218 



.NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



sowed it with clover nnd •timothy (Hcnlsgrass) 

 and piit two bushels ot'phiistcr on nn iicrc ; and 

 tiail as great a crop of clover as could grow ; it 

 L'y three weeks before the time of mowing." 

 {le adds—" The lime and plaister did nil this ; 

 for no land coiiid be poorer before. Where 1 

 laid no lime, 1 got no clover, allhou^'h I put on 

 the j)laJ5ter.'** The kind of soil in \vliicii lime 

 operaled so powerfully, is not mentioned : hut 

 probahlv it was clayey; a very common soil in 

 the country where this land lay. Another like 

 instance occnrod in the Delaware State, on a 

 clay farm, o:i which i>laister produced no effect 

 until the land was limed. t While hnic operates 

 very beneficially on stiong clays, it is said to 

 be still more useful on lighter soils. To ascer- 

 tain its elTccts on any lands, will require but 

 little time an I a small expense. A sin;^le cask 

 of lime will he sufficient tor a number of com- 

 parative experiments. If a few adjoining rods 

 ol laml be set apart for the purpose, and the 

 lime, by slacking, brought to a line powder, it 

 may be evenly spread on the several small 

 strips, in difi'erent proportions, at the rate of 

 twenty and any greater number of bushels to 

 the acre. Then, by raking or harrowing, mix 

 the lime with the surface soil, iind plant each 

 strip equally and uniformly with Indian corn. 

 One equal strip, tilled and planted exactly as 

 the others, but loft unlimed, will ennhle the 

 experimenter to see ivhat advantage may arise 

 trom liming. In the next year the ell'ecls of 

 lime in its respective proportions, may be furth- 

 er tested, by sowing the same strips with equal 

 quantities of one sort of grain and of grass seeds. 



In like manner, small experiments may be 

 made to try the elTccts of clay on light sandy or 

 gravelly loam^, and of sand on stiff clays. The 

 clay should be carried on and spread, and lie on 

 the surface during the winter, to break and 

 moulder by the alternate frosts and thaivs, that 

 it may be more eflectually mixed with the soil. 



As to the manner of applying lime, I am sat- 

 isfied the bait is tliat recommended and practis- 

 ril where lime has been most extensively used : 

 that is, to slake it with water, and as soon as it 

 (alls to a tine powder and is cool, to spread it 

 evenly over the land, and with the harrow mix 

 it with the soil; its greatest ulility depending 

 on its intimate incorporation. In liming exten- 

 sively, the lime is often, perhaps most common- 

 ly, carried on and dnqqiod in small heaps, to be 

 slaked by the moisture in the air : but it should 

 be carefully attended to, that it may be spread 

 as soon as it is slaked ; or there will otherwise 

 he danger of its setting in bunps, which may 

 never again be duly pulverized. 



If the application of lime be, as is represent- 

 ed, so important to the great and permanent fer- 

 tility of the soil (nnd *of this I entertain no 

 doubt,) while the knowledge of the fact is all 

 that is essential for the practical farmer to 

 know; something more is desirable to satisfy in- 

 quisitive minds; and if the reason for using 

 lime, or its mode of operating, could be shown, 

 it would give confidence to the husbandman, 

 while it gratified the philosophical inquirer. 



A gentleman who is reputed to be one of the 

 greatest chemists of the age (Sir Humphrey 

 Davy) informs us that " when lime, whether 

 freshly burnt or slacked, is mixed with any 

 moist fibrous matter, there is a strong action be- 



* Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society of A'licul- 

 ture, Vol. I. p. 193. tibid. Vol. 11, p. 187. 



tween the lime and the vegetable matter, and 

 they form a kind of compo-t together, of which 

 a part is soluble in water i" — that " by this kind 

 of operation, lime renders mat(er which was be- 

 fore comparatively inert, nutritive ; and a« char- 

 coal and oxygene (vital air) abound in all veg- 

 etable matters, it (the quick lime) becomes at 

 the same time converted into carbonate of lime ;" 

 that is, it is restored, by again combining with 

 carbonic acid or fixed air, to the state in which 

 it existed before it was burnt, except its being 

 reduced to powder, .\gain he saj's — " Mild 

 lime, powdered limestone, marles or chalks 

 (for chalk is a limestone) have no action of this 

 kind upon vegetable matter; by their action 

 they prevent the too rapid decomposition of 

 substances already dissolve<l ; but they have no 

 tendency to form soluble matters."' He then 

 remarks, that " chalk, marie, or carbonate of 

 lime, ivill only improve the tcxnirc of the soil ; 

 or its relation to absorption ; acting merely as 

 one of its earthly ingredients. Quick lime 

 when it becomes mild, operates in the same 

 rhanner ns chalk ; but in the act of becoming 

 mild, it prepares soluble out of insoluble matter." 

 Again lie wys — " All soils are improved by 

 mild lime, and sands more than clays." 



While quick lime, according to this celebrat- 

 ed chemist, is so usefully applied to land 

 abounding in fibrous matter, to elluct its speedy 

 dissolution, he says its application shouM be 

 avoided, where a soil contains much soluble 

 vegetable manure ; as it either tends to decom- 

 pose the soluble matters by uniting to their 

 carbon and oxygene, so as to become mild lime, 

 or it combines with the soluble matter*, and 

 forms compounds having less attraction fur wa- 

 ter than the pure vegetable substance. 



