44 MANURES. 



that when exposed to the air it increased in weight daily, at 

 the rate of a hundred weight per ton, for the first five or six 

 days after it was drawn from the kiln. 



A ton of fresh well burnt lime will absorb 680 pounds, or 

 nearly one-third of its weight of water, without being slacked 

 and a bushel of good stone-lime, when slacked, will measure 

 two bushels; hence slacked lime should sell at one-half the 

 price per bushel of stone-lime. 



Quick-lime applied to succulent vegetables absorbs the mois- 

 ture from them, and renders them perfectly dry and brittle, 

 and if the quantity of lime be great compared with the vegeta- 

 ble matter, combustion takes place, and the matters acted on 

 are reduced to ashes, but are not decomposed in the usual un- 

 derstanding of the term. 



Lime, spread on the surface sod, is in some measure pre- 

 vented by the grass and the fibres of the roots from descending 

 into the earth, and the rains from time to time dissolve it, and 

 carry down the alkaline solution, so as to completely moisten 

 every particle of the soil with it. 



This neutralizes the acidity of the soil, and the carbonic acid 

 gas of the atmosphere converts the solution into carbonate of 

 lime in connection with every particle of earth it comes in con- 

 tact with, and this being much less adhesive than clay, when 

 it comes to be ploughed, the particles easily separate, and hence 

 the property of lime in rendering the soil less adhesive, and 

 more easily penetrated by the roots of plants in search of food. 



Where much vegetable matter abounds in a soil, it will ab- 

 sorb and retain the solution of lime as a sponge, which being 

 converted in its interstices into a carbonate, will tend to im- 

 pede its too speedy decomposition; as vegetable matter in our 

 climate decomposes with too much rapidity for plants to take 

 up the nutriment it affords as rapidly as it is produced. 



By the decomposition, however, being impeded or checked 

 by the carbonate of lime, it proceeds more slowly, and proceeds 

 to give out food for plants more gradually, and for a much 

 longer period of time. This appears to confirm the observa- 

 tions of many of our farmers, that where lime is used the ma- 

 nure or dung continues to produce its effects for an unusual 

 period.* 



The application of lime to night-soil does not hasten the de- 

 composition of this substance, [see page 39], but, on the con- 

 trary, forms with it a less soluble compound. It moderates 

 its action, and renders its effects less sudden, but more perma- 



* This is the opinion of some of our best farmers and the opinions ad- 

 vanced in the five preceding paragraphs are ably defended by an intelligent 

 writer in the third volume of the Farmers' Cabinet, pages 27, GO, 152. 



