No. 11. Lime, — German Professors and Delaware Reviewers. 



855 



— but at once conclude, that is the cause of 

 its fertility ; they do not even ask whether 

 the lime decreases in the soil, or remains 

 the same after thousands of crops have been 

 taken from it. Some of their deductions 

 remind me of the man, who seeing that 

 heat lengthened bars of iron, and cold con- 

 tracted them, concluded that must be the 

 reason why the days were so long in sum- 

 mer, and so short in winter ! 



But, I must not neglect my friend from 

 Albern, N. R. D. ; I am sorry for his own 

 sake, he did not reconsider his communica- 

 tion; he ought to know, that proving too 

 much is as bad as proving too little. Is it 

 not strange, that when "lime is universally 

 known to benefit the soil," N. R. D. should 

 have ever thought of making such experi- 

 ments ; and still more strange, that he should 

 continue such satisfactory experiments for 

 eight or ten years, before he convinced him- 

 self! I will give one more, made by my 

 friend and neighbour, A. R. M'llvain, a gen- 

 tleman well known in Chester and Dela- 

 ware counties. He made just the kind of 

 experiment with lime, that N. R. D. reports, 

 marking the part limed, and would have 

 carefully noted the difference, if he could 

 have seen any; but after the lapse of seve- 

 ral years, he tells me he never could per- 

 ceive any whatever. It was land that had 

 been worn out, and was never limed — primi- 

 tive soil too. He further said, he thought if 

 lime was ever beneficial, this was the very 

 land for it to act on. The field is now reno- 

 vated and well set with grass, but I defy any 

 of the advocates for lime, to show us where 

 their favourite was spread. The experiment 

 satisfied Mr. M'llvain, without continuing 

 it for eight or ten years, and I think has 

 saved him some hundreds of dollars. 



In addition to this, I have just been in- 

 formed, that one of the most spirited farmers 

 in Delaware county, Mr. Peters, has been 

 trying experiments with lime for several 

 years, and has come to the conclusion, that 

 it does very little good, if any. But per- 

 haps you may think Mr. M'llvain's land is 

 "unfriendly to mineral agency." I do not 

 like to expose them, but if the truth must 

 be told, their theory of "soils unfriendly to 

 mineral agency," was invented for the pur- 

 pose of throwing dust in the eyes of some 

 > practical men, that fortunately for us all, 

 gave lime a fair trial, and found it of little 

 ior no value. Before this, the lime burners 

 *had heen recommending its application to 

 all soils, — heavy clays, loose sand, light allu- 

 'iviums, limestone valleys, primitive hills, and 

 turf meadows. 



Here let me request my brother farmers 

 to try experiments for themselves; all that 



is worth knowing in agriculture, was disco- 

 vered by practical men. Sir H. Davy ac- 

 knowledges, that "what is wanted in agri- 

 culture, are experiments carefully made;" 

 any one volume of the Cabinet, containing, 

 as it does, such experiments, is worth more 

 to us, than all Professor Leibig and Ure ever 

 wrote. Try lime on one acre; if it does 

 not help that, it will not improve 100 acres; 

 — no class of men can try experiments at so 

 little cost; but beware of the experiments 

 of anonymous writers, "whose conscience 

 doth make cowards of them all." It will 

 not do to trust to the experience of Eu- 

 ropean farmers in all things — the turnip 

 husbandry, which does such wonders there, 

 will not answer here. I have some doubts 

 of the usefulness of the subsoil plough, in 

 a country where frost penetrates to the 

 depth of one or two feet ; it is at least the 

 antipode of raising grain on glass-plates. 



But above all, do not trust to the lime- 

 burners' favourite proverb, that "if lime 

 puts a man in jail, it will bring him out 

 again." It seems too much like carrying a 

 heavy sled up a long hill, for the pleasure of 

 riding down. And who knows, but after we 

 were once in jail, " the action of mineral 

 agency" might prove as unfavourable to us, 

 as it does to many soils'! 



In closing, I must congratulate your read- 

 ers on the happy termination of this long 

 discussion, for we all appear to have arrived 

 at the same point at last. A Delawarian, 

 in concluding his article, only advises the 

 application of lime and magnesia to soils 

 that do not contain them naturally; — A Lan- 

 caster County Farmer tells us, that magne- 

 sia, and of course lime, is one of the primi- 

 tive earths which form all soils, as well as 

 the crust of the globe. A Deer Creek 

 Farmer shows, that the best land in Mary- 

 land, has never been limed; — Professor Lei- 

 big proves, that land may be farmed 160 

 years, and produce beautiful crops to the 

 last, without lime. "Again, when we con- 

 sider the general economy of nature, it is 

 no far-drawn inference to conclude," when 

 we see soils such as the valley of the Nile, 

 which have produced the most luxuriant crops 

 from a period, long prior to the building of 

 the pyramids, or the selling of Joseph into 

 Egypt, without a particle of burnt lime 

 being applied, that many soils do quite as 

 well without it. 



If my opponents have given each other 

 some hard knocks, I hope no one is hurt; it 

 was only occasioned by their over anxiety 

 to defend their stone deity, which crowded 

 them so near each other, they had not room 

 to use their weapons. 



J. W. Vanleer. 



