to progress 

 with the expected rapidity, and after the lapse 

 of about a year it was discovered that the 

 lime had robbed the carcass of its juices, and 

 that it was in the state of pretty decent jerk- 

 ed-beef, and not likely soon to become solu- 

 ble. Another carcass of a horse, covered 

 with earth only, decomposed in a much short- 

 er period of time within a few yards of the 

 former. 



In the present volume of the Cabinet, page 

 152, is an extract from the last edition of Da- 

 vy's Agricultural Chemistry, which corrobo- 

 rates the opinion of the antisceptic tendency 

 of lirne. 



It is the opinion of many farmers who have 

 had much experience in the use of lime, that 

 vegetable manure is more enduring where 

 lime his been applied, and this opinion ac- 

 cords well with the position that lime retards 

 decomposition. For the preparation of food 

 for plants by decomposing vesjetable or ani- 

 mal matter bears a strong analogy to c:X)king 

 food for animals; it should be cooked as it is 

 needed for current consumption, otherwisi 

 there will be loss; so it is apprehended of 

 manure as food for phnts, that the nearer an 

 approach we can make to decomposing it and 

 rendering it soluble as it is needed for their 



sustenance, the more economy and the lesa 

 waste; and lime it is conceived enables ua 

 in some measure to accomplish this important 

 o'.)j'!Ct by retarding decomposition, and keep- 

 ing the formation of the solution in check, so 

 as to furnish it only as food for plants as it is 

 wanted, and not to be washed away to a depth 

 wiiere it cannot be made available for that 

 end. 



Tiie plan at present generally adopted of 

 applying manure which is thoroughly decom- 

 posed, and consequently in a state to be im- 

 mediately dissolved by rain, is believed to be 

 Hltended with much waste, as the plants, 

 when in an infant state, and requiring the 

 least f(X)d are supplied with it the most boun- 

 tifully; and when they arrive at a larger 

 growth and would seem to demand it in 

 greater abundance, much of it must have 

 been washed so deep into the earth (particu- 

 larly in loose soils) as to be beyond the reach 

 of the fibres of the roots. 



M.'s paragraph, at the top of page 230, is 

 not comprehended, either from its not being 

 intelligible, or want of ability to understand 

 it. X. has not expressed any opinion in his 

 essay about applying lime before it becomes 

 a carbonate, as is stated by M. in the last par- 

 agraph. He has some opinions on this sub- 

 ject which it is not necessary now to state, 

 as the accumulation of facts in which he has 

 been for .some length of time engaged may 

 throw additional light on that subject. 



The object X. has principally had in view 

 in writing the essays on lime, published in 

 the Cabinet, was, in the first place, to pre- 

 vent impositions being practised by the deal- 

 ers in it ; and in the second, to call the atten- 

 tion of farmers to the facts connected with, 

 and observed in its application to the soil. 

 If tliose who apply it to their land, would 

 make careful observations on its efTects, and 

 particularly note any observations tending to 

 show either its sceptic or antisceptic quali- 

 ties, and forward them for publication in the 

 Cabinet, much benefit might arise from it in 

 (Establishing a correct theory, and a sound 

 and profitable practice in its application to 

 land. X. 



Trifolium Incariiatum. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet : 



SiR,^Your correspondent, Mr. Pennock, 

 p. 135, 2d vol. Cabinet, wishes to obtain fiir- 

 ther information respecting the Trifolium 

 Incarnatiim, which is there denominated " a 

 NEW KIND OF CLOVER." I beg to Say it is by 

 no means new, for in the Botanical Catalogue, 

 f find it described as a native of Italy — hardy, 

 flowering in July, flesh colored blossom, and 

 having been catalogued as far back as the 

 year 1640 — it is therefore only brought again 



