iiSI %y^ lissTk jrys. ./Ai. iM&r j?:j 

 AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



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



vol.. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1836. 



NO. 14. 



ON THE USE OF I.iniB A.S MANURE. 



BY M. PUVIS. 

 INTRODUCTION. 

 (Continued.) 

 Lime is gHiievally known to farmers by the same 

 name tliat is generally useil by chemists. It is 

 obtained by the aid of heat from rocI<s which go 

 by tlie name of limestones. These are combina- 

 tions of Hme with carbonic acid, which is fixed in 

 them by chemical attraction, but which when 

 driven off by heat, takes the same form as the air 

 of the atmosphere, or becomes a gas. Tliis gas 

 from this circumstance lias been called _^xerf air, 

 by which name it is often known when causing 

 the sparkling and froth of cider and beer. The 

 principal part of limestone is therefore called by 

 chemists cartonaie o//imc. Carbonate of lime is 

 also found in shells, both those of living animals 

 and those which exist in the ground in a fo.ssil 

 state. In the former it is mixed with animal mut- 

 ter, which is more or less separated from the lat- 

 ter according to the time which has elapsed since 

 the death of the shell fish. 



Marl, in the sense in which the term is used by 

 chemists, is a mixture of clay with carbonate of 

 lime. The English writers on agriculture have 

 not observed this distinction, and the term is some- 

 times a|)plieil by them to a decomposed chalk, 

 which may contain little or no clay ; and some- 

 times to clay which contains no carbonate of lime. 

 In fact, the name is frequently applied by them 

 to any earthy matter found below the vagetable 

 soil, which is capable of increasing its fertility. 

 From this misap|irehension, the substances which 

 go by the name of marl in New Jersey, Maryland, 

 and Virginia do not correspond with the chemi- 

 cal definition, hut are generally beds of fossil shells 

 mixed in various proportions with earthy and sa- 

 line matters of various kinds. 



Lime is a substance very different in its charac- 

 ters from the two earths of which we have previ- 

 ously spoken. When prejiared by heat from any 

 of the original forms of its carbonate, it retains 

 their sliape unaltered, but may liave its color 

 changed, and always loses considerably in weight. 

 It is now acrid, caustic and corrosive, and lias 

 some properties in common with potash, which 

 are therefore alkaline. Of these the most impor- 

 tant is, that it unites with acids to form compounds 

 included ill the general class of salts. Of the salt.s 

 of lime which are important to the farmer, the 

 three principal are : the ca(-io7!a<c, which, as we 

 have staled, is found, in limestone, chalk, shells, 

 and marl ; the sulphate, in which lime is com- 

 bined with sulphuric acid, and which in cornlii- 

 nation with water is the substance so well known 

 to our farmers under the name of plaster of Paris, 

 or less familiarly by that of gypsum; the phos- 

 phate, which constitutes a large part of the bones 

 of animals. 



Lime, when exposed to the air, attracts carbon- 

 ic acid, which is always to he found in the atmos- 

 phere ; it thus passes back to the state of carbon- 

 ate, but in so doing gradually jfalls to powder, and 

 is then said to be air slaked. If slaked with wa- 

 ter it also falls to a powder, which still retains the 

 caustic character of the burnt lime ; but this pow- 

 der, when exposed to the air, unites with carbonic 

 acid more rapidly than when in mass. 



Lime, in its caustic state, has the property of 

 rapidly decomposing vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances, thus hastening the natural processes by 

 which they are finally destroyed ; or to speak 

 more properly, have their elements resolved into 

 new combinations. The offensive and unwhole- 

 some gases, which are given out by this composi- 

 tion, are absorbed by the lime, and prevented from 

 mixing with the air. The same property is pos- 

 sessed in a less degree by the carbonate of lime, 

 and probably by its other compounds ; but in or- 

 der that either this earth or its eomjiounds shall 

 manifest this property, they must be in small 

 fragments, or, which is better, in fine powder. 



Wet sand and plastic clay, and to those soils to 

 which they give their characters, also possess the 

 [iroperty ofabsorbing gases ; but they have this in 

 a very inferior degree to lime and its compounds. 

 As the gases generated by the decomposition of 

 vegetable and animal substances form a large part 

 of the necessary food of plants, it is obvious that a 

 soil which contains the carbonate of lime, may re- 

 tain and store them up for use, while they will be 

 lost in soils of a different character. 



