428 [Assembly 



President Robert L. Pell said that lime is the oxide of calcium, 

 and as such should not be exposed to atmospheric influences, for 

 that it absorbs water and becomes a hydrate of lime, then, after 

 carbonizing, returns to its original state of carbonate of lime. It 

 destroys not only slugs and worms, but even kills their larva, 

 acting upon organic matters it may encounter and decomposing 

 them. 



When lime is placed upon a sandy loam, it quickly divides 

 into powder, sinking into tlie soil, and forming a layer of hard 

 calcareous matter, which becomes almost impervious to moisture. 

 These lime floors may be brought up by deep plowing, or by sow- 

 ing clover, the roots of which penetrate the lime, and return it 

 to the surface through their stems ; it causes loose soils to become 

 stiff, and mellows stiff clay; supplies inorganic food to plants, neu- 

 tralizes poisonous substances in the soil, transforms inert matters 

 into fine soil, and facilitates all kinds of decomposition. He had 

 found lime and salt mixture admirable as a top dressing, mixed 

 in the following proportions : Sixty bushels of lime with thirty 

 bushels of salt in a dry state, placed under cover for ninety days, 

 and use sixty bushels to the acre; a better composition is to add 

 sixty bushels of muck, during the decay of whicli new combina- 

 tions are formed, such as nitrate of lime, chloride of calcium, gyp- 



Salt without lime is advantageous to soil; nearly all plants con- 

 tain it, and furthermore, it preserves them from injury by frost, 

 as salted lands are only frozen by excessive colds ; cabbages and 

 similar plants in salted grounds will appear flourishing, when the 

 same plants on contiguous unsalted land will be frozen to a state 

 nearly allied to death. It retains moisture to the soil, and like- 

 wise absorbs it from the atmosphere. It is formed of chlorine and 

 sodium, and is therefore a chloride of sodium ; it is without smell 

 or bitterness, melts in a red heat, and is volatilized in a white 

 heat. 



In using salt upon cereal grains and the vegetable productions 

 of the farm, at the rate of nine bushels per acre, it has answered 

 expectation, and the crops have been improved. Thirty-five 



