SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 6b 



lightened aiitl scientific agnculturist will soon perceive thut the use of lime can never super 

 »ede that of dang, but tliiit it rentiers this kind of manure more energetic in its action. . . . 



In many places where its ameliorating effects were known and appreciated, many agi-icul- 

 turists have calculated that marl would prove a cheaper manure than stable dung ; ami 

 have, t'oiisequently, determined to do without the latter altogether ; and, therefore, havo 

 diminished their stock of catde, and sold their hay and straw. It may easily be imagined 

 that as swin as the chemical effects of the marl ceased to operate, as must be the case when 

 the land no longer contained undecomposed or insoluble substances, the soil became stmile, 

 and a second marling was incapable of producing any beneficial effects, there being no liu- 

 muB for it to act upon." 



PetzholJt, in his " Lectures to Farmers on Agricultural Chemistry," 

 (liccture XVII.) says: 



" Quick-lime greatly accelerates the decomposition of humus, whether of animal or vege 

 table origin, hiducing a more speedy liberation of its salts than would otherwise take place. 

 This is the reason quick-lime has proved so advantageous in the cultivation of bogs ; the 

 lime not only accelerates the decomposition of the humus, but it may be said altogether to 

 he the cause of the decay of humus, which, as it exists in peat, is scarcely by itself under- 

 going the process at all. . . . Where there is neither humus in the soil, nor undecom- 

 posed silicates, the application of lime as manure will be useless. ... So nuu-h, how- 

 ever, is dediicible frtmi all experience, that the mere application of marl to an exhausted soil 

 is of no use whatever, unless it is can-ied on the field in such quantities as to constitute a 

 new sfjil, covering the whole surface to the depth of a foot. . . . In a chemical point of 

 view, marl is not of any value except where tke soil requires a supply of lime. . . Tha 

 other mineral constituents of marl are far too inconsiderable in amount to be reckoned upon." 



Chaptal, in his " Chemistry applied to Agriculture," (Chap, iii., Art. 2,) 

 thus expresses himself: 



" It is acknowledged that lime is principally useful upon fallow lands which are broken 

 up ; upon gi-ass lands, whether natural or artificial, which are prepared for cultivation : and 

 upon mudily lands, which are to be put into a fit state for culture. It is well known that in 

 all these cases there exists in the land a greater or less quantity of loots, which, by the ap- 

 plication of lime, may be made to serve more immediately for manure, by the solubility it 

 will give to the new products formed by them. . . . Independently of this effect, which, 

 in my opinion, is the most important, lime exercises other powers, which make it a very 

 valuable agent in Agiiculture." 



These authorities might be multiplied ad wfimtum. 



On the alternately too loose or too hard soils of the dry and barren lands 

 of the tide-water zone, lime would doubtless have two salutary effects — 

 the mechanical one already noticed, and it would furnish c/ne necessary 

 food ()f plants. But of its power to render these soils, or the exhausted 

 ones of the middle zone, anything more than transiently fertile, there is no 

 probability, if they are, as I suppose them to be, generally rather, and 

 sometimes very, destitute of organic matter. This destitution I infer from 

 ocular examination ;* also from the fact that they are covered with little 

 vegetation, with the exception of the long-leaf pine, to produce by its an- 

 nual decay a store of organic matter; and, finally, if this organic matter 

 existed in these soils in any considerable quantity, tJiey rrould, not be ster- 

 ile. They probably possess the ordinary inorganic constituents of dry 

 Tertiary and granitic soils, and no properties directly deleterious to vege- 

 liition. Organic matter, then, in my judgment, is what they principally 

 stand in need of to render them fertile. Now, by applying lime to them, 

 it wouhl undoubtedly do good in two ways, as before admitted , but the 

 con.^iderable temporary apparent amelioration, as evinced in some instances 

 \>Y the increased growth of vegetation, is factitious, for the lime is only act- 

 ing with and exhausting the little organic matter in the soil, to leave it to 

 greater eventual sterility. Hence the saying that " lime enriches the fathei 

 but impoverishes the son," is a true one when the lime is appKed to soila 

 possessing but a small proportion of organic matter. On such, lime soon 



• I bave ecen no ar.nlyses of these soils, and mean therefore ae I say, simply, examination I y the eye 



