56 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



example and stamina keep them pretty well up ; but their 

 children begin to run down ; in their hands the property is 

 wasted and they die poor ; and the fourth race begin in pov- 

 erty, and work upward again." Now, if our fat and some- 

 what dogmatical friend has reasoned aright, there is a de- 

 generating and rejuvenating process going on in society, 

 having a period of about four or five years. "We give the 

 theory for what it may be worth. 



LIME UPON WHEAT. 



LIME is used either to prepare the seed for germination, 

 or to prepare the soil for the better growth of the seed. 

 This latter operation it does, either by adding itself as a 

 new ingredient, or by acting chemically upon the ingre- 

 dients already in the soil. 



When lime is applied to the seed (the seed being moist) 

 the oxygen of the water, combining with carbon of the 

 seed, forms carbonic acid ; which, having a powerful affin- 

 ity for lime, unites with it, forming a carbonate of lime. 

 The escape of a portion of its carbon constitutes the natu- 

 ral preparation of a seed for growth ; but why, chemists 

 have not been able to explain. 



Air-slaked lime, is lime which has combined with carbonic 

 acid existing in the atmosphere. Unburnt limestone is a 

 carbonate of lime ; air-slaked lime is the same, and they do 

 not materially differ. Air-slaked lime, having no longer an 

 affinity for carbonic acid, withdraws none from the grain to 

 which it may be applied ; and in nothing helps the germi- 

 nating process. Our readers will therefore see the rea- 

 son why wheat does not sprout any quicker when it is 

 limed, than when it is not. Precisely the same thing 

 is true of other substances applied to grains. Magnesia, 

 existing naturally as a carbonate, like lime, has its carbonic 



