396 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNK 14, 1843. 



Forlhu N. E. Farmer. 



ACTION OF LIME ON THE SOIL AND 

 CROPS. 

 Mr Put.nam — Dear Sir — A friend lately called 

 my nltc'iiiiiin to Bcveral articles which have been 

 recently published in your papor, in which refe- 

 rence has been made to my reports, and my opin- 

 ion WHS asked on the influence of lime as an 

 amendment to acid soils. 'I'he fact of my not hav- 

 ing seen tliose articles before, must be my apology 

 to the writers for a seeming neglect of their ques- 

 tions. A few remarks I will now offer you on the 

 action of lime on the soil and the crops raised up- 

 on it. 



1st. It acts on the mineral aci(js and salts in the 



soil. 

 2d, " " on the organic matters, both acids 



and their salts. 

 3tl, " " on the atmosphere. 

 4th, " " on the plants. 



Each one of the above divisions, considered in 

 detail, would form a lon„r chapter, and I phall not 

 have time now to do rr.ore than glance at the most 

 prominent points of practical and scientific interest. 

 When free acids, or acid salts, exist in the soil, 

 lime by combining with the acid, renders the soil 

 neutral ; and when carbonate of lime is brought^ 

 into action, in this manner, it gives out gradually 

 its carbonic acid. 



If a soil contains alum, (sulphate of alumina and 

 potash) or copperas, (sulphate of the prot. oxide of 

 iron,) or if it contains any decomposable sulphate, 

 carbonate of lime will prove a most beneficial ma- 

 nure and amendment of that soil. For two valua- 

 ble products result, viz: carbonic acid and sul- 

 phate of lime. So, also, if nitrate of ammonia ex- 

 ists in the soil, carbonate of lime will take the acid, 

 and the ammonia will be liberated in its most fa- 

 vorable condition, that of a carbonate. Phosphoric 

 acid also forms with lime one of the constant ingre- 

 dients of all the cereal grains, grasses, and legu- 

 minous vegetables. Tins acid in its free state, is 

 generally injurious to plants. It is found free in 

 the sinnt of Indian corn, and it is produced in the 

 soil by tlie decomposition of fish and of some ani- 

 mal manures, which cotitain it in excess, or com- 

 bined with a volatile base. Phosphate of lime is 

 an almost insoluble salt, but it appears neverthe- 

 less to be absorbed readily by living plants, as has 

 been proved both by analysis and by synthesis ; 

 the latter experiment being well known from the 

 action of burnt bones, which seem to possess near- 

 ly if not quite as strong an action on plants as 

 bones containing their animal matter. 



Many other mineral salts owe their fertilizing 

 power to the fact of their containing lime as their 

 basis ; but the above examples are sufficient to il- 

 lustrate the action of thai substance on mineral 

 salts and acids in soils. 



A few words may now be devoted to the consid- 

 eration of the action of lime on the organic mat- 

 ters of soils, which are known under the names of 

 mould or humus. 



These names may be regarded as generic, in- 

 cluding a great many species of proximate elements 

 and their salts. Their study in detail, would occu- 

 py too much room in your paper, had i the time to 

 enter fully into the description of all the mat- 

 ters which have thus far been discovered in mould. 

 It may suffice for our present purpose, to state that 

 mould exists in a great many dilferent slates. 



Sometimes it is nearly insoluble in water, or in the 

 liquids usually formed by the decay of manures. 

 At other times it is very soluble, both in water and 

 in weak alkaline solutions, especially in the car- 

 bonate of ammonia. It is sometimes acid, but 

 more frequently neutral, and when neutralized by 

 certain matters, is almost if not wholly insoluble ; 

 while if combined with other matters, it is readily 

 soluble in water. It is not always best to make it 

 as soluble as possible, for there is danger (too often 

 realized,) of its infiltrating into the subsoil with the 

 rain water which washes it from the surface soil. 

 By skillful management, a sufficiency is rendered 

 soluble each year for the growth of the crop culti- 

 vated. 



The following acids exist in the liumus of nil 

 parts of the world : 



Creiiic acid, 

 Apocrenic acid, 

 Uumic acid, and 

 Extract of humus. 

 Crenic acid forms two salts with lime, viz: a cre- 

 nate and a sub croiiate. The former is most solu- 

 ble in water, but the latter is not wholly insoluble. 

 It is very readily dissolved by rain water, which 

 contains a small quantity of carbonate of ammonia, 

 and is also acted upon by all ammoniacal manures. 

 Apocrenic acid forms a dark brown salt with 

 lime, which is still more insoluble in water than 

 the crenate, but is likewise most readily decompos- 

 ed by rain water and ammoniacal manures ; giving 

 up little by little its fertilizing acid in combination 

 with another higlily nitrogenized matter — ammo- 

 nia. 



Ilumic acid forms combinations with lime which 



are soluble in water and in ammoniacal solutions. 



Extract of humus is also a compound) body, and 



is neutral. It is highly charged with nitrogen, 



and is very soluble. 



