1878.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



131 



fered. Presently, however, some very intelli- 

 gent ami expert aijrieultural eheniists have 

 delivered sentiments adverse to its use as a 

 manure or a fertilizer to their lands, and henec 

 a prolonged discussion has ensued, in which it 

 is alleged, on the one hand, thai lime is not 

 and never has been of any material advan- 

 tage to the soil and the crops ; and, on the 

 other hand, that lime as an element of fertility, 

 is '"king," and that without it our fertile 

 lauds would gradually become barren wastes. 



The application of lime to land must, how- 

 ever, be subject to certain chemical principles 

 or laws, and when those laws arc violated its 

 benefits cannot be as effective as if applied in 

 Iiarmony with those principles or laws. For 

 instance, to apply lime to depleted lands 

 where lime is already in sutliciency, or in ex- 

 cess, and to reap no benefit from such appli- 

 cation, by no means constitutes a case by 

 which to accurately determine the fertilizing 

 qualities of lime, any more than a surfeit 

 would prove that men should subsist without 

 food. But where land in its natural condi- 

 tion is entirely destitute of lime it seems rea- 

 sonable to suppose that it should be artificially 

 applied, unless the object is to only cultivate 

 such species of vegetation as need no lime ; 

 and it is, perhaps, this disproportion and a 

 want of a chemical knowledge of the constitu- 

 ent elements of the soil that has fnially led to 

 the discrediting of lime, and its abandonment 

 altogether. Lime is a simple earthy sub- 

 stance, and is produced by exposing lime- 

 stone, chalk, or carbonate of lime, to a red 

 heat — an operation generally conducted in 

 kilns constructed for that purpose. The car- 

 bonic acid, or carbonic acid gas, previously a 

 component of the limestone, is thus expelled, 

 and lime, more or less pure, according to the 

 original quality of the limestone, remains, and 

 is usually called quicklime. (Juicklime has a 

 strong chemical atiinity for water or moisture, 

 and when this is applied it becomes heated, 

 and is what is called slaked. Slake means to 

 quench oi satisfy ; to saturate with water. 

 By a longer and a slower process quicklime 

 will absorb moisture from the atmosphere, 

 and finally become slaked. Its hunger or 

 atiinity for water is satisfied, when it is no 

 longer quicklime but slaked lime, or an hydrate 

 vf lime. This slaking process, in con.sequence 

 of the absorjition of a portion of carbonic acid 

 from the atmosphere, gradually reverts it to- 

 wards its original condition, or carhomile of 

 lime, and it loses its caustic quality. Pure 

 quicklime reduced to a powder, and applied 

 to vegetation in that condition, would cer- 

 tainly be an injury to it — would burn it — 

 hence many of those who freely use lime, haul 

 it to their fields and let it remain in great 

 heaps for weeks or months before they spread 

 it over the land. The longer it remains ex- 

 posed before plowing it under, the riiore carbon 

 it absorbs ; and the more it has the more it 

 will have to give off in its decomposition and 

 assimilation with the soil. Vegetation absorbs 

 carbon and gives off oxygen. The animal 

 world absorbs oxygen and gives off carbon, 

 and thus one supports the other. A good, 

 healthy aquatic plant growing in an aquarium 

 will give ort' sufficient oxygen to support a 

 proportionate number of animals, and they in 

 turn will give off sufficient carbon to support 

 the plants. 



The lime naturally in the soil, from the at- 

 trition of limestone rock, is not quick lime, 

 but a carbonate of lime ; and the nearer quick- 

 lime can be brought to that elementary condi- 

 tion, no doubt, the better it will be for the 

 land. The burning of limestone — driving off 

 the carbon in it — and then slaking it and 

 reducing it to a powder is, a more effective 

 and rapid mode of lirins^ing it to the proper 

 conditiciu for assimilation with the soil than 

 the slow process of natural attrition ; and in 

 this is involved the necessity of applying lime 

 to land ; and probably it is because there is 

 not sufficient chemical knowledge abroad, re- 

 lating to the specific constituents of soils, that 

 has led farmers to apply lime where it was not 

 needed, and its failure to do any good. Lime 

 has a metallic basis called cakium, hence the 



purer, or crystallized varieties of it arc called 

 calcareous spur, and although the varieties of 

 its crystalline forms are many— running into 

 hundreds — yet its i)rimitive form is always 

 rhoiiibic, and it will always cleave in that 

 form, (an ol)lique oblong square). But lime 

 is not onmipot(^nt, and tlierefore land, in order 

 to be productive, also needs other elements, 

 especially vegetable mould, and nothing yields 

 this more abundantly and more richly than 

 barnyard manure. It also needs phosphates, 

 sulphates and ammoniates, according to the 

 nature of the respective crops that may be 

 imder cultivation, or that may bo desired. 

