SHEEP HUSBANDRY N THE SOUTH 



whole Tertiaiy formation, or at least that portion of it exteniling through 

 the Atlantic States. The second is the swamp mud, which, rich with the 

 alluvial deposition of ages, fills nearly every depre.ssion of the surface ca 

 pable of retaining water, in the whole tide-water zone. 



Mr. Riiffin recommends the fcu-mer as the best and mnsl attalnahlt^ fer- 

 tilizer on both of the classes of soils under examination. He seems to 

 think it adequate, of itself, to their full and permanent amelioration. I do 

 not desire a word which I shall say to bear, or even seem to bear, a con- 

 troversial tone toward the views of this ardent and enlightened friend of 

 Southei-n Agriculture. In expressing my dissent from them, my limit.« 

 and the occasion only permit me to allude to a few well-settled principle.' 

 and facts on which I have based my opinions. Lime acts mechanicallj 

 and chemically on soils. It stiffens loose and opens clayey ones. It is 

 to a certain extent, one of the necessary constituents of plants ; it neutral 

 izes acid substances in the soil ; it forms compounds, and promotes the 

 dissolution of existing ones, to prepare suitable food for plants ; and some- 

 times produces certain other minor beneficial effects. But its gieat, its 

 chief object, is to produce the food of plants by its chemical action on the 

 organic matter in the soil. Hence, says Johnston : 



" Lime has little or no effect upon soils in which organic matter is deficient;" and he far 

 ther says : " Under the influence of lime the organic matter disappears more rapidly than it 

 otherwise would do, and that after it has thus disappeared, fresh additions of lime produce 

 uo farther good effect ; ... it causes the organic matter itself ultimately to disappear." 



" It is scarcely practiwible," says Brown, ' to restore fertility to land even of the besl 

 natural quality, which has been thus abused ; and thin moorish soils, after being exhausted 

 by lime, ar*^ not to be restored." 



" An overdose of shell marl," says Lord Kaimes, " laid perhaps an inch thick, producei 

 for a time large crops, but at last renders the soil capable of bearing neither com (grain) noi 

 grass, of wliich there are many examples in Scotland." " The same," continues .lohuston. 

 " is true of lime in any fonn. The increased fertility continues as long as there remains au 

 adequate supply of organic (anhnal and vegetable) matter in the soil; but as that disappears, 

 the crops every year diminish both in quantity and in quality." 



" On poor arablo lands, which are not naturally so, but which are woni out or exhausted 

 by repeated liming and cropping, lime produces no good wliatever." (Anders(ni, Brown, 

 Morton.)* 



Let us now turn to the opinions of some of the most eminent European 

 Continental writers. The celebrated Thaer in his " Principles of Agricul- 

 ture " (Section IV. Part I.) says: 



" On no soils are the effects of lime so beneficial as on those which contain a gieat quan- 

 tity of sour humus prejudicial to vegetation, or on those which have been sujjjilied more or 

 less abundtmtly with animal manure H)r .a considerable period, without receiving an appli- 

 cation of lime, or some other substance of a similar nature. In the latter case it is fiequently 

 much m )re efficacious than an amelioration of stable manure would be ; but it soon impov- 

 Rrishes the soil so much that in a few years it becomes indispensably necessaiy to manure it 

 abundantly with rich animal or vegetable matters. As some [wrtioa of the hunuis, al- 

 though in all jirobability of an insoluble nature, always remains in arable Ian I even when it 

 apjiears to be much exhausted, it of course follows that an application of lime will always 

 be productive of very marked effects even on the poorest soils, beciiuse it will call into ac- 

 tion all the nutritive particles which they contain. A second amendment of a similar nature 

 bestowed shortly after the first, will be productive of some, although in geneial of much less 

 oenefit ; and the effect of each subsequent amelioiation of ihis nature will be progressively 

 diminished unless the soil receives an additional supply of humus. . . . The effect pn> 

 duced by lime on land of this nature (reclaimed bugs and marshes) is much more beneficial 

 and durable than that of any other manure. On the other hand, repeated ameliorations of 

 lime will soon totally exhaust and impoverish poor and sandy soils, and reduce them to ab- 

 •ohite sterility, even though each separate application seems to be productive of some g<x)d 

 effect. . . . Mimy persons who iiave not rightly comprehended the cause of the effect! 

 produced by lime, prefer it to manure, and have believed in the possibility of doing entireN 

 without the latter ; but the totsil exhaustion of the soil which such a course of proceedoig 

 Sjust sooner or later produce, caused them to fly to the opposite extieme. . . An e»- 



* See lohnrtonV Agricultural Chcmietry, vol. ii. d. 139-UJ. 



