82 



Lime, and mode of applying it. — Making Bricks. Vol. VIL 



boxes in the spring of the year, to any rea- 

 sonable distance, and transplanted as before- 

 mentioned, in a condition for immediate bear- 

 ing. The roots which may have extended 

 outside of the box, should be secured from 

 injury by a wrapper of matting or straw on 

 removal. It may be well to observe, that 

 after the young plant shall have grown to 8 

 or 10 feet in length, it is best to check its 

 further projection, by nipping oft' the bud at 

 the extreme end. It will also be found, that 

 fruit will set on many of the young plants, 

 in a few weeks after laying down, which, if 

 left alone, will mature and ripen in good 

 condition the first season. But, such pre- 

 mature bearing should always be checked, 

 by taking off the young buds as soon as they 

 are set." And, in all well cultivated vines, 

 the lateral shoots, or what are by some called 

 Backers, should be (the greater part of them,) 

 removed as fast as they appear. The ob- 

 vious tendency of these several primings, 

 will always be to throw the whole nourish- 

 ment derived through the medium of the 

 roots and leaves, from the soil, the atmos- 

 phere and moisture, into the main body of 

 the plant, and thereby render it strong, 

 healthy and prolific. N. 



Philadelphia, Ninth mo. 16, 1842. 



Lime, and the mode of applying it. 



The practice inculcated in the following, which we 

 clip from the "American Farmer," has novelty at least, 

 to recommend it : we trust our friends will give it the 

 attention it deserves. That lime is one of the most 

 valuable farm manures, has been long settled : the best 

 mode of applying it, is not so well understood. 



Mr. Raymond Baker communicated some 

 observations on the use and abuse of lime as 

 a dressing for land, by Mr. William Henry 

 Fisher, at 18 Conduit street, London. The 

 author's great object is to impress upon farm- 

 ers the importance of using quick lime, and 

 not lime which once had been quick, but by 

 decay in use and exposure to the atmosphere 

 had become effete, and lias absorbed from 

 the air the carbonic acid, which changes it 

 again to the carbonate of lime it was before 

 burning. He considers that many thousands 

 of pounds are annually thrown away by ag> 

 riculturists, from want of a proper knowledge 

 of this simple fact; and he recommends 

 them to use their lime in the fresh burnt 

 state, 1))' carting it direct from the kiln upon 

 their land, spreading it in the lump, and in 

 that state ploughing it in directly, the sooner 

 it being L">t from the kiln into the land the 

 better. The author concludes his communi 

 cation with the following remarks: — "The 

 lime will be found, if properly burnt, on ;i 

 second ploughing, to be crumbled to pieces or 



powder, and on harrowing will be intimately 

 mixed with the soil. From the heat evolved 

 during the slacking of the lime underground, 

 and its causticity, which diffuses itself by the 

 agency of the moisture it meets with through 

 the soil, it will be found to destroy, or at any 

 rate to be extremely obnoxious to wireworms, 

 slugs, grubs, and other enemies which the 

 farmer has to contend with, and which are 

 very frequently the cause of failure in his 

 crops, as well as to render most vegetable 

 matter in the soil soluble, and food for future 

 crops. These are the properties that lime 

 has in contradistinction to chalk ; the latter, 

 no doubt, is a very useful addition to make 

 soils, but do not go to the great expense of 

 buying or burning lime, and then allow it to 

 be converted again into chalk, or carbonate 

 of lime, before you plough it into your land. In 

 some districts the lime-stone is burnt in large 

 "umps, particularly where wood is employed 

 as a fuel — in which case it should be broken 

 to about the size of a small penny roll before 

 it is ploughed in. In some cases it may be 

 said, that owing to the distance of procuring 

 "ime, enough cannot be brought at one time 

 for a ploughing ; all I can say is, plough it 

 in as soon as possible. If the turnip- fly is 

 generated in the soil, lime, applied in the 

 manner I have directed, would, no doubt T 

 do much towards its extermination ; and 

 the same effect and result would hold good 

 in respect to the black caterpillar. In con- 

 clusion, the good effects of applying lime in 

 the manner recommended, I have myself 

 experienced, and have received ample testi- 

 mony to the like purport from extensive ag- 

 riculturists, who, at my suggestion, have 

 adopted the plan." 



Rmfdl Agricultural Society. 



New mode of making Bricks* 



Messrs. Smith & Proud, of Baltimore, 

 have an establishment for making bricks 

 which very far exceeds that of Birmingham, 

 England. By pressure, of, we believe, about 

 twenty tons weight, the clay as it is taken 

 from the bank, without the trouble either of 

 drying or grinding, is converted into bricks 

 ready for the kiln. During a visit to their 

 establishment recently, we accompanied the 

 carts to the bank, saw them loaded, and in 

 five minutes from the time that the clay was 

 shovelled into the carts, we saw it converted 

 into the brick form and placed in the kiln 

 ready for burning. From the extreme de- 

 gree of pressure to which the clay is sub- 

 jected, the bricks are more compact and fully 

 a pound heavier than those made in the usual 

 way, and, as we learn, are perfectly imper- 

 vious to the effects of the weather. 



American Farmer. 