But an ingenious writer, under the signature 

 of Agricola, in Nova-Scotia, says, that notwith- 

 standing all these precautionary fears, the oft- 

 spring of chemical creation, the Firitish farmer 

 is mostly in a habit of applying quick lime to all 

 sorts of soils. And he assigns an adequate rea- 

 son, that caustic lime cannot remain any length 

 of time in the ground, without passing into a 

 carbonate and becoming mild. This writer of- 

 fers different reasons for the beneficial opera- 

 tion of lime: that it is capable of absorbing not 

 only that quantity of carbonic acid which it pos- 

 sessed in its nalural state (being 15 parts in 100) 

 but an additional quantity ; and can form what 

 chemists call an hypercarbonate. This, he says, 

 is highly soluble in water : which accounts for 

 the admission of lime into the struclure of* 

 plants; and that Ihis excess of carbonic acid ad- 

 heres very loosely to its base (the mild lime) 

 and is liberated without any extraordinary de- 

 gree of heat. The carbonic acid, a most im- 

 portant article of vegetable food, is copiously 

 evolved in the putrefactive process of manures ; 

 the calcareous earth fixes and prevents its es- 

 cape — forms with it a hypercarbonate, and read- 

 ily imparts it. iu union with water, towards the 

 nourishment of the crops. It is supposed to do 

 more ; it unites with the carbonic acid floating 

 in the air; and when there is a scarcity of ali- 

 ment in the soil, it seizes and secures this food 

 in the atmosphere, and afterwards disperses it, 

 according to the calls and necessities of vegeta- 

 tion. Hence the necessity of keeping lime on 

 the surface. It is then ready to intercept, and 

 coml>ine, with the carbonic acid which is gene- 

 rated \<y the fermentation of the pulrescent mat- 

 ter lying at lower depths, and to attract the 



same gas (the carbonic acid) from the surround 

 I ing air. 



I 1 confes« myself much better satisfied with flu 

 I observations of Agricola, in accounting for the 

 operation of lime, than with the solution offeree 

 I by Sir Humphrey Davy. If the statement o 

 the former be correct, we can see a reasgn foi 

 jthe long continuance of the beneficial effects oi 

 lime on land : for although it is not itself food 

 I for plants, it is constantly employed in collect 

 ing and imparting to them that food, from the 

 sources which have lieen mentioned. Does not 

 the reasoning of Agricola also indicate the cause 

 why lime benefits sands more than clays? The 

 latter are opened and rendered lighter by its 

 application : a.id to destroy their too <rreat fe 

 nacity, seems to be a main advantage g-ained by 

 liming clay sells; whereas sandy soils arc al- 

 ready sufficie.itly porous. 



-An old English practice of burning clay for a 

 manure, has lately been revived in England, and 

 with some appearance of novelty. The facts 

 stated in regard to its operation, preclude all 

 doubt of its efficacy. On stiflclays.it has, in 

 the practice of some farmers, superseded the" 

 use of lime : because, although much greater 

 quantities ofit are required, yet being on the 

 spot, in the very field where it is wanted, it is 

 much cheaper than lime, for which the farmers 

 are often obligeil to send upwards of twentv 

 miles. — It is said that clay thus burnt, — in which 

 the process is so managed as to reduce the clav 

 to the condition of ashes, — will not again, whea 

 wetted ivith rains, recover its original texture 

 of a cio::* compact substance too tenacious of 

 water, aid when dry, too hard for the roots of 

 plants f'leely to penetrate. I have called the. 

 burning of clay for manure an old English prac- 

 tice : for 1 find an account ofit in the second of 

 Dr. l^li it's Essays on F'ield Ilusbundry, written 

 and priited in Connecticut upwards of seventy 

 years ago. The Doctor gives a recipe, copied 

 from an English book, for the process of burn- 

 ing it; which is with a smothered fire, a point of 

 indispensable necessity, accordinglo the present 

 practice in England. 



Many ways of improving lands, both in the 

 manner of cultivating them, and in the kinds of 

 useful plants to be introduced, have been oftea 

 recommended ; and certainly a spirit of improve- 

 ment has been extensively excited : yet much 

 remains to be done, to raise our crops to aa 

 equality to those in some European countries, 

 whose lands and climates are no better than our 

 own. But have we the means of accomplishing 

 it ? 1 answer, generally, that we have. Our an- 

 imals for labor are equally eflicicnt. Our in- 

 struments of husbandry are as good, or capable 

 of being easily made so. Our husbandmen are 

 as iiifelligeDt, and unquestionably less prejudic- 

 ed, and less averse to ado[)t improved modes in 

 farming. In England, a bigotted perseverance 

 in ancient pr.tciices, however absurd, has in 

 times past been astonishing. Her own writers 

 inform us, tor instance, that in one county all 

 their common plougiiing has long been per- 

 formed with one pair of horses driven by the 

 ploughman ; while in an adjoining district four 

 or five horses, in a single line have been put to 

 the plough, with the addition of a driver, and 

 yet plongiiing no more land, nor with a deeper 

 furrow, than was elsewhere effected with one ■ 

 pair of horses. 



But although 1 suppose no prejudices equally .. 

 strong exist among us, still we are, 1 think, too 



