AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



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



vor« XV, 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 23, 1836. 



NO. 20. 



A<sm32<swjs,^wm^ma 



OSr THE USE OF LIME AS MANURE. 



Br M. puvis. 



(Continued ) 

 PRECACTIONS TO BE USED IN LIMING. 



20. Whatever may be the method adopted for 

 using lime, it is essential that, like all calcareous 

 manures, it should be applied in powder, and not 

 in estate like mortar — and upon the earth when 

 not wet. Until the lime is covered up finely, all 

 rain upon it ought to be avoided, which reduces it 

 to paste or to clots: and this injures its effect 

 greatlj', and even more than reasoning can explain. 

 It ought not to be placed except upon soil, the 

 surface mould of which drains itself naturally [by 

 permitting the water to pass through.] On a 

 marshy soil, unless the upper layer has been well 

 dried, or in a very moist soil, from which the 

 surface water does not sink or pass off easily, the 

 properties of lime remain as it were locked up, and 

 do not make themselves seen, until, by new oper- 

 ations, tlie vegetable mould has been drained and 

 put in healthy condition. 



On an argillaceous and very moist soil, the use 

 of marl, which is applied in great quantities, is 

 preferable to that of lime, because it can have a 

 more powerful effect in giving the deficient h'alth 

 to the surface mould. On soil of this kind, a deep 

 ploughing is a preliminary condition, essential to 

 the success of either liming or marling; because 

 in increasing the depth of the tilled soil, we in- 

 crease also the means of putting the surface into 

 healthy condition. 



21. To secure the effect of lime on the first 

 crop, it ought to be mixed with the soil some time 

 before the sowing of the crop: however, if it is 

 used in compost, it is sufficient that the compost 

 be made a long time previously. 



Lime, whether alone or in compost, .spread dry 

 upon the soil, ought to be covered by a very shal- 

 low first ploughing, preceded by a slight harrow- 

 ing, in order that the lime, in the course of tillage, 

 may remain always, as much as possible, plaived in 

 the midst of the vegetable mould. 



Lime reduceil to the smallest particles, tends to 

 sink into the soil. It glides between small parti- 

 cles of sand and of clay, and descends below the 

 sphere of the nutrition of plants, and stops under 

 the ploughed layer of soil : and when there in 

 abundance, it forms by its combinations a kind of 

 floor, which arrests the sinking water, and greatly 

 injures the crops. This is an inconvenience of 

 lime applied in heavy doses, and is hastened by 

 deep ploughing. 



VARIOnS QUALITIES OF LIME. 



22. It is necessary for the farmer to know the 

 nature of the lime which he uses. It may be pure 

 or mixed with silex, clay, or magnesia. Purt lime 

 is the most economical, the most active, that 

 which can produce tlie most effect in the least 

 quantity. 



Silicious limestone is used in greater quantity. 

 The lime from it receives, as does the foregoing, 

 the name ol' hot lime, and there is little difference 

 in the application, except that more of the latter 

 is wanting. 



Argillaceous lime is the sime as the hydraulic 

 lime, or the poor lime of builders. It appears that 

 the first two kinds are more favorable to forming 

 grain, while the latter favors more the growth of 

 straw, grasses, and leguminous crops. It is bctler 

 for the improverjient of the soil, but a heavier dose 

 of it is required. 



Magnesian lime acts very powerfully, but ex- 

 hausts the soil if given iu a large dose, or if it is not 

 followed by aliujentary manure in abundance. It 

 has exhausted some districts in England, and en- 

 tire provinces in America, and it is to this kind 

 that seem due most of the complaints made against 

 lime. 



[The author has been deceived by exaggerated 

 accounts of injury from liming in America. It is 

 probable that wherever it occurred, it was caused