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AND CaRDENER'S journal. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (AcRicuLTURiL Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



vol.. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28, 1836. 



« 12. 



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The following 19 from the New York Cultivator, and 

 part of the system of British Husbandry, extracted 

 from that Journal. 



OP THE mPPERENT SPECIES OP MINERAI. 

 MAKUKES. 



Alkaline Earths, or Alkalies and their Combina- 

 tions wliicli are found unmixed with the remains 

 of any organized beings, are the only substances 

 which can with propriety be called fossil manures. 

 The only alkaline earths which have hitherto been 

 applied in this way, are lime and magnesia ; though 

 potassa and soda the two fixed alkalies, are both 

 used to a limited extent in certain of their cheiiii- 

 cal compounds. 



The most coinmon form in which lime is found 

 on the surface of the earth, \s in a state of combi- 

 nation with carbonic acid or fixed air. If a piece 

 of limestone or chalk be thrown into a fluid acid, 

 there will be an effervescence. This is OA-ing to 

 the escape of the carl onic acid gas. The lime 

 becomes dissolved in the liquor. When limestone 

 is strongly heated, the carbonic acid gas is expell- 

 ed and then nathing remains but the pure alkaline 

 earth ; in this case there is a loss of weight ; and 

 if the fire has been very high, it approaches to one- 

 half the weight of the stone ; but in common ca- 

 ses, limestones, if well dried before burning, do 

 not' lose much more than 35 or 40 per cent, or 

 from 7 to 8 parts out of twenty. 



When burnt lime is exposed to the atmosphere 

 in a certain time it becomes mild, and is the same, 

 substance as that precipitated from lime water; it 

 is combined with carbonic acid gas. Uuick-lime, 

 when first made, is caustic and burning to the 

 tongue, renders vegetable bluos, green, and is so- 

 luble, [i. e. dissolves.] in water; but when com- 

 bined with carbonic acid, it loses all these prop- 

 erties, its solubility, and its taste ; it regains its 

 power of effervescing, and becomes the same chem- 

 ical substance as chalk or limestone. Very few 

 limestones or chalks consist entirely of lime and 

 carbonic acid. The statuary marbles, or certain 

 of the rbomboidal spars, are almost the only pure 

 species ; and the different properties of limestones, 

 both as manures and cements, depend upon the 

 nature of the ingredients mixed with the lime- 

 stones ; for the true calcareous elements, the car- 

 bonate of lime, is uniformly the same in nature, 

 iu properties, and effects, and consists of one pro- 

 l)ortion of carbonic acid, 41.4, and one of lime, 55. 

 When a limestone docs not copiously effervesce 

 in acids, and is sufficiently hard to scratch glass, it 

 contains silicious, (sandy,) and probably aluminous 

 (clayey,) earths. When it is deep brown or red, 

 or strongly colored of any of the shades of brown 

 or yellow, it contains oxide of iron. When it is 

 not sufficiently hard to scratch glass, but efferves- 

 ces slowly, and makes the acid in which it effer- 

 vesces milky, it contains magnesia. And when it 

 ia black, and emits afueti<l smell if rubbed, it con- 

 tains coaly or bituminous matter. Beiore any 



opinion can be formed of the manner in which 

 the different ingredients in limestone modify their 

 properties, it will be necessary to consider the op- 

 eration of pure lime as a manure. 



Quick-lime, in its pure state, whether in powder 

 or dissolved in water, is injurious to |)lants. In 

 several instances grass has been killed by water- 

 ing it with lime-water. But lime, in its state of 

 combination with carbonic acid, is a useful ingre- 

 dient in soils. Calcareous earth is found in the 

 ashes of the greater number of plants ; and expos- 

 ed to the air, lime cannot long continue caustic, 

 for the reasons that were ju.st now assigned, but 

 soon become united to carbonic acid. When new- 

 ly burnt lime is exposed to the air, it soon falls 

 into powder; in this case it is called slaked lime ; 

 and the same effect is immediately produced by 

 throwing water upon it, when it heats violently, 

 and the water disappears. Slaked lime is merely 

 a combination of lime, with about one-third it.? 

 weight of water ; i. e. fiftyfive parts of lime ab-sorb 

 seventeen parts of water, and is called by chemists 

 hydrate of lime ; and when hydrate of lime be- 

 comes carbonate of lime by long exposure to air, 

 the water is expelled, and the carbonic acid gas 

 takes its place. When lime, whether freshly 

 burnt or slaked, is mixed with any moist fibrous, 

 vegetable matter, there is a strong action between 

 the limo and the vegetable matter, and they form 

 a kind of compost together, of which a part is usu- 

 ally soluble in water. By this sort of operation, 

 lime renders matter which was before compara- 

 tively inert, nutritive ; and as charcoal and oxy- 

 gen abound in all vegetable matters, it becomes 

 at the same time converted into carbonate of 

 lime. 



