VOI-. XV. NO. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



149 



OW THK USE OF LIME AS MANURE. 



BV M. PUVIS. 



i Continued ) 



TABLE OF FRODLCT Of THE DOMAIN OK LA EA- 



ROH.Nr. 



RTE. WHEAT. 



TEARS. Seeil. Product. Seed. Product. 



1822 110 505 



1823 110 643 

 1821 110 662 

 1825 

 1826 

 1S27 

 1828 

 1829 

 1830 

 1831 

 1832 

 1833 



The application of 3000 hectolitres [8,400 bush- 

 els] of lime, of the vahie of 6000 francs [$1116] 

 ujion 32 hectares [90 acres] of ground, made suc- 

 cessively during nine years, iias then more than 

 doubled the crops of winter grain, the seed bfirig 

 deducted. The other crops of the farms have re- 

 ceived a proportional increase ; and the revenue 

 of the proprietor, in doubling, has annually in- 

 creased two-thirds moro than the amount of the 

 sum exjiended in the purchase of lime. Still, 

 there is not yet half the arable land limed, since 

 of 66 hectares, only 32 have received this improve- 

 ment. 



The product of 1834 are still greater than those 

 of 1833. Rut these are sufficient to prove the 

 importance and utility of applying lime to suitable 



soils. 



Many other examples sustain these results ; and 

 from them all it appears, that the wheat seedings 

 are increased from double to triple — that the rye 

 lands, from bringing four to five [to one of seed] 

 in rye, are able to bring six to eight in wheat — 

 and that other products are increased in propor- 

 tion. The melioration then is, relatively much 

 greater upon bad ground than upon good, since it 

 is two-thirds and more ou the wheat land, and on 

 the rye lands the crop is increased in value three 

 fold. 



FLEMISH LIMING, 



13. The use of calcareous manures in the de- 

 partment of the North as in Belgium, appears to 

 be as old as good farming. It is now much les-* 

 frequent in Belgium. The ancient and repeated 

 limings have, as it seems, furnished to great part 

 of the soil all that is necessary for it, for the pres- 

 ent. But the department of the North still receives 

 lime, marl, or ashes, everywhere or nearly so, 

 where lime is not a component ingredient of the 

 soil. They distinguish in this country two kinds 

 of liming. The first [chantage fonder] consists in 

 giving to the soil, every 10 or 12 years before seed 

 time, four cubic metres, or 40 hectolitres of lime 

 to the hectare. They often mix with the slaked 

 lime, ashes of bituminous coal, or of peal, which 

 ' enter into the mixture in the proportion of from a 

 third to a half, and take tho place of an equal 

 quantity of lime. The other mode of liming 

 [chaulage d^assolment,] is giving in compost, and 

 at every renewal of the rotation, or upon the crop 

 of spring grain. It is also in regular use in this 

 country, still more than in Belgium, upon the 

 meadows or cold pasture lands, which do not re- 



ceive the waters of irrigation. It warms the ground 

 and increases and improves its |)roducts. The 

 older the compost is, the greater its effect, which 

 lasts from 15 to 20 years, at the end of which 

 time the dressing is renewed. 



14. The limings of Normandy, the most an- 

 cient of France, are kept up in the neighborhood 

 of Bayeux, while elgewhere they are forbidden in 

 the leases: however, now they go over all the 

 surface which has need of them ; but in place of 

 being applied immediately to the soil, as in the 

 ancient method, the lime is almost always put in 

 compost. 



LIMI.NG or LA SARTHE. 



15. Of the modes of using lime, thai of La Sar- 

 tlie seems preferable. It is at once economical 

 and productive, and secures the soil from all ex- 

 haustion. It is given every three years, at each 

 renewal of the rotation, in the average quantity of 

 10 hectolitres to the hectare, in compost made in 

 uilvance, with seven or eight parts of mould, or of 

 good earth, to one of lime. They use this compost 

 on the land for the autumn sowing, and placed al- 

 ternately with rows of farmyard manure. This 

 method, of which the success is greater from day 

 to day, is extending on the great body of flat argilo- 

 silicious lauds, which border the Loire ; and it 

 would seem that this method ought to be adopted 

 everywhere, or open soils that jiermit surplus wa- 

 ter to drain off easily. — On very moist soils the 

 dose of lime ought perhaps to be increased. 



VVe would desire much to inculcate with force 

 the suitableness, and eminent advantages, of using 

 at the same time lime and [alimentary] manure. 

 Here they do better still, in using at the same time 

 a compost of lime with eartli and dung. In addi- 

 tion, during the half century that the Manceaux 

 have been liming, the productiveness of the soil 

 has not ceased to increase. 



