78 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



ashes of certain plants, especially clover. This use of it, there- 

 fore, seems established. It has been maintained that it acts as 

 a stimulus to vegetation ; but this is wholly conjectural, and 

 in fact explains nothing. It is saying merely in other words 

 that it promotes vegetation, for as to any direct agency in 

 quickening the circulations of the plant in the proper sense of 

 stimulus, this at least has not yet been detected. Its efficiency 

 in many cases is demonstrated ; but the soils which particu- 

 larly demand its use, and the manner of its application, can on- 

 ly be determined by actual experiment. 



Lime, if applied in a quick or caustic state, and in sufficient 

 quantities, has a tendency at once to consume all soft or putre- 

 scible matters, of an animal or vegetable nature, by combining 

 with the acids or the water which exist in these substances ; 

 but how next it operates to assist vegetation is not so easily 

 determined. The woody fibre of vegetables it does not alter, 

 or at most in a very small degree. Undoubtedly in this opera- 

 tion many gaseous substances are evolved, which pass ofi' in the 

 air without affording any aid to vegetation. To animal ma- 

 nure or putrescible matters, whose decomposition it is desirable 

 should go on gradually in the soil, this application therefore is 

 not approved. But where there is a superabundance of vegeta- 

 ble matter in the soil, or where there are acid plants, whose 

 sourness it is desirable to correct, such an application will be 

 beneficial. Glnick lime, likewise, may be useful in the de- 

 struction of all soft skinned insects with which it may come in 

 contact. 



The action of effete lime or the carbonate of lime is undoubt- 

 edly very different. Gluick lime, if applied to sandy soils, if 

 water were present, would tend to combine with the sand, and 

 form an insoluble substance like mortar. If applied to clay, 

 its operation would be different, as it would tend to divide and 

 reduce it to a fine state. This would be the effect of effete 

 lime or powdered limestone ; and, for ought as yet ascertain- 

 ed, these mechanical effects of lime upon tenacious soils, are 

 the principal benefits to be derived from it. The particles 