Crenic, apocrenic and humic acids all form in- 

 soluble compounds with the per-oxide of iron, and 

 with manganese and with alumina. The yellov/ 

 color of the subsoil is generally owing to t.'ie pre- 

 sence of the humate of the per-oxide of iron. The 

 subsoil also contains a very large proportion of hu- 

 mate and crenate of lime, while the proportion of 

 apocrenates of iron and of lime is much greater in 

 the surface soil. 



Now by the action of lime we may decompose 

 these salts of iron, so as to bring out the combined 

 acids in combination with lime, so as to render 

 them available to plants. Thus even bog-iron ore 

 may be made to give up its fertilizing ingredients, 

 (the apocrenic, crenic and humic acids.) 



A soil may be free from any sour taste, and rnay 

 not redden the chemist's blue test paper, but ii may 

 still be in an electro negative condition; and this 

 condition I have supposed to favor the growth of 

 acid plants of certain kinds. So far as I have ob- 

 served, this appears to be the case with respect to 

 the growth of field sorrel. I know that it will 

 grow under other circumstances, but not so luxu- 

 riantly or abundantly. Exceptions are said to 

 " prove the rule"; and the cases cited by your 

 correspondent " D." may be of this class. Perhaps 

 all the conditions of the problem have not been no- 

 ticed, and thus we have contradictory testimony. 

 I can cite many cases directly opposite to the one 

 he has given. The experiments of Elias Phinney, 

 Esq., of Lexington ; Mr Dyer, of Providence, and 

 Mr Levi Bartlett, of Warner, N. H., seem to have 

 set the question of the favorable influence of limed 

 composts at rest. Sorrel disappeared where it was 



used. It is not contended that lime alone is capa- 

 ble of conferring fertility upon a barren sandy 

 pliiin, or that it will meet every possible ease. It 

 will, however do much more than is generally 

 known, when employed in a proper manner, by 

 skillful hands. Its principal use with the farmer 

 should be as a chemical agent in decomposing his 

 composts, so as to render them fit for immediate 

 use. I have advised the farmers generally in this 

 primary region, so poor in calcareous matter, to 

 mix into their composts of peat or swamp mnck 

 and barn-yard manure, which have stood one win- 

 ter, a bushel of recently slacked lime to a wagon 

 load of the compost, while digging it over in the 

 spring, preparatory to spreading it on the soil. So 

 far as 1 have heard, the result of this experiment 

 has been universally favorable, and in all the cases 

 where I have personally directed the ojieralions, it 

 has proved satisfactory. A much larger propor- 

 tion of lime may be advantageously employed than 

 what I have above mentioned, but even that small 

 quantity produces a very good efi'ect. 



Top dressing with lime is liable to many objec- 

 tions, which do not present themselves when the 

 lime is put into the compost, and thus at once neu- 

 tralized. Top dressing with lime requires several 

 years to make manifest its action, and it is not cer- 

 tain to act favorably, unless there is already a suf- 

 ficiency of organic manures in the soil, for it to 

 act upon. 



So long as lime is attracting carbonic acid from 

 the atmosphere, it must act unfavorably on grow- 

 ing plants, but when this ceases and the acids gen- 

 erated in the soil by the decay of vegetable matters 

 begin to act on the carbonate of lime, then a very 

 favorable influence is perceived, from the disengage- 

 ment of carbonic acid gas, and the formation of the 

 organic acid salts of lime. 



OwiuL' to this fact being overlooked, we have 

 had much erroneous statistics on the use of lime 

 as a manure, or amendment. 



The action of lime on the atmosphere and on 

 plants, is considered generally in the above re- 

 marks. Many other observations might be made- 

 on the same subject, but the above will perhaps 

 suffice for the present. Lime enters into the com- 

 position of many of the saline ingredients of vege- 

 tables, and constitutes the basis of their ashes 

 when they are burnt. In the state of oxalate of 

 lime, it enters into the composition of all hard wood 

 forest trees, existing in distinct crystals in their 

 cells, more than a million distinct crystals of that 

 salt having been counted in a square inch of the 

 birch and locust by Prof. Bailey. 



Oxalic acid, which takes its name from the cir- 

 cumstance of its having been obtained from the Ox- 

 alis acetosella, or Wood sorrel, exists in the Rumex 

 genu.<f, or field and garden sorrels, and also in seve- 

 ral other genera of plants. It is composed of carbon 

 and oxygen, in the proportions of 33.75 carbon 

 -j-()G.24 oxygen. It is possible for it to have been 

 formed from the atmosphere and from water, but I 

 am inclined to believe that it is more probably gen- 

 erated by the changes made in the organic acids 

 which the plants absorb from the soil. The rea- 

 sons for this opinion cannot be given here at 

 length, since I should occupy too much of your 

 paper. In the sorrel, oxalic acid is combined with 

 potash, forming a bin-oxalate, or acid salt. In 

 forest trees it is imprisoned in the cells, in the 

 stale of insoluble oxalate of lime. 



But few experiments have been made to ascer- 

 tain whether it exists in the soil. Indeed, some 



