104 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



The quantity used in La Sarthe is not more 

 than twelve bushels to the acre, and is laid upon 

 the land in alternate rows, witii barn yard manure. 

 Intheopmion ofM.Puvis, this method, altlioujfh 

 the least expensive, is the best, and it may bcs-aid 

 to be within the reach of almost every American 

 agriculturist. 



The advantage of the use of lime may be stated 

 in a lew w^ords;lt is an essential part oi' the seed 

 of wheat, aud that valuable fjrain will not grow in 

 any soil which does not contain it. It may, there- 

 fore, be reasonably hoped that the culture ol' this 

 plant may, by the aid of lime, in ihiscomparative- 

 ly cheap mode, be restorod in those districts whence 

 it has long been banished. 

 In the United States the use of lime is limited to 

 the districts into which the descendants of the 

 Germans, who settled in Pennsylvania, have intro- 

 duced the method they brought fjom their native 

 country. It is usual to apply from thirty to liarty 

 bushels per acre, and in some instances one hun- 

 dred bushels have been used to advantage. The 

 limestone, by the analysis of Dr. Cooper, yielded 

 in some instances as much as 16 per cent, of mag- 

 nesia. It therefore comes into the class of magne- 

 sian Hmestones, the employment of which requires 

 caution, for this earth absorbs carbonic acid from 

 the atmosphere much more slowly than lime, and 

 so long as it is uncombined may be injurious to 

 plants. 



The high price of grain in Great Britain, during 

 the long wars of the French Revolution, acted as 

 a stimulus upon the use of inferior soils, and these 

 were rendered arable by the use of lime; but the 

 improvement thus produced has been permanent, 

 aud although a liill in the price of agricultural pro- 

 ducts may have lowered rents, or ruined those 

 who had contracted to pay high ones, we have 

 heard of no instance of its becoming expedient to 

 abandon the soils once brought into tillage by the 

 aid of lime. The most remarkable fact of all is, 

 that many of the newly reclaimed lands, in districts 

 formerly considered as sterile both by nature and 

 climate, were raised to a higher value than those 

 of ancient fame for fertile soil and favorable skies. 

 Thus, twenty years since, the rents of Northum- 

 berland, Berwick and Dumfries, were higher, per 

 acre of arable soil, than those of Gloucestershire, 

 and we were witnesses of the migration of tenanis, 

 from the northern to the southern region, at the re- 

 quest of landlords, who wished to introduce the 

 Scottish husbandry, of which lime is the main sup- 

 port, into the fertile vales of the Severn. 



We cannot conclude, without recommending the 

 perusal of the works whose titles stand at the head 

 of this article, to the attention of every American 

 landholder. A skilful application of ti\e principles 

 they illustrate, would go liir to check the annual 

 decrease in fertility, which lakes place in many of 

 our districts; a decrease which has already made 

 some of the regions once most productive in bread 

 stuffs, importers of that necessary element of exis- 

 tence, and which subjects us most deservedly to 

 the reproach of being unable to retain the bless- 

 ings which Providence has showered with a lavish 

 hand upon our country. 



One other important consideration requires no- 

 tice, and this is the change in healthfulness which 

 the application of calcareous earth to soils abound- 

 ing in vegetable matter, is likely to produce. Air. 

 RufRn cites facts in which he is corroborated by 



JVI. Puvis, which would almost warrant the con- 

 clusion, that this will be an efficient remedy for 

 the malaria, whose influence is extending itself 

 over every part of our middle and southern sea- 

 board. There are indeed causes, such as stag- 

 nant waters, mill ponds, and rice cultivation, which 

 are beyorkl its leacli; but there are other cases, 

 where if there be any reliance on the usual theo- 

 ry of the causes, calcareous manures ought to be 

 efficient in checking an infliction, which drives the 

 white population, during the summer and autum- 

 nal months, from many of the fairest portions of 

 the United States, and in others materially short- 

 ens the average duration of human existence. 



From Loudon's (English) Gardener's Magazme. 



An Essay on Calcareous Manures. By EdmukU 

 RuFFiM. Small Svo, pp. 242. Petersburg, 

 Lower Virginia, 1832. 



The object of this Essay, Mr. Ruflin informs us, 

 is to investigate the peculiar features and qualities 

 of the soils of the tide-water districts of Lower 

 Virginia; "to show the causes of their general 

 unproductiveness; and to point out means, as yet 

 but little used, for their efl'ectual and profitable 

 improvement." The sterility of these soils Mr. 

 RufKn has ascertained to arise from their being des- 

 titute of calcareous earth, and from their being in- 

 jured by the presence of vegetable acid. 



After two chapters on earths and soils generally, 

 and on the soils and state of agriculture in the 

 tide- water districts of Virginia, the author treats 

 of the different capacities of soils for improve- 

 ment, and discusses the following proposi- 

 tions: — 



1. "Soils naturally poor, and rich soils reduced to po- 

 verty by cultivation, are essentially different in their 

 powers of retaining putrescent manures: and, under 

 like circumstances, the fitness of any soil to be enrich- 

 ed by these manures, is in proportion to what was its 

 natural fertility. 



2. "The natural sterility of the soils of Lower Vir- 

 ginia is caused by such soils being destitute of calca- 

 reous earth, and their being injured by the presence 

 and effects of vegetable acid. 



3. "The fertilizing effects of calcareous earth are 

 chiefly produced by its power of neutralizing acids, and 

 of combining ])utrescent manures with soils, between 

 which there would otherwise be but little, if any, che- 

 mical attraction. 



4. "Poor and acid soils cannot be improved durably 

 or profitably, by putrescent manures, without previous- 

 ly malcing them calcareous, and thereby correcting the 

 defect in their constitution. 



5. "Calcareous manures will, give to our worst soils 

 a power of retaining putrescent manures equal to that 

 of the best; and will cause more productiveness, and 

 yield more profit,. tlian any other improvement practi- 

 cable in Lower Virginia." (p. 30.) 



These propositions contain the marrow of the 

 Essay, which is closely reasoned, and, in several 

 particulars, original. Mr. Ruffin has the merit of 

 first pointing out that there can be no such thing 

 as a naturally fertile soil, without the presence of 

 calcareous earth; but, where this earth is present, 

 the soil, however exhausted it may have been by 

 culture, will, when left to itself, after a time regain 

 its original fertility: that soils which contain no 

 calcareous earth are never found naturally fertile, 

 except mosses, or beds of vegetable matter, which 

 are not properly soils: and that all that art can do 



