314 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No 5 



shall hereafter endeavor to pen my cattle on them 

 in the spring before the grass seeds, and betore the 

 brush and wood is pnt on, or make them much 

 richer vvilli manure that has no seed in it. 



A PLANTER. 



REMARKS GST THE (SUPPOSED) GYPSTJI DIS- 

 COVERED IN NEW YORK, AND THE PROBA- 

 BLE EXISTENCE OF A SIMILAR SLBSTAXCE IN 

 WESTERN VIRGINIA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Big Lick, Botetourt, ^4iig. 6, 1836. 



I have met with nothing recently, which has 

 surprised or puzzled me more than the recent de- 

 veIoi)ments in New York, re.specling the rock in 

 Moore's well, and the principal plaster beds in the 

 State. It brings to lile exploded theories, which, 

 a few years since, had many supporters in the Val- 

 ley of Virginia. 



There are numerous localities in this country, 

 where the limestone crops out at the usual angle 

 with the horizon, but trom peculiar causes, not well 

 understood, is subject to constant and ra])id disin- 

 tegration. It is softer, and lioin the inexhaustible 

 iertility which it imparls to the ground over which 

 it is scattered, it has been supposed by many, to 

 possess the virtues of gypsum. By the farmers it 

 is called rotlen limestone, and some have had it 

 pounded, ground, and sown, as is customary with 

 plaster, and claim for it equal activity. The ex- 

 perience, however, is so limited and contradictory, 

 and the lights of science so adverse to its efficacy, 

 that until the arrival of your last No., (3rd,) I 

 have had no hesitation in attributing, what seemed 

 to be theeffect of the powdered carbonate, to other 

 influences. I cannot, for a moment, believe, that 

 either the carbonate orsulj)liateof lime, sown over 

 the ground in the usual quantities, can be of any 

 value, mechanically. Their attraction lor moisture, 

 when pulverized, has had an importance attached 

 to it which ignorance alone could have encouraged; 

 for, aside from their solidilying what they absorb, 

 how triflingly inconsiderable must be the moisture 

 attracted by a k\v handliils of dust scattered over 

 an acre of ground. Gypsum being soluble in from 

 300 to 500 parts of water, and being found by ana- 

 lysis an important constituent of those plants upon 

 which its action is most strikmg, enables science 

 to unfold its mysteries with tolerable clearness. 

 But the carbonate being insoluble, seems to cast 

 an impenetrable veil over its modus operandi if we 

 admit its influence upon vegetation to be the same 

 with plaster. We are always backward and un- 

 willing to admit what seems to be at war vv'ith the 

 settled principles of science, and yet we are every 

 day encountering stubborn facts, before which, spe- 

 culation must give way, and to which, principles, 

 however revered for their anti(|uity, or stamped 

 with value by the approbation of the wise and the 

 learned, must accommodate tltemselvcs. Now, it 

 has been a received opinion, that the carbonate of 

 lime is insoluble; the correctness of which, is sus- 

 tained, not only by the ordinary chemical experi- 

 ment, but by the liact that the soil throughout the 

 Valley of Virginia, and other timbered calcareous 

 regions, even when lymg in immediate contact 

 with limestone, atfbrds upon analysis, not the slight- 

 est evidence of the existence of lime. For this 



last remarkable fact, we are measurably indebted 

 to your experiments*. In vegetable physiology 

 too, it is unquestioned that plants receive their 

 nourishment, either in a gaseous form, by absorb- 

 ing it through the leaves, or by imbibing it in a li- 

 quid state, through the minute spongeoles which 

 terminate the roots. From all which lacts, viz: 

 its quality (i. e. the carbonate of lime) o( solidify- 

 ing the moisture it absorbsj — the absurdity of ex- 

 pecting a mechanical effect Irom the small quanti- 

 ty sown over the surflice, its insolubilitv, and the 

 impossibility of any substance acting directly as n 

 pabulum, or by stimulating and exciung the diges- 

 tive organs of tlie plant, which is not soluVjIe, it 

 Ibllows that the carbonate of lime can exercise no 

 influence upon vegetation, unless put upon the soil 

 in such quantities as to change its constitution by 

 mechanical division. Such is the conclusion to 

 which the lights of science would seem to lead us. 

 hi opposition to which, we have the ii\ct before us, 

 whichever way we turn, that the springs which 

 rise in, and the streams which flow through that 

 country, the soil of which affords, upon analysis, 

 no lime, are strongly impregnated with it, and de- 

 posite it in the form of argillaceous marl wherever 

 the stream is small, and exposed by ripples to the 

 action ot the atmosphere. Even those immense 

 parapets of travel-tin in the neighborhood of the 

 Sweet Springs, which excited the amazement of 

 our U. States Geologist, Mr. Featherstonhaugh, 

 and which he seemed to consider, in his communi- 

 cation to you, as almost anomalous, but which are 

 by no means uncommon, are the undoubted depos- 

 ites from the streams in their vicinity, which must 

 have imbibed their calcareous qualities somehow 

 or other, from the soil through which it percolates 

 in forming springs. This would seem to say lime 

 was a constituent of the soil, and without question 

 exhibits it in a dissolved condition. Whether in 

 the secret laboratory of nature it undergoes modi- 

 fications, we cannot detect, or how it happens, it is 



* The carbonate of lime — the form, which is pre- 

 sented in limestone — was found to be almost always 

 absent, in such cases as are above named — and such was 

 the novel and strange fact stated in the Essay on Cal- 

 careous Manures. But lime, in some other combina- 

 tion than the carbonate, was supposed to be always 

 present in soils touching limestone. — See pp. 20,21, 2d 

 Ed. Ed. Far. Reg. 



t Water is not solidified, when absorbed frem the at- 

 mosphere, either by pulverized carbonate of lime, or 

 gypsum not calcined — as any so absorbed is not che- 

 mically combined with either. The power of absorb- 

 ing water, in both, is by such action as any pulverized 

 matter would exert, and is but feeble, compared to some 

 other earths, or mixtures oftarth with putrescent mat- 

 ter. Butpure or quick lime, combines chemically with 

 a certain and a considerable proportion of water, in 

 slaking, and solidiiics it, as the slaked lime may be as 

 dry as any thing can be, and yet hold this large pro- 

 portion of water. All gypsum is already supplied with 

 its solidified water— it forming one of its uniform com- 

 ponent parts. This water is dispelled by calcination, 

 and would be again absorbed (and in that case solidiiied) 

 if the calcined gypsum was scattered on the surface of 

 the earth. Ep. 



