ACTION OF LIME. 329 



Chemical Researches and Experiments made by Dr. 

 Pincus, at the Insterburg Station for Agriculturo- 

 chemical and Physical Experiments.' Gumbinnen. 

 1861.) 



Lime. I have, unfortunately, never had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining a soil on which a lime-dressing 

 has exercised a beneficial effect, as this substance is not 

 used by farmers in the neighbourhood either of Giessen 

 or of Munich. The experiments made by Kuhlmann, 

 on meadows, in the years 1845 and 1846, seem to show 

 that lime is principally useful in altering the condition 

 of the soil ; but having no data before me as to the par- 

 ticular soil on which these experiments were made, I 

 am unable to point out wherein this alteration consists. 



Hay crop reaped per hectare, 1845 and 1846. 



kilos. kilos. 



Meadow unmanured 11253 



" manured with 300 kilos, of slaked 



lime, each year 14263 Increase 3000 



" manured with 500 kilos, of chalk 



each year 10706 Decrease 556 



It may safely be taken for granted here, that if the 

 lime had acted as a nutritive element in the develope- 

 ment of the meadow plants, the plot manured with 

 carbonate of lime ought to have given a higher, but 

 assuredly in no case an inferior crop, than the unma- 

 nured plot. But the very reverse is the case : the car- 

 bonate of lime, which could only spread through the 

 soil dissolved in carbonic acid, had an unfavourable 

 effect ; the caustic lime, on the contrary, was beneficial. 



Among the Saxon experiments already so often 

 alluded to, there are two of sufficient importance to 

 deserve particular mention here. One of these was 

 made by Traeger, of Oberbobritzsch ; the other by 

 Trager, of Friedersdorf. The latter omitted to make 

 a comparative experiment to show the difference be- 

 tween the produce from a plot manured with lime, and 

 that from an unmanured plot of the same size. Instead 

 of the latter, therefore, I placed here by the side of the 



