STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 145 



Oui" best experimentors say that lime should be applied some 

 time before the crop is grown, say in the fall of the year. Some 

 recommend harrowing it in with our wheat, particularly the winter. 

 On a potato field it can be sown broadcast after hoeing and on 

 cornfields before or after hoeing. A compost of one bushel of 

 lime and three bushels of the rich top soil is used with excellent 

 effect. 



As to gypsum. Dr. Franklin was the first to recommend the use 

 of this fertilizer in this country. lie sowed some on a hill-side in 

 a field of grain in the form of the words, "Effects of g^'psum," 

 and the rank and stout grain where it was sown, could be seen 

 very plainly, and the words distinctly read. It differs from com- 

 mon lime in having sulphuric acid in the place of carbonic, in 

 combination with pure lime. Sometimes the wonderful effect of 

 this fertilizer is owing to the fact that it supplies exactly the 

 ingredients the cultivated crop needs ; and sometimes it stimu- 

 lates the inactive substances in the soil, and so they are fitted for 

 the plant. In many sections of the Eastern States it has been 

 largely used, especially upon pastures and meadows ; and also 

 upon oats, corn and potatoes. Its value lies mainly in two things : 

 first, as a direct nutriment to the plant in furnishing sulphur, oxy- 

 gen and lime; second, in its power to absorb moisture and the 

 volatile gases, as ammonia, and yield them up as the plant may 

 demand them. A small quantity lying on the ground or near the 

 surface, will act in conveying the valuable vapors from the atmos- 

 phere to the crops, to which it yields these under the influence of 

 moisture and heat. On grass and clover lands, its value is due 

 principally to this effect, though in dry weather it takes up the 

 moisture of the dews and the ground, and retains them for the 

 crop. When it ceases to benefit the land, then other manures con- 

 taining ammonia, phosphoric acid, potash, soda, magnesia and 

 chlorine, should be applied at once, as it may then be known that 

 these ingredients do not exist in the soil, or that they have been 

 exhausted by the crops. The amount required to be sown on the 

 land is not large, and varies with the kinds of soil. We are told 

 that it should always be applied on the green crop and in the 

 spring. In this country it is frequently sown with the seed ; or 

 in the case of potatoes, put into the holes with the farmyard 

 manures. 



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