 The fact that some farmers have used lime so 

 lavishly — from two to three hundred bush- 

 els to the acre — seems to evince that it cannot 

 be a very dangerous element, or it might hav(! 

 totally destroyed their crops instead of benefit- 

 ing them, "Without committing ounself either 

 for or against lime, wo think it will continue 

 "to be used as long as the question rests merely 

 on opinion — it must be determined by a practi- 

 cal demonstration. Lime as a manure, or 

 fertilizer, has been discredited both by Prof, 

 Heiges and Mr, Carter, in their late lectures 

 before the Lancaster Agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural Society, They, perhajis, did not in- 

 tend to repudiate it altogetlHr, but they 

 certainly denied the claims made for it by 

 some ofthe members, as expressed in the dis- 

 cussion upon it at the Sei)tembcr meeting of 

 the society. From Mr, Carter's views it may 

 be inferred that lime has been abandoned as 

 a fertilizer at the "AVest Grove Experimental 

 Farm," of which he is the superintendent. 

 Whether this view is based upon practical 

 experience or upon mere opinion, it seems 

 that the system which obtains at that 

 establishment does not meet the approbation 

 of the "Farmers' Club" of Philadelphia, for 

 it has had a resolution under discussion for 

 some time that the West Grove establishment 

 is an utter failure, (and at a recent meeting it 

 came very near passing that resolution,) and 

 that its continuance is an imposition upon the 

 taxiiayers of the State of Pennsylvania, 



The main significance of this action of the 

 club is, at least, an indication that there is a 

 great diversity of opinion among those sup- 

 posed to be competent to form an opinion in a 

 matter fundamentally relating to the highest 

 interests of agriculture. The .same or similar 

 opinions have been entertained and expressed 

 in regard to the State Agricultural College, 

 So that the very authority of those who are 

 suiiiiosed to be competent, and possess the 

 facilities to determine questions of soil and its 

 manipulation upon scientific principles, is 

 doubted by those who believe that their per- 

 sonal experience demonstrates a diflerent or 

 opposite result. This may illustrate how little 

 we know, how slowly we accpure that little, 

 and also that there are relations to, and rami- 

 fications of, the main subject that are to be 

 considered before arriving at fixed conclusions. 



cold frames. The better sorts for Autumn 

 sowing are the Dutch Butler, Iloyal Cabbage, 

 Large White Butter, and Imperial, Spinach 

 sow early in monlli for Autumn use ; later for 

 Winter and Spring, Turnips and Itula Baga 

 cultivate. 



REMINDERS FOR SEPTEMBER. 

 In the Middle States, many and varied are 

 the duties which devolve on the gardener at 

 this season. Not only do the growing crops 

 demand attention, but seeds are to be sown 

 to provide the necessary plants for the ensu- 

 ing Spring, Roots are to be divided and re- 

 set ; strawberry-beds planted, etc. Cabbage, 

 Jersey Wakefield and Landreth's Large York, 

 sow, to plant out in Autumn, where the local- 

 ity admits, or box up in cold frame, to keep 

 till planting time in Spring ; the latter end of 

 the month will be time enough to sow in the 

 latitude of Philadeli>hia ; especially sow the 

 newly-introduced sub-variety : Bloomsdale 

 Early Market or Early Bloomsdale ; also the 

 Bloomsdale Brunswick as a succession. Tur- 

 nips, the Early Dutch and lled-topped, may 

 be sown within the first week of this month, 

 if failure has attended earlier efforts. In some 

 sections the jly devours the early sowing. 

 They are less Voracious after the nights be- 

 come cool and dews heavy. Celery earth up. 

 Corn salad, scui"vy grass and cheiTil sow for 

 Winter salad. Lettuce sow, for Spring plant- 

 ing ; the plants to be kept during Whiter in 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



West Ciiesteh, AiiKU8t22, 1878. 