Carbonate of lime may also be made a most im- 

 portant article in the prese.vation of the most val- 

 uable parts of putrescent manures, until they can 

 be applied to the soil. In this way marl is ap- 

 plied to a great extent in China ; the night soil 

 of their numerous population is there formed into 

 cakes like bricks, with marl, and thus loses its of- 

 fensive smell ; but when these are applied as ma- 

 nure to the land, they give out the gases again as 

 they are required for the nourishment of plants. 

 So also in Norfolk, the site for dunghills is pro- 

 pared by a layer of marl, which is incorporated 

 with the manure from time to time, and retains 

 the gases which would otherwise be lost. 



Liuie may therefore be applied in its caustic 

 fortn in some cases in Agri<'ulture, for it will has- 

 ten the decomposition of animal and vegetable 

 matters which might otherwise be inert ; it will 

 also neutralize acids, which experienced farmers 

 well known to exist in many soils, which they in 

 consequence call sour. But the latter purpose 

 will be answered as well by the carbonate of lime, 

 which may be applied as it exists in marl or shells, 

 or as it maybe jirepared by grinding limestone. 

 Caustic lime is also dangerous in its application, 

 for it will corrode and destroy living vegetables, 

 and hasten the decomposition of the vegetable mat- 

 ter of the soil to such a degree as to injure its fer- 

 tiiity. Execjjt upon tinf-bogs, and land loaded 

 with timber not wholly decomposed, quick or 

 caustic lime ought not to be used ; but to burn 



lime, and then by slaking to reduce it to the form 

 of fine powder, wliich is s|)eedily carbonated by 

 exj'osure to the air, is a more ready, and general- 

 ly a cheaper mode of obtaining the caibonale in a 

 convenient form, than to grind limestone to pow- 

 der in mills. Yet for many of the most valuable 

 uses of lime in agriculture, the latter method, if 

 as cheap, would answer as well. 



Lime slowly condiines with the earth silica and 

 produces a compound very different in character 

 from either. It is this, to cite a fact in proof of 

 our statement, which gives the hardness and so- 

 lidity to ancient mortar. The carbonate of lime 

 will serve to form this compound ; and thus, when 

 it has had time to act upon sand, it renders a sili- 

 cious soil more retentive of inoisture ; while, if 

 applied to clay, by combining with its silicious 

 matter, it renders it more friable ; and it is to the 

 formation of this compound by slow degrees, that 

 we are inclined to ascribe the valuable mechani- 

 cal properties of loamy soil, and the gradual ame- 

 lioration produced by the use of lime, marl, and 

 shells as a manure. 



Besides silica, alumina, and lime, an earth called 

 magnesia is likewise found in some soils. It is al- 

 so in the form of carbonate, a frccpient constitu- 

 ent of limestones. This earth has many proper- 

 ties in common with lime; like lime it is capable 

 of neutralizing acids; and when deprived of car- 

 bor.ic acid by heat, corrodes vegetable substances. 

 It probably also hastens putrefaction, and lioth it 

 and its carbonate are capable of absorbing the 

 gases let locse in that natural process. It is how- 

 ever, of little interest in agriculture, except as a 

 part of some of the limestones which are used as 

 manure. These, if applied in large quantities, 

 are sometimes very injurious to vegetation ; the 

 reason of this is, that magnesia does not repass to 

 the state of carbonate so rapidly as lime, and there- 

 fore retains its corrosive quality long alter the 

 lime has again become mild by its union with 

 carbonic acid. In less quantities, however, the 

 magnesian limestones may serve as a manure, but 

 their apiilication requires great caution, particu- 

 larly when the quantity of magnesia amounts to 

 25 jier cent. 



All of the simple substances we have mention- 

 ed, excejit perhaps the last, either separate or in 

 various states of combination, exists in plants. 

 The manner and character of the combination is 

 influenced by the vital action of the plant, wliich 

 causes them to form compounds, often in direct 

 opposition to the manner in which the ordinary 

 laws of chemistry would direct. It thus luqipens 

 that so soon as the plant ceases to live, these chem- 

 ical laws, being no longer impeded, begin to e.xert 

 their influence : and if it be in such a state as will 

 admit of the several elements acting readily upon 

 each other, a decomposition, more or less rapid, 

 of the vegetable structm'e ensues. It is a law of 

 chemistry, that its action is always aiiled by tho 

 bodies being in a fluid state, and the action is of- 

 ten imjjossible when the bodies are perfectly free 

 from moisture. Hence the direct chemical action 



