LIM 



LIM 



2d. Lime corrects injurious sub- 

 stances in the soil, as sulphate of 

 iron, &c. For this purpose, a heavy 

 dose is required. 



3d. Lime breaks up or pulverizes 

 stiff clays, improving their texture. 

 For this purpose, a heavy dose of 

 quicklime is most effective. 



4ih. It decomposes inert vegetable 

 matter, as peat, roots, &c. The dose 

 for this purpose may be less than 

 above ; 30 to 100 bushels will be 

 enough, if lime has been previously 

 employed ; but on peat lands, well 

 drained, much more is necessarj*. 



5th. Lime is found in large quan- 

 tities as an ingredient in leguminous 

 plants, potatoes, and other roots ; 

 hence it may be added as a special 

 manure to such plants, three or four 

 bushels being placed in the manure 

 used for them. 



6th It hastens the decay of stable 

 manure and putrescent substances, 

 and may be sprinkled over them when 

 ploughed into the soil, but not allow- 

 ed to be added for any length of time 

 to heaps of manure, lor it drives off 

 any ammonia already formed, and ul- 

 timately reduces the action of the 

 dung. One bushel to three or four 

 loads will be enough. 



A first liming for improvement of 

 barren lands may be heavy ; but if 

 afterward a dose of 20 bushels the 

 acre be added every four or five years, 

 it will save a very heavy addition for 

 some time. Quicklime would be the 

 best to add as an amendment, but it 

 is difficult to handle, from its causti- 

 city, and must never be added to wet 

 soils, lest it convert them into a hard 

 mortar. On the whole, therefore, 

 water-slacked lime is the most useful. 

 Air-slacked Ume is used as a top- 

 dressing to meadows, the other being 

 too caustic ; it is also employed to 

 kill and annoy insects, which it does 

 without injury to the plant. It is 

 also added, in doses of a half to one 

 peck, to the roots of fruit-trees, work- 

 ed into the soil. The best kind of 

 lime for the former is that obtained 

 from burned shells, the common lime- 

 stone usually containing magnesia, 

 which, in a caustic state, is injurious 



Qq2 



to vegetation, from the slowness with 

 which it becomes mild, so that it in- 

 jures the roots of plants long after 

 the lime has become quite mild. The 

 older limestones, and especially those 

 of a bright white, crystalline appear- 

 ance, form the best lime. 



Lime is also much used in com- 

 posts to pulverize inert vegetable mat- 

 ter, which it docs very effectually, 

 I converting it in part into humate of 

 \ lime ; the action of the lime is simi- 

 [ lar to potash or soda, and termed by 

 I chemists catalytic, or predisposing. 



Lime-water, and a cream of lime, 

 made by mixing lime with water to 

 the consistence of cream, are much 

 used as a steep for seeds, and to wash 

 the bark of trees, &c., to preserve 

 them from insects ; it is also suppo- 

 sed to preserve timber. 



LIME-KILN. A rough furnace for 

 burning limestone or shells into quick- 

 lime. It is usually of a circular fig- 

 ure, constructed of hard rock or 

 bricks, arched below, and furnished 

 with a moveable grate. The building 

 is six or more feet across, and 15 to 

 20 feet high, the wall being nearly 

 perpendicular. The limestone is bro- 

 ken into pieces of the size of half a 

 brick, and thrown from above, mixed 

 with half or one third part of wood 

 or other fuel, according to the kind 

 of stone used ; this is most conve- 

 niently done when the kiln is erected 

 against a steep hill, so that carts can 

 approach near the mouth to throw in 

 the charge. Before adding the charge, 

 fuel is placed above the grate to en- 

 able the whole to be lighted ; and fresh 

 quantities of limestone, and wood or 

 coal, are added as the first portions 

 burn and settle down. In the com- 

 mon kiln the charge is allowed to 

 burn out, and then drawn when cold 

 by removing the lower grate ; but in 

 the best modern kilns the charge can 

 be partly removed without allowing 

 the fire to die out. Good stone yields 

 about 56 per cent, of lime, but the 

 impure kinds leave more. It should 

 slack into a fine powder with water, 

 or it is impure or imperfectly burned. 

 Shells and limestone, or marl, can 

 be burned in mass by heaping them 



401 