 Mh.Rathvon — fiir: Iliave rcceiveilTiiE Farmer 

 eontaininKyour account ofthe lioiicy-bee pcet. Aflcr 

 seniliiij; you the bees I fouiiil llie weed or flower eon- 

 tainini,' them. It prows on marsliy land around my 

 iiilU dam. It Is very plenty, and the flowers grow In 

 clueliTS and are of a pink color, with a stalk from 

 two to tlii-ee feel hif^li. The clusters contain many 

 small tlowcrs and arc six sided, and at the top of 

 caeli side you will see the lilack speck and llic wini;- 

 like sulistance rnclosed below, lyincr on each side of 

 the blossom. When freshly bloomed the bee becomes 

 fastened and is not able to leave the flower, but as It 

 ripens the pollen mass pulls out and the bee Is re- 

 leased. I have found as many as from three to five 

 bees on a sinfrle cluster, tryine to extricate them- 

 selves. It has a very sweet odor and is of the milk- 

 weed class. Are they seeds, or are they an insect! 

 I send you enclosed a flower and leaves of the plant. 

 Whilst under a maifnifyinsf qflass, with a needle, you 

 can remove the pest from the flower and see its forma- 

 tion or manner of growth. — Yours, respectfully, Win. 

 J. Pyle. 



p. S. — This plant in the fall has a bulb, and blows 

 much like cotton, and in the pods are seeds much 

 like parsnip seeds. The "Ilangine-Birds," in the 

 spring, use the bark of the old stalks as strings to 

 hanff their nests with, it being very strong and 

 tough. — P'jlc. 



The plant enclosed came duly to hand, and 

 proved to be the " swamp milk-weed," (As- 

 clepias incarnata,) and the matter has termi- 

 nated as we suspected, wlien we wrote our 

 "final" suggestion in the July number of The 

 Farmer. Since our correspondent's experi- 

 ences have confirmed our suspicious we have 

 found other records than the one we alluded 

 to there, all to the same effect. The little 

 pedunculated lobes are neither seeds nor in- 

 sects, but are the pollen masses which contain 

 the seminal element that fertilizes the flowers 

 and renders the seeds fruitful. If our corres- 

 pondent has access to a copy of "Gray's 

 Botanical Text-Book," published in 18.">0, he 

 will find the whole subject described and illus- 

 trated on pages 315 ai'id 450. The excretion 

 of a gummy, saccharine substance from the 

 flowers is, perhaps, common to the whole 

 familv of "milk-weeds" or "silk-weeds," 

 (Asc'LEPiADACE^,) at Icast we know it to be 

 so with the common "milk-weed," [Asclepias 

 cornitti,) for \re have found both living and 

 dead bees, flies and other insects on these 

 flowers scores of times, in the month of July. 

 They were fastened by the feet to these treach- 

 erous flowers without the ability to extricate 

 themselves, and thus were poisoned or starved 

 to death. A beautiful red and black-spotted 

 Longicom beetle, {Tclraopes tornator,) is al- 

 ways found on this plant, and seldom or never 

 on any other during the nuptial season ; and 

 the larva of a large reddish brown and white 

 spotted butterfly {Danaus archippcs,) feeds 

 upon the foliage. Dr. Gray describes four- 

 teen species of Asclepjias iu the main body of 

 his work, and two in an appendix, as being 

 indigenous to North America. There must 

 be something in the odor or the nectar of these 

 plants that is very attractive to insects. The 

 common liumble-bees (Boinhus americnniis, et 

 a!,,) resort to it in numbers, and often seem 

 slnggi.sh or intoxicated after partaking of its 

 insidious sweets. There are two beautiful 

 black and orange colored insects (Lyyetcs atdi- 

 cus et turcicus,) that are also partial to it, be- 

 sides several smaller species, ( Capsus). 



The most singular feature of the matter is 

 that the bees should manifest such a repug- 

 nance towards their companions after they 

 are infected by these pollen masses— so much 

 so as to drag them out and deny them the 

 privileges of domiciliation. In a correspon- 

 dence between Mr, Stauffer and Dr. Asa 

 Gray on this subject, the latter states that 

 this fact is entirely new to him. If it were 

 the eggs or the larvaj of an enemy to the hive, 

 the instincts of the other bees might lead 

 them to reject their infested associates on 



