IN CONNECTION WITH PARTICULAR MANURES. 83 



one defect. By attending to such points as these, the 

 farmer may often save himself much disappointment 

 and expense. He may put on load after load of or- 

 dinary manure, and still not produce the desired im- 

 piDvement; when at the same time a bushel or two of 

 some particular ingredient, at one-twentieth of the 

 cost, may have been all that the land wanted. 



a. In this way we can explain the wonderful effect 

 often produced by a few bushels of lime, or of plaster. 

 These were just the substances which were deficient in 

 those soils where they proved so efficacious; being 

 supplied, the soils at once became fertile. Where they 

 produce no change, as is the case in many situations, 

 it is because there is already a sufficient supply present; 

 because some other substances beside these are also 

 wanting; because the land is too wet, or is otherwise 

 faulty in its physical character; or because injurious 

 compounds are so largely present, as to be fatal to the 

 healthy growth of plants. 



It is not uncommon for land to be brought up at 

 once by adding a small quantity of plaster, and the 

 application repeated yearly afterward seems to be all 

 that is necessary. This seeming facility of fertilizing 

 his soil, is apt to lead the farmer into a great mistake. 

 He finds that he can obtain heavy crops each year by 

 using a few bushels of plaster or lime, and is tempted 

 to depend almost entirely upon so easy and so cheap 

 a manure, to the neglect of all others. After a time, 

 however, his crops begin to diminish again : he tries 

 increasing the plaster or the lime, but with no renewal 

 of the former effect; he finally resorts to common 

 manure again, but with not even so much success as 

 he formerly had; the land is impoverished beyond 

 anything he has ever known. Thus in some parts of 

 England it has passed into a proverb, 



u Lime enriches the fathers, but impoverishes the sons;" 



