46 MANURES. 



ture to the acre, will form a rich and efficient manuring for 

 any soil. 



Materials for forming manures of this class are abundant and 

 constantly presenting themselves. Old gardens, waste collec- 

 tions of earth, sweepings of roads and the like, scrapings of 

 brooks and ditches, the collections of weeds, leaves, and other 

 vegetable substances under fences and along the headlands of 

 fields, are always to be found in more or less quantity. 



A mixture of lime ia the proportion mentioned above, 

 will ferment these substances, even when they are not pecu- 

 liarly abundant in organic matter. The mass will heat, and 

 then it should be turned over once or oftener to render the 

 fermentation perfect, and destroy the seeds of plants which 

 may be mingled with the substances to be fermented. 



It is an error though entertained by many farmers to sup- 

 pose that lime, in any state, comprises fertilizing properties 

 within itself; and that, without operating upon the soil, or upon 

 the substances which it contains, it is an enriching manure. It 

 is said not to possess any fertilizing principle in its own compo- 

 sition, being merely a calcareous earth, combined with fixed air, 

 and holding a medium between sand and clay, which in some 

 measure remedies the defects of both. 



By the analysis of soils, we find that all productive earth 

 contains a certain portion of lime, and although we learn from 

 experience that its stimulative powers upon the roots of plants 

 are very great, yet we are but very imperfectly acquainted 

 with the extent or the exact manner in which its influence is 

 brought into action, and we are, in a great measure, ignorant 

 of the actual changes that are produced upon the earth after 

 this manure has been applied. 



In no state in the union has lime been so extensively and 

 advantageously used for agricultural purposes as in Pennsyl- 

 vania. It has very justly received the attention of our ablest 

 farmers and men of science. The most satisfactory and suc- 

 cinct statement relative to lime, that has yet fallen under our 

 observation, is the following, by Dr. WILLIAM DARLINGTON, 

 of Westchester, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 



Lime undoubtedly has a good effect in soils which are sandy, even where 

 sand predominates. But its meliorating properties are most conspicuous in a 

 day soil, or rather in a stiff 'loam. A good proportion of decomposed vegetable 

 matter adds greatly to the beneficial effects of lime; and hence our farmers 

 are desirous to mingle as much barn-yard manure as possible with their lime 

 dressings, and to get their fields into what is called a good sod, or turf, full of 

 grass roots. Then, a dressing of lime has an admirable effect. 



Yard manure is not generally mingled with the lime when the latter is first 

 applied. The practice is to lime the Indian corn ground prior to planting 

 that grain on the inverted sod; and, the ensuing spring, to manure the same 

 field for a barley crop; or to reserve the manure until the succeeding autumn, 

 and apply it to the wheat crop. 



