AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



I'UBLISHED BY JOSEPH BllECK & CO., NO. 52, NOKTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 9, 1836. 



NO. 18. 



<g\.^aa<swi£.sw2Si<a.s„ 



ox THE USE OP LIME AS MANURE. 



Br M. PUVIS. 



(Continued ) 



EXTENT OF SURFACE TO WHICH LIME IS SUITABLE. 



7. A great proportion of the soil of France flops 

 not contaii) the calcareous principle. The country 

 of primitive formation — the mountains of which 

 the rook is not calcareous — many soils even, of 

 which the subsoils inclose calcareous formations 



the great and last alluvion which has covered 



the surface, and which still composes it wherever 

 the return waters have not carried it off with them 



also extensive surfaces, in the composition of 



which the calcareous principle had not entered ex- 

 cept in small propo.tions, and which small amount 

 has heen worn out hy the successions of vegeta- 

 tion all these kinds of soil, which comprise at 



least three-fourths of the surface of France, to he 

 fertilized, demand calcareous manures. If it is ad- 

 mitted that one-third of all this space has already 

 received aid from lime, marl, ashes of wood, or of 

 peat, of hones burnt, or i)OUDded, there will still 

 remain the half of France to be improved hy such 

 means ; an immense task, doubtless — hut of which 

 the results will he still more prodigious, since it 

 will cause the products of all this great space to be 

 increased one-half, or more. 



OF THE VARIOUS MODES OF APPLYING LIME TO 

 THE SOIL. 



8. The principal modes of proceeiling are in 

 u»e for applying linre. The first is the most sim- 

 ple, and is the most general wherever lime is ob- 

 tained cheaply, and where culture is but little ad- 

 vanced in perfection, and manual labor is dear. 

 This consists in putting the lime [the burned lime- 

 stone] immediately on the ground in little heaps at 

 20 feet average distance, and each heap containing, 

 according to the rate of liming, from a cubic 

 foot of the stone to half that quantity. When the 

 lime has heeh slaked by exposure to the air, and 

 has fallen into powder, it is spread on the surface 

 so as to be efiunlly divided. 



9. The second mode differs from the first in this 

 respect: the heaps of stone are covered with a 

 coat of earth, about six inches thick, accoiding to 

 the size of the heap, and which is equal to five or 

 six times the bulk of the lime. When the lime 

 begins to swell, by slaking the cracks and open- 

 ings in the heap are filled with earth : and when 

 the lime is rciluced to powder, each heap is work- 

 ed over, so as to mix thoroughly the lime and the 

 earth. If nothing hurries the labor, this last op- 

 eration is repeated at the end of fifteen days — and 

 then, after wait ng two weeks more, the mixture 

 is spread over the soil. 



10. The third process, which is adopted where 

 culture is more perfect, where lime is dear, and 

 which combines all the advantagesof liming with- 

 out offering any of their inconveniences, consists 



in making com()ost heaps of lime an<l earth, or 

 mould. For this, there is first made a bed of earth, 

 moulder turf, of a foot, or thereabouts, in thick- 

 nsss. The clods are chopped down, and there is 

 spread over a layer of unslaked lime of a hecto- 

 litre* for the 20 cubic feet, or a ton to the 45 cubic 

 feet of earth. Upon this lime there is f)laced 

 another layer of earth, equal in thickness to ihe 

 first, then a second layer of lim« ; and then the 

 heap is finished hy a third layer of earth. If the 

 earth is moist, and the lime recently burned 8 or 

 10 days will suffice to slake it completely. Then 

 the heap is cut down and well mixed — and this 

 operation is repeated afterwards before using the 

 manure, which is delayed as long as possible, be- 

 cause the power of the effect on the soil is increas- 

 ed with the age of the compost ; and especially if 

 it has been mad<) with the earth containing much 

 vegetable mould. J'his method is the one most 

 used in Belgium and Flanders : it is becoming al- 

 most the exclusive practice in Normandy : it is 

 the only practice, and followed with the greatest 

 success, in La Sarthe. Lime in compost is never 

 injurious to the soil. It carries with it the sur- 

 plus of alimentary manure which the surplus of 

 product demands for its sustenance. Light soils, 

 sanily or gravelly, are not tired by repetitious of 

 this compost. No country, nor author, charges 

 lime used in this state with having been injurious 

 to the soil. In short, this means seems to us the 

 most sure, the most useful, and the least expensive 

 mode of applying lime as manure. 



11. The reduction of burnt lime to powder by 

 means of a momentary immersion in water in ban- 

 die-baskets, serves much to hasten the slaking, 

 whether the lime is to he applied immediately to 

 the soil, or in com[)o.st heaps — some hours in this 

 manner sufficing, in place of waiting two weeks ; 

 however, the effect of lime, in this state, m.ny well 

 be different, as we have then the hydrate of lime, 

 and less of the carbonateof caustic lime.f If great 

 rains follow, this process is not without its incon- 

 veniences, because tijen the lime, which is already 

 saturated with water, is more easily brought to the 

 state of mortar, which ought to be avoided more 

 than every other injury to the manure. 



The reduction of burnt limestone to powder, 

 whether it be spontaneous or by immersion, pro- 

 duces in the compost a bulk greater by one-half 

 or more than that of the stone — 10 c(diic feet, 

 producing 15 — or a ton, 10 cubic feet. This in- 

 crease is not uniform with all kinds of lime; it is 

 greater with the rich (grasses,) and less with the 

 poor varieties. 



"The hectolitre contains 6102.8 English cubic inches, 

 or is equal to 2.82, (or about 2.G 7) Winchester bushels. 

 Therefuro the hectolitre is rather more in proportion to 

 the hectare, than our bushel is to the acre. The decali- 

 tre (named next pag.) is the tenth of a hectolitre, and of 

 course the " double decalitre " is the fifth. 



f An incorrect expression, certainly, bu'. literally trans- 

 lated.— Tr. 



LIMING, AS I'RACTISKD IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 

 IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AIN. 



12. The application of litne in Ain dates fifty 

 years back. At the present time, the soil which 

 has been limed is still more jiroductive than the 

 neighboring, not limed. Nevertheless, liming is 

 but beginning to extend, while marling, which 

 was begun fifteen years later, has already covered 

 many thousands of hectares. This is because 

 marling is air, operation within the means of poor 

 cultivators, being accomplished by labor alone ; 

 while limin.g requires considerable advances, es- 

 pecially in this country, where lime is dear, and 

 the dose given is heavy. 



The dressings vary in quantity, from 60 to 100 

 hectolitres the hectare, according to the nature of 

 the grcuud, and often according to the cjiprice of 

 the culti valors. Although these limings have not 

 been ma.de with all the care and economy that 

 was desirable, they have been very eflficaci'jus 

 when the soil has been sufficiently drained. The 

 followiijg tables, extracted from the registei.s of 

 thi«:e 'contiguous domains, belonging to y,. Ar- 

 mand, three years before, and nine years during 

 the progress of liming, give us the means of an- 

 pre cia ting the results. The quantities of s eed aiirf 

 of crojjg, are calculated in double decalitres, or in 

 mi NtsuTet, -of fifths of hectolitres. 



TABLE OF PB^OUCT OF TftE DOMAIN OF I,a CROI- 

 SETTE. 



WHEAT. 



.Seed. Product. 



The New Era states, that the importers of for. 

 eign grain are making from fifty to one hundreti 

 per cent, ou their cargoes. 