16. The countries of wliich we have spoken, 

 are those of Franco, in which liming is most gen- 

 eral. However, more than half the departments, 

 I think, have commenced the use, and in a sixth, 

 or nearly, it seems to be established. Doubtless, 

 the first trials do not succeed everywhere. There 

 is required a rare combination of conditions for 

 new experiments, even when they have succeed- 

 ed, to induce their imitation by the great mass. 

 Still, successful results are multiplied, and become 

 the centres of impulse, from which meliorations 

 extend. 



ENGLISH LIMIKG. 



17. The English limings seem to be established 

 upon quite another principle from that of France. 

 They are given with such prodigality, that the me- 

 lioration upon the limed soil has no need to he re- 

 newed afterwards. Whilst in France we are con- 

 tent to give from a thousandth to a hundredth of 

 lime to the tillable soil, from 10 to 100 hectolitres 

 to the hectare, they give in England from one to 

 10 six hundredths, or from 100 to 600 hectolitres 

 the hectare. The full suceess of tho method of 

 our country might make us regard the English 

 method as an unnecessary waste. It seems that 

 thny sacrifice a capital five, six, ten times greater, 

 without obtaining from it a result much superior; 

 and that without lavishing [alimentary] manures 

 also afterwards, the future value of the soil would 

 be endangered in the hands of a greedy cultivator. 



We will not urge the condemnation of a prac- 

 tice which seems to have resulted in few incon- 

 veniences. The abundance of alimentary ma- 



nures which the English farmer gives to his [lim- 

 ed] soils, has guarded against exhaustion ; and 

 then, in very moist ground, they have doubtless, 

 by the very heavy liming, made the soil healthy, 

 and its nature seems modifii-d for a long time to 

 come ; and such kinds, and where humiis abounds, 

 will take up a heavy dose of lime, and, as it seems 

 always without inconvenient consequences ; there 

 is then formed there the humate of lime in the 

 greatest proportion, and we shall see that this com- 

 bination is a great means nf productiveness in the 

 soil. 



[In this passage the author distinctly affirms the 

 truth of the chemical combination in the soil of 

 calcareous and vegetable (or other putrescent) — 

 or the power of calcareous earth to fix and retain 

 enriching matter — which is maintained in the 

 Essay on Calcareous mamires, (|ip. 30, 21,) to be 

 the most important action of calcareous matter as 

 an ingredient of soil. — Still M. Puvis seems to 

 attach much less importance to this than to other 

 agencies of lirne, which are considered in the Es- 

 say of little value in comparison. — Tr.] 



SURFACE LIMING. 



18. In Germany, where liming and marling, like 

 most other agricultural improvements, have re- 

 cently made great advances, besides the ordinary 

 modes of application, lime is used as a surface 

 dressing. They sprinkle over the rye, in the spring, 

 a compost containing 8 to 10 hectolitres of lime to 

 the hectare, fifteen days after having sown clover. 

 Also on the clover of the preceding year, they 

 apply lime in powder, which has heen slaked in 

 the water of a dunghill, the dose being less by one- 

 half; the effect upon the clover and the following 

 crop of wheat is very advantageous. 



In Flanders, where they use lime mixed with 

 ashe.s, it is especially applied to meadows, natu- 

 ral or artificial, and the application is then made 

 on the surface. 



BURNING LIME. 



19. The burning of lime is performed with 

 wood, with pit coal, or with peat ; in temporary 

 kilns, or furnaces, in permanent, or in perpetual 

 kilns. It is burned in many places most econom- 

 ically with coal, but it is not so good a manure aa 

 the lime burned with wood, because, as it seems, 

 of the potash contained in the latter case. There 

 are but few jjlaces in which peat is used for this 

 purpose ; however in Prussia, they succeed with 

 t!iree-fourths peat and one-fourth wood. It is 

 doubtless, a very economical process, and the So- 

 cieie d' Encouragement has given in its transactions 

 plans of peat kilns; but I know not whether the 

 operators who received prizes for their use have 

 continued the practice. 



Temporary kilns admit of the burning of a great 

 quantity of lime ; but the permanent kilns burn it 

 with most economy of fuel. In the first, 5 quin- 

 tals of wood burn 4 quintals, or 1 ton, or 2 1-4 

 hectolitres of lime — and in the others, the same 

 quantity of wood will suffice for 6 quintals or 3 

 1-2 hectolitres. But in the permanent kilns such 

 is the expense of construction and repairs, that 

 they cannot be justified except when kept in fre- 

 quent use. Coal burns from three to four times 

 its bulk of lime — the shape of the kiln, the kind 

 of limestone, and that of the coal, making the dif- 

 ference. Hydraulic lime is calcined more easily 

 than the common. Egg-shaped kilns for coal seem 

 to be preferable to the conical, which are more 

 generally met with. 



