Proceedings of the Farmer^ Club. 357 



of the frame. He thought ventilation was not sufficiently attended 

 to, and he especially deprecated admission of air in small jets and 

 from the middle or lower part of the room. He said air should 

 come in from the top windows. If the sashes are fast, let them be 

 arranged so as be let down from the top. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker read the following valuable article, by an 

 English writer, on lime, from the Mark Lane Express: 



LmE ITS USES m AGRICULTURE AND MODES OF APPLICATION. 



Lime, viewed as a manurial element, is one of the most valuable 

 and important mineral substances with which the agriculturists of 

 the present day are acquainted. By its uses, even in very limited 

 quantities, waste land in process of reclamation is quickly brought 

 into a state which renders it capable of bearing profitable crops; 

 the coarse vegetation which generally covers such land, and use- 

 lessly occupies the soil, being speedily decomposed, and the elements 

 of fertility thereby imparted. It is not, however, to waste land 

 alone that the application of lime is valuable, as it can with great 

 propriety be used upon land in a high state of cultivation, with 

 highly beneficial results; in fact, the bulk of the lime used in agri- 

 culture is applied to land long in cultivation, and worked in the 

 usual rotation common to each district. On heavy clays, adhesive 

 and difficult to work, lime pays for its occasional application by the 

 mere mechanical influence exercised on such soils. By the action 

 of quicklime, the most stubborn soils become disentegrated, and 

 consequently easy to work; the saving of labor alone in many cases 

 paying for the first cost of the lime. 



In liming land, the practice of farmers has greatly altered of 

 late years; as, instead of a heavy dressing at long intervals, which 

 formerly was prevalent, smaller quantities, at intervals of from six 

 to ten years, according to the rotation followed, is the most popular 

 method of applying lime at the present day. This stands to reason, 

 as, apart from its mechanical action (the great use of lime being to 

 liberate and utilize the inert organic matters contained in the soil, 

 and so enable it to enter into new combinations), too heavy a dress- 

 ing exhausts this ingredient too suddenly, and, instead of benefiting 

 the land, such an application materially injures it for several suc- 

 cessive seasons. Light land will, of course, sustain much greater 

 injury from an excessive dose of lime than heavy clays or coarse 

 lands, and be much longer in recovering from the effects of an 

 overdose. Land in good manurial condition, which has not received 



