AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 197 



of lime. Whether it acts on the atmosphere only, or as a 

 stimulant to the soil, or actually contains (as is strongly 

 maintained by some) within itself the food for plants, is well 

 worthy of discussion. 



' But whether either of these causes separately or they 

 altogether conduce to the nutrition of plants, an advantage- 

 ous effect of the use of lime on soil seems conclusively to 

 follow. I have endeavored to avoid nice discriminations and 

 have stated my practice plainly, not from its novelty to many 

 of your readers, but because not only a great waste is made 

 of this article, but it is believed that as its average price in 

 good condition, about ten cents, it may be used to good ad- 

 vantage. So also it is with mortar, rubbish of walls and 

 chimneys, plaster, &;c., from old buildings. These (and it is 

 somewhat relative to this discussion) I have made use of as a 

 top-dressing to low soil to very good effect. 



' It has been observed that if lime is a fertilizer of soil, why 

 is it that where it abounds and often forms an under stratum 

 a greater fertility does not prevail ? To this it may be an- 

 swered that lime is a constituent principle, it is believed, in 

 all soil, and may be supplied, where from experience a defi- 

 ciency is found. But when it superabounds, as in most other 

 things, excess may be injurious. In all this more experience 

 is Avished for as the only safe and profitable guide.' 



The following is extracted from a letter from Daniel Buck- 

 ley, Esq., of Salisbury, Pennsylvania, to J. Buel, Esq., pub- 

 lished in Memoirs of the Neiv York Board of Agriculture^ 

 vol. iii. p. 124. 



' The land which I cultivate, according to M'C lure's trea- 

 tise, is transition, composed of white and yellow clay and 

 limestone, much of the latter appearing on the surface, in- 

 termixed with flint. Upon this. soil I have made a liberal 

 use of lime, ever since the year 1790, and think I have been 

 well rewarded for the expense and labor, by the increased 

 value of my crops. 



' The method of applying the lime which I have adopted 

 in common with my neighbors is, in the first place, to plough 

 up a sod field with a strong team, in the spring or fall ; 

 harrow it the way it is ploughed, and mark the field into as 

 many squares as you intend to put on half-bushels, say one 

 hundred on the acre, which will bring the furrows about 

 twenty feet apart each way, and require fifty bushels to the 

 acre. This quantity I have found to be most profitable. 

 When the lime is burnt, and as soon as it is cool enough to 

 17# 



