? 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



' The Productions of the Earth will always hf in proportion to tlie culture hcstowpil nnnn it." 



Vol. VII.— Wo. 10,] 



5th mo. (May) 15th, 1843. 



[Whole No. 100. 



JOSIAH TATUM, 



PROPRIETOR AND PUBLISHER, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Edited bij the Proprietor and James Pedder. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Irrigation, Lime and Manure. 



The first essay in the last number of the 

 Cabinet on Irrigation, brings into view a 

 subject that has been too much neglected 

 since the practice of raising artificial grasses 

 has become so universal. Many years since 

 much attention was paid to watering mea- 

 dows, as it was then called, and a great ad- 

 vantage would still be gained by making 

 available every spring or rill of water. It 

 is the cheapest mode of increasing the pro- 

 ductions of grass, as no manure or tillage is 

 required ; the water conveys the salts with 

 which it is impregnated, to the roots of the 

 grass where they are needed, and as all 

 water holds air in solution, and generally 

 carbonic acid gas, which is the main food of 

 all plants, this precious substance is depo- 

 sited by the water exactly where it is most 

 wanted. Spring water and that impreg- 

 nated with lime, produce the most striking 

 effects, as they contain most saline matter 

 and carbonic acid gas. 



Judgment and skill should be brought into 

 requisition in watering grass grounds, other- 

 wise the expected benefits may be much di- 

 minished, and care should be taken to carry 

 the water away in a ditch judiciously ar- 

 ranged, after it has performed its functions 

 on the higher grounds, and not suffer it to 

 produce a quagmire covered with sour grass 

 on the lowlands, by stagnation. Keep the 

 water in motion, if it is designed to derive 

 benefit from its application, for if it comes 

 to a stand-still, it does more harm than good. 

 It is hoped benefit will be derived from stir- 

 ring this moist subject. 



The next essay on Lime and Magnesia, 

 by a ' Delawarian, is well done and will bear 

 reading over again. It is now well known 



Cab.— Vol. VII.— No. 10. 



that every soil distinguished for its fertility, 

 contains both lime and magnesia in combi- 

 nation with clay and sand, and more or less 

 vegetable matter, and various proportions of 

 minor ingredients in small quantities. But 

 chemists inform us, that they always find 

 lime and magnesia in every good soil, either 

 artificially applied, or in its native location ; 

 hence we may rationally conclude, they are 

 exercising very important and indispensable 

 functions in the vegetable economy. Many 

 whose farms are remote from the limestone 

 vallies, are not aware that these precious 

 substances exist in quantities in an invisible 

 form, in the soil they are daily cultivating, and 

 that they are annually reaping the benefit of 

 them in their crops. The hornbJcnd rocks 

 and stone which are abundant in Chester 

 and Delaware counties, contain from 10 to 

 12 per cent, of lime and magnesia, and by 

 their slow decomposition, furnish a larger 

 per centage to the soil than is ordinarily 

 applied by farmers, and yet these soils are 

 often benefited by an artificial application 

 of lime. The good of lime is never expe- 

 rienced, till it undergoes solution and perme- 

 ates the soil as a fluid ; and it only dissolves 

 thoroughly when it becomes a supercarbon- 

 ate, by the absorption of an excess of car- 

 bonic acid gas ; hence it is found to be most 

 advantageously applied by spreading it on 

 the grass as a top dressing in autumn, 

 where it is exposed for the longest possible 

 time to the action of the atmosphere. Those 

 who are ignorant of the nature of lime, 

 plough it under immediately after spreading 

 it, under the mistaken apprehension of its 

 good qualities being lost by exposure. This 

 is now known to be the worst plan that can 

 be adopted, as it too soon finds its way down 

 without the aid of the plough. "Too much 

 of a good thing is good for nothing;" so 

 where a soil is sufficiently charged with 

 calcareous earth to promote healthy and 

 vigorous vegetation, more can do no good, 

 and this is equally true in regard to any 

 other description of manure. 



Lime renders a stiff soil more loose and 

 friable, by which the pasture of plants is 

 extended, and the air is admitted to a freer 

 circulation through it, by which carbonic 



(297) 