Mild lime, powdered lime-stone, marls or chalks, 

 have an action of this kind upon vegetable matter; 

 they prevent the too rapid decomposition of sub- 

 stances already dissolved, but they have no ten- 

 dency to form soluble matters. It is obvious from 

 these circumstances, that the operations of quick- 

 lime, and marl, or chalk, depend upon ))rinciples 

 altogether different. Quick-lime in being ap|)lied 

 to land, tends to bring any hard vegetable matter 

 that it contains into a state of more rapid decompo- 

 sition and solution, so as to render it a proper food 

 for plants. Chalk, and marl, or carbonate of lime, 

 will only improve the texture of the soil, or its re- 

 lation to absorption ; it acts merely as one of its 

 earthy ingredients. Chalk has been recommend- 

 ed as a substance calculated to correct the sour- 

 ness of land. It would surely have been a wise 

 practice to have previously ascertained the certain- 

 ty of til is existence of acid, and to have determined 

 its nature in order that it might be effectually re- 

 moved. The fact really is, that no soil was ever 

 yet found to contain any notable quantity of un- 

 combined acid. The acetic and carbonate acids 

 are the oidy two that are likely to be generated 

 by any spontaneous decomposition of animal or 

 vegetable bodies, and neither of these have any 

 fixity when exposed to the air. Chalk having no 

 power of acting on animal or vegetable substan- 



ces, can be no otherwise serviceable to land than 

 as it alters its texture. Quick-lime, when it be- 

 comes mild, operates in the same manner as chalk, 

 but in the act of becoming mild, it prepares solu- 

 ble out of unsoluble matter. Bouillon La Grange 

 says, that g.jlatine oxygenized becomes insoluble, 

 and vegetable extract becomes so from the same 

 cause ; now lime has the property of attracting 

 oxygen, and, consequently, of restoring the prop- 

 erty of solubility to those substances which have 

 been deprived of it, from a combination of oxygen. 

 Hence, the use of lime on peat lands, and on all 

 soils containing an excess of vegetable insoluble 

 matter. — Grisenihwaile. 



Effects of lime on wheat crops. — When lime is 

 employed upon the land where there is ])resent 

 any quantity of ammonia, which may, perhaps, be 

 imbibed by the leaves of plants, and afterwards 

 undergo some change so as to form gluten. It is 

 upon this circumstance, that the operation of lime 

 in the prepartion for "wheat crops depends ; and 

 its efficacy in fertilizing peat, and in bringing into 

 a state of cultivation all soils abounding in hard 

 roots, or dry t^ibres, or inert vegetable matter. 



General principles for applying time. — The so- 

 lution of the question whether quick-lime ought 

 to be applied to a soil, depends upon the quantity 

 of inert vegetable matter it contaiiLS. The solu- 

 tion of the question, whether marl, mild lime, or 

 powdered limestone ought to be applied, depends 

 upon the quantity of calcareous matter already in. 

 the soil. All soils are improved by mild lime, and 

 ultimately by quick-lime, which do not effervesce 

 with acids, and sands more than clays. When a 

 soil, deficient in calcareous matter, contains more 

 soluble vegetable manure, the application of quick 

 lime should always be avoided, as it either tends 

 to decompose the soluble matters by uniting to 

 their carbon and oxygen so as to become mild 

 lime, or it combines with the soluble matters, and 

 forms compounds having less attraction for water 

 than the pure vegetable substance. The case is 

 the same with respect to mo.st animal manures, 

 but the operation of the lime is different in differ- 

 ent cases ; and depends upon the nature of the 

 animal matter. Lime forms a kind of insoluble 

 soap with oily matters, and then gradually decom- 

 l)oses them by separating from them oxygen and 

 carbon. It combines likewise with animal acids, 

 and probably assists their decomposttion by ab- 

 stracting carbonaceous matter from thein combin- 

 e.l with oxygen ; and consequently must render 

 them less nutritive. It tends to diminish, like- 

 wise the nutritive powers of albumen from the 

 same' causes ; and always destroys, to a certain 

 extent, the efficacy of animal manures, either by 

 combining with certain of their elements, or by 

 giving to them new arrangements. Lime should 

 never be applied with animal manures, unless they 

 are too rich, or for the purpose of preventing nox- 

 ious effluvia. It is injurious when mixed with 

 any cominoii dung, and tends to render the at- 

 tractive matter insoluble. According to Chaptal, 

 lime forms insoluble composts, with almost al, 



