No. 9> Lime — The Golden Plough relinquished. — The Bee. 



287 



nure, piaster, and more than all, the better 

 cultivation which smalls farms generally 

 receive, had any thing to do with it. He 

 now admits they might account for it, " with- 

 out a particle of lime ;" and also says he 

 "can point to any number of farms as pro 

 ductive as Townsend's, which are naturally 

 rich in carbonate of lime :" he should have 

 added magnesia, "and if not," by feeding 

 fat horses and cattle, and plenty of clover 

 growing, the very essence of fertility would 

 be furnished. 



If he can point to any number of farms as 

 good as Townsend's, they are at least equal 

 to the same number of his "best limed 

 farms." And "common" farmers, without 

 science, cannot see what all this about 

 rich stable manure means, unless Lancaster 

 County Farmer is willing to admit, that less 

 vegetable and animal manure is made on 

 the "best limed farms," than on such as 

 Mr. Townsend's. None of them buy ma- 

 nure, for there is none to be sold. 



His assertion, that "barren tracts" are 

 renovated by lime, and indirectly by clover, 

 will not bear the test of experiment. Clover 

 is the direct thing, and plaster the best ma- 

 nure for it. One of the most successful ex- 

 periments given in agricultural works, was 

 made on a poor gravelly soil, with clover 

 and plaster alone. Our friend concludes, 

 with the experience of an old man who 

 made manure enough on a small farm, to 

 keep it in a high state of fertility without 

 lime, but in an evil hour purchased land ad- 

 joining, which with all the cultivation he 

 could give, would produce no green thing, 

 for if it did, it must have increased his ma- 

 nure. As it appears to have been originally 

 the same kind of soil, I cannot imagine why 

 the same treatment would not produce the 

 same effects, unless some former owner liar 

 applied 300 bushels of magnesian lime to 

 the acre; if that was the case, some belie vet- 

 in the homopathic doctrine, that poison will 

 counteract poison, must have advised the 

 second dose. But jesting aside — any "com- 

 mon reader" of the Cabinet, could have ex- 

 plained the mystery, by directing the old 

 man's attention to the numerous instructive 

 articles to be found in your paper, on small 

 farms. 



In order to "define my position" with re- 

 gard to plaster and carbonate of lime, I will 

 give one more experiment. When plaster 

 was first introduced into this State, Mr. 

 Daniel Buckley, an enterprising farmer of 

 Lancaster county, procured a few tons and 

 spread it with the shovel, at the rate of 25 or 

 30 bushels to the acre, and was delighted 

 with the effect produced. But when on 

 better information, he applied one bushel! 



per acre, to the same kind of soil, the effect 

 was the same. 



I think, according to Lancaster County 

 Farmer's own showing, the only prop he 

 now has to support him in his enviable posi- 

 tion, is the supposition that Mr. Townsend's 

 soil, and the any quantity as good, which 

 he can point out, is rich in carbonate of 

 lime ; if this fails him, as I am well assured 

 it will, if the test of the chemist is applied 

 to it, down — I was going to add something 

 more, but I forbear. 



A thought just strikes me, that Lancaster 

 County Farmer may be one of my best 

 friends, and knowing I was deficient in sci- 

 ence, sent his last article on purpose to give 

 me something easy to refute. I dislike 

 striking at a mask; a man might innocently 

 knock down his next neighbour. In con- 

 cluding I will remark, that Lancaster Coun- 

 ty Farmer seems to consider me an enemy 

 to lime, because I do not recommend more 

 than 50 bushels for 50 years; and a friend 

 to plaster, when I have never advised more 

 than one bushel in three years, which is not 

 quite 17 bushels in 50 years. 



I have written Lancaster County Farmer 

 so often, that it has given me a distaste to 

 long signatures, and as the plough dream is 

 over, I think a shorter one may answer for 

 myself. J. W. Van Leer. 



Chester co., Pa. 



The Bee. — Providence, that delights in 

 spreading beneficence as well as beauty over 

 all creation, has wisely formed the bee as an 

 humble but active and untiring agent, in ga- 

 thering up for the most important purposes, 

 and converting to the most valuable use, the 

 scraps and fragments of nature, which would 

 otherwise be scattered by the " viewless 

 winds," and spread through the "ambient 

 air." She has adorned the song of the poet, 

 pointed the tale of the moralist, and furnished 

 food for the hungry in the desert. Plutarch 

 pronounced the bee a magazine of virtues; 

 Quintillian asserts that she is the greatest 

 of geometricians ; and Watts, by calling in 

 poetry to the aid of morality, has rendered 

 her figure the means of interest, improve- 

 ment and delight, to ma ly a youthful mind. 

 Philosophy has stooped to examine her habits 

 and to watch over her haunts; she has pre- 

 sented the models of science, and called 

 forth the attention of scientific men; by her 

 the husbandman has been cheered, when sit- 

 ting in his cottage garden, in his evening 

 reflections on his day of toil ; and in what- 

 ever light she may be viewed, there is none 

 who can declare that he has no interest in 

 her ways. 



