No. 144.] 413 



Many a soil requiring lime, and having large quantities under- 

 laying the surface-soil J immediately on the sub-soil, has been 

 restored by the free use of sub-soil plowing, thus elevating and 

 re-dividing the lime through the mass. 



Sandy soils, by the frequent use of lime in small doses, are ren- 

 dered more adhesive, while clayey soils are rendered more pul- 

 verulent. It must be remembered, however, that, while lime is 

 an active agent in rendering all the contents of the soil available 

 for the use of plants, still in doing so it will rapidly exhaust soils 

 of those materials, that are there in lesser quantities, consequently 

 the other manures used should be such as would replace those 

 ingredients so rapidly to be parted with. 



Soils that are overcharged with inert vegetable matter, are be- 

 nefited by the use of lime and its compounds, by scouring the 

 decomposition of this inert matter, and the yielding up of its in- 

 tegrants. 



Poor soils to which cheap organic matter is freshly added, are 

 also improved by the use of lime, for, while it assists in freeing 

 the inorganic constituents of such soil, it prepares humus for 

 combination with them, while they in turn as freed, assist in the 

 decomposition of the vegetable portions. 



Many a farm has been ruined for a time by the injudicious and 

 excessive use of lime, and the remedy is, first, to add large amounts 

 of organic matter, such as swamp muck, ditch and pond scrapings, 

 and river mud; and secondly, such missing constituents as have 

 been parted with from the soil, in consequence of the stimulating 

 properties of the lime in the growth of previous crops. Where 

 cheap organic matter cannot be procured, green crops can be 

 raised on over-limed land, and plowed in, and those should be 

 selected which take the largest amount of carbon from the atmos- 

 phere. Among these may be named clover, field peas, buck- 

 wheat, &c. 



