So. 7. 



Magnesian Lime, — " The Golden Phi/gh." 



229 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Magnesian Lime.— "The Golden 

 Plough." 



Messrs. Editors, — I am now convinced, 

 :hat while this controversy is creating dis- 

 3iission, it is convincing no one; but I should 

 }e uncourteous, were I to dodge the questions 

 sut by your correspondent, Isaac Wayne 

 Vanleer. His article, if designed only for 

 ihe gratification of the common reader, 

 A'oulu require no comment; but if it is de- 

 signed as an attack against the use of Lime 

 is a fertilizing agent, and as such, addressed 

 ;o your intelligent and enlightened readers, 

 who can trace the history of its application 

 md virtues, he has "reckoned without his 

 lost;" and, in point of agricultural science 

 }r knowledge, appears before them in ra- 

 fter an unenviable position. He cites his 

 3wn experience; but this may be accounted 

 !br, by supposing that his soil already con- 

 iains a sufficient quantity of the carbonate 

 }f lime; and like many other soils, not 

 'easily improved," or being unfriendly to 

 the action of mineral agency. The analysis 

 of Professor Johnston, as given in my arti- 

 cle, he states, "proves nothing;" but it did 

 prove magnesia to be a constituent of wheat 

 md other grain in a considerable proportion, 

 and as such, was, in reply to B. Webb, un- 

 answerable. Your correspondent asserts, 

 ■ they do not use or apply magnesia in 

 Great Britain !" Now, as I can quote from 

 no higher authority, I would refer him to a 

 valuable work recently published, the author 

 of which is Professor Ure, "on the arts, 

 manufactures and mines" of Great Britain : 

 the following sentence is emphatic. " On 

 account of the superiority of magnesian 

 lime, the farmers of Fifeshire, Scotland, 

 haul it vast distances, and prefer it to any 

 other." The quantity of lime and gypsum 

 applied to the acre in Great Britain, it is 

 well known, compared with our practice in 

 the United States, is more than quadruple. 

 In England, 300 bushels of lime and six of 

 plaster, are an average allowance for the 

 most productive districts; and when the 

 minerals were first used there, the quantity 

 was not more per acre, than we now use 

 here. And we would inform friend Van 

 Leer, that clover, plaster, stable manure, 

 &c, are as highly valued, in conjunction 

 with lime by us, as they can be without 

 lime, by him — they are all auxiliaries. On 

 account of plenty of rich stable manure fur- 

 nishing the different alkalies and salts, we 

 agree at once, that there will be enough of 

 the elements of fertility to keep and im- 

 prove the strength of the soil, without using 



a particle of lime ; and I can point to any 

 number of farms, as productive as " Town- 

 send's," which are naturally rich in carbon- 

 ate of lime; and if not, by feeding fat horses 

 and plenty of fat cattle all the year, and 

 plenty of clover growing, these furnish the 

 very essence of fertility. But when we 

 name a soil of primitive formation, wholly 

 destitute of organic remains, it is a different 

 matter: on such soils, after a plentiful appli- 

 cation of stable manure, good crops of grain 

 and grass are grown, and may be continued 

 by repeated applications of the same ; but if 

 the supply of manure be stopped, the growth 

 of clover invariably fails soon after also; but 

 not so, after an application of lime ; the clo- 

 ver then will continue to grow and keep up 

 the fertility of the soil. By this means bar- 

 ren tracts are renovated, when sufficient 

 stable manure is not accessible, by a coat of 

 lime; and indirectly, by the growth of clover. 

 Sir H. Davy states; "amongst a number 

 of various specimens of lime-stones pre- 

 sented to me by Lord Sommerville, for ana- 

 lysis, one specimen, marked by him, ' par- 

 ticularly good for land,' proved magnesian ;" 

 and by experiment, from a few perches of 

 good clover, he proved an acre of clover to 

 contain about four bushels of lime and plas- 

 ter, or carbonate and sulphate of lime. Phos- 

 phate of lime, or burnt or crushed bones, is 

 also a powerful fertilizing agent, the base of 

 which is, of course, lime, f would just add, 

 so far from magnesian lime " not being used 

 in England," according to Davy, magnesian 

 limestone abounds, and magnesian lime is 

 used in Somersetshire, Lancashire, Derby- 

 shire, Shropshire, Durham and Yorkshire ; 

 all among the best agricultural districts in 

 England. 



I know an old man who, for the most part 

 of his life, was as much opposed to liming 

 as friend Van Leer ; he was proprietor of a 

 small farm, which he kept well stocked, and 

 made sufficient manure to keep it in high 

 order; but enlarging his domains by the 

 purchase of adjacent lands, which he farmed 

 without increasing his stock of manure, he 

 soon found his soil deteriorate and his clo- 

 ver diminish; as a last resort, he eventually 

 put on lime, and lived to regret an important 

 error of opinion, which he said came unfor- 

 tunately too late for him, but he trusted his 

 sons would avail themselves of the advan- 

 tages of lime, and be admonished by his ob- 

 stinacy. But your correspondent patronizes 

 the agricultural press, which will, I trust, 

 dissipate the cloud which seems now to ob- 

 scure him : his prejudice against lime reminds 

 me of the late J. Randolph, of Roanoke, whose 

 opposition against the wool-growing interest, 

 during the operation of the tariff, was such, 



