500 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 



ever since the year 1790, and think I have been | 

 well rewarded for the expense and labor, hy the I 

 increased vajne of my crops. 



The method of applyinii the lim", whicli I have 

 adopted in common v.ilh my neiahbors is, in the 

 first place, to plon^'h up a sod field v/itii a strong 

 team, in the, spring or fall, harrow it the way it is 

 ploughed, and mark the field into as many 

 squares as yoa inlead to put on hall-bashels, say 

 100 on the acre, which will bring the furrows about 

 20 feet apart each v.'ay, and require 50 br.shels to 

 the acre. Thisquanlity I have found to be most 

 proniable. When the lime is burnt, and as soon 

 as it is cool enough to handle, it ougiit to be haul- 

 ed on the land already marked, and a half-bushel 

 deposited in the centre of each square, in as com- 

 pact a heap as possible. If water is convenient, I 

 prefer to slack the lime immediately, rather than 

 to wait for rain, as it becomes finer and can be 

 more evenly spread. As soon as it has slacked, it 

 is immediately spread and well harrowed. This 

 method I prefer tor Indian corn, barley, oats, rye 

 and potatoes. On all ihe above crops I have ex- 

 perienced a great benefit fhom lime the first year 

 after its application. With potatoes I add about 

 15 two-horse loads of barn-yard manure to the 

 acre, before planting. A second liming is often 

 given, and much approved of, after an interval of 

 three or n)ore years. This amalgamates better, 

 and can be more intimately mixed with the soil. 



There are gpod fiirmers who differ as to the 

 quantity of lime that is m.ost prolitably applied. 

 Some say 60 bushels on the acre, some 70, and 

 some more. I have applied 100 on an acre oi' 

 limestone land, at a dressinrr, but have not been 

 able to discover any benefit fi'om u^iiiig it thus 

 freely, nor any injuiy, except in the loss of lime. 



Wheat seldom receives any benefit iiom lime 

 until the second or third year alter it has been ap- 

 plied, except it has been mixed in a compost of 

 yard manure and earth. This method is much 

 practised in the lower counties of this state; 

 though not by good fiirmers until they have ap- 

 plied lime as the basis of amelioration. By this 

 management they have raised their lands fi-om an 

 impoverished state, produced by injudicious crop- 

 ping, to such a state of fertility, as, I am inlbrmed, 

 to enable them to iiitten a bullock of six hundred 

 weight on an acre, and to cut grass from the same 

 acre suflicient to winter another. 



Sandy soils are greatly improved by the use of 

 lime. I lately purchased some of that kind, 

 which was originally covered with chestnut tim- 

 ber, and was called mountain land. It had been 

 cleared seventy years; bat lying a distance from 

 the fiirm buildings, had never received manure 

 but a dressing of lime. This land I have had re- 

 peatedly farmed since I owned it ; and ah hough 

 to appearance it seemed to be almost a caput mor- 

 tuum, with the aid of ten or twelve fbur-horse 

 loads of the gleanings of a yard of a public 

 house, it has produced as much, and as good 

 wheat, rye, oats, timothy and clover to the acre, 

 as any land in the township in which it lays. I 

 consider (he liming which it had fifty years ago as 

 the principal cause of its fijrtility. 



It is a general opinion amongst good fiirmers, 

 that liming should be repeated every ten or fifteen 

 years, and that the increased crops richly coinpen- 

 isate the expense. It, matters very little how it 

 is applied, provided it is evenly spread immediate- 



ly after it is slacked. If sud'ered to air-slack, or to 

 lie after it has been water-slacked, it re-imbibes 

 carbonic acid, which the fire had expelled, be- 

 comes lumpy, and is more difficult to be incorpora- 

 ted with the soil. Some spread it upon the sod, 

 and plough it under, and think they have as much 

 profit lioin it in this way as in any other. When 

 thus applied, it powerfully contributes to decom- 

 pose the tougher fibres of the sod, and to convert 

 them into nutriment for the crop. 



The price of the lime is governed by the price 

 of wood, the distance the stone has to be trans- 

 ported, the construction of the kiln, and the ex- 

 perience of those who burn it. Where wood 

 costs but one dollar a cord at the kiln, where the 

 stone has to be carted not more than the fourth of 

 a mile, the kiln well constructed, to contain 800 or 

 1,000 bushels, and the workmen understand their 

 business — the lime can be sold at eight dollars the 

 hundred bushels at the lime-kiln, and leave to all 

 concerned a fair compensation (or their labor and 

 exjjense. I have paid 25 dollars per hundred 

 bushels, delivered on the field, at ten miles distant 

 fi-om the lime-kiln, and think I could not have ap- 

 plied my money to better advantage. This waa 

 applied to land of the old red-stone formation. 

 The produce has far exceeded my expectation. 1 

 however make use of barn-yard manure and plas- 

 ter of Paris; the former at the rate of ten four- 

 horse loads the acre ; and the latter at the rate of 

 a bushel and a hall", on rye. timothy and clover. 

 Yet i consider lime as the real mother of all the 

 sweet grasses. 



I am with sentiments of esteem, your obedient 

 servant, 



DANIEL BUCKLEY. 



P. S. I have omitted to state, that on land which 

 has been much exhausted, or has naturally a thin 

 soil, we do not apply more than 30 or 40 bushels 

 to the acre, at the first dressings; but in three or 

 four years afterwards the liming may be repeated 

 to advantage, to the extent of fifty bushels on the 

 acre. 



D. B. 



Letter from IVilliam Chapman on the use of lime 

 in ^Agriculture. 



Sir — Agreeably to your request, I now commu- 

 nicate to you my experience in the use of lime in 

 husbandry. 



First. — While with my father in England, I 

 assisted to set out large quantities of lime as a ma- 

 nure. It was applied to all soils upon his farm, 

 viz : moss or turf, clay, black or yellow loam, and 

 sand loam. We put on from two to three hun- 

 dred bushels the acre. I have seen land that be- 

 fore liming was so poor that it would bear nothing 

 but bent and moss, alter liming, give tlie heaviest 

 crops of oats and wheat for ten years; and I have 

 no doubt it would have produced good crops fbr 

 ten years longer, Avith suitable alteration of 

 grasses. 



Second. — I have set out lime on my farm in this 

 country, on stiff clay and on loams, in considerable 

 quantities. It has been particularly beneficial on 

 the cla}^. I had one field which would produce 

 nothing of consequence until I limed it ; after 

 which I sowed it with rye and grass seeds. Both 

 the ffrain and grass were good, and it is now co- 



