No. 4. 



Dr. Darlington's Address. 



125 



The labour bestowed, in working a given 

 portion of ground, must be rewarded with a 

 better and more abundant crop. Our only 

 resource is to have neat, tidy little farms — 

 with small fields made in the higliest de- 

 gree productive — as a set off against the 

 expanded agriculture of the distant west; 

 while our markets must be multiplied by 

 the permanent establishment and encourage 

 ment of all the useful branches of mechani 

 cal and manufacturing industry. These 

 various pursuits placed harmoniously side 

 by side, have a salutary reaction upon each 

 other, and diffuse reciprocal blessings over 

 the entire community. 



The farmer, then, must go earnestly to 

 work, to perform the duties of his depart- 

 ment. The first step is to enrich his land: 

 and this, as I have intimated, is best accom- 

 plished by ploughing no more ground than 

 he can thoroughly manure. To accumulate 

 manure must, therefore, be a leading object. 

 The chief element of manure being vege- 

 table matter, the production of that material, 

 on exhausted soils, is necessarily slow and 

 tedious;, but we have found a powerful and 

 valuable auxiliary, in that process, in the 

 application of lime. This mineral, judi- 

 ciously applied, is known to be higlily fa- 

 vourable to the growth of the natural tiimily 

 of grasses, and especially of the more valu- 

 able species of that family. By an increase 

 of those grasses, we are enabled to keep a 

 more numerous stock, .and thereby to aug- 

 ment the quantity of barn-yard manure. This 

 increase of manure ennances the beneficial 

 influence of the lime; for lime has ever the 

 best effects in conjunction with manure, — 

 and the dose of that mineral may be grad- 

 ually heavier, as the soil becomes richer. 

 Thus these important agents may be made 

 to co-operate with augmented etficacy, as 

 the work of improvement advances. The 

 calcareous dressings promote the increase of 

 vegetable matter; and by that very increase, 

 their agency is rendered still more effective 

 and salutary: so that what the Roman poet 

 says of the progress of rumor, or fame, may 

 be literally applied to the use of lime, in 

 agriculture — 



" vires ucquirit eimdo.'" 



The application of lime for the improve- 

 ment of land is, perhaps, more universal — 

 and its advantages better appreciated 

 among the farmers of Chester counly, than 

 in any other district of our country. The 

 practice there, for many years, has been to 

 apply quick lime — slacked so as to reduce 

 it to a powder — on the grounds which have 

 been prepared for Indian corn. This was 

 long supposed to be the most appropriate 



time for applying it, — and it is still gene- 

 rally observed ; but experience has demon- 

 strated, that the application never comes 

 amiss, — that it is beneficial at all times; 

 and the maxim now is, to be sure and put it 

 on, some time in the year. Of latter years, 

 some of our best tanners have adopted the 

 practice of using lime as a top dressing, on 

 their meadows and pasture grounds — for 

 every field, in its turn, becomes a meadow, 

 after the wheat crop: — and I am strongly 

 inclined to the opinion that this will be 

 found the most advantageous mode of apply- 

 ing it. It mingles directly with the dead 

 vegetable matter on the surface, and thus, 

 as I suppose, improves the quality of that 

 refijse herbage, as a manure. It moreover 

 exerts a salutary influence upon the turf, 

 or sod, in stiff' clay soils, by mellowing it — 

 and otherwise improving its condition. An- 

 other advantage attending top dressings of 

 lime on grass lands, is, that they can be ap- 

 plied at the seasons of greatest leisure and 

 convenience to the farmer. On the whole, 

 therefore, I believe this method entitled to 

 the preference ; or, at least, is worthy of the 

 consideration of practical agriculturists. In- 

 deed, there is reason to believe that top 

 dressing — even of the driest and lightest 

 manures, or of straw, itself, produces a 

 more signal effect upon the growth of the 

 valuable grasses, than results from the same 

 materials when buried by the plough; and 

 the subject deserves further investigation. 



The quantity of lime employed in agri- 

 culture, on a given surface, should be regu- 

 lated by the quality of the soil. On sterile, 

 or exhausted lands, where the vegetation is 

 scant, the dressing should at first be light, 

 yet gradually increased, as the soil improves. 

 Thirty bushels to the acre, equally distri- 

 buted, may be sufficient at the commence- 

 ment: but, as vegetable matter accumu- 

 lates, the quantity of lime may be enlarged, 

 by degrees, to sixty or eighty bushels to the 

 acre. Some of the best Chester county 

 farms will bear even one hundred bushels 

 per acre, with advantage; and it is remark- 

 able, that the very soil which overlies the 

 limestone rock, will bear the heaviest dress- 

 ings of that mineral. 



If I might here venture -at a Chester 

 county prescription, for the treatment of an 

 exhausted farm, I would say to its occupant, 

 make your fields small, or at least, plough 

 only so much as you can manure well, when 

 it comes to be laid down with wheat, timo- 

 thy and clover: give your Indian corn-field 

 a moderate dressing of lime, preparatory to 

 planting. The intermediate crop, between 

 the Indian corn and wheat, may be oats, or 

 barley, as the quality of the land may war- 



