224 TALKS Ok MANURES. 



as practicable, as the specific gravity or weight of this mineral 

 manure is so great, that we soon find it too deep in the ground for 

 the fibrous roots of plants to derive the greatest possible benefit 

 from its use. With this method of application are connected sev- 

 eral advantages. The lime can be hauled in the fall, after the 

 busy season is over, and when spread on the sod in this way, comes 

 in more immediate contact with the grass and grass-roots than 

 when the land is first plowed. In fields that have been limed in 

 part in this manner, and then plowed, and lime applied to the 

 remainder at the time of planting with corn, I always observe a 

 great difference in the corn-crop; and in plowing up the stubble 

 the next season, the part limed on the sod is much mellower than 

 that limed after the sod was broken, presenting a rich vegetable 

 mould not observed in the other part of the field." 



A farmer in Chester Co., Pa., also prefers to apply lime to newly- 

 seeded grass or clover. He puts on 100 bushels of slaked lime per 

 acre, either in the fall or in the spring, as most convenient, lie 

 limes one field every year, and as the farm is laid off into eleven 

 fields, all the land receives a dressing of lime once in eleven years. 



In some sections of the country, where lime has been used for 

 many years, it is possible that part of the money might better be 

 used in the purchase of guano, phosphates, fish-manure, etc. ; while 

 in this section, where we seldom use lime, we might find it great- 

 ly to our interest to give our land an occasional dressing of lime. 



The value of quick-lime as a manure is not merely in supplying 

 an actual constituent of the plant. If it was, a few pounds per 

 acre would be sufficient. Its value consists in changing the chem- 

 ical ani physical character of the soil in developing the latent 

 mineral plant-food, and in decomposing and rendering available 

 organic matter, and in forming compounds which attract ammonia 

 from the atmosphere. It may be that we can purchase this am- 

 monia and other plant- food cheaper than we can get it by using 

 lime. It depends a good deal on the nature and composition of 

 the soil. At present, this question can not be definitely settled, 

 except by actual trial on the farm. In England, where lime was 

 formerly used in large quantities, the tendency for some time has 

 been towards a more liberal and direct use of ammonia and phos- 

 phates in manures, rather than to develop them out of the soil by 

 the use of lime. A judicious combination of the two systems will 

 probably be found the most profitable. 



Making composts with old sods, lime, and barn-yard manure, is 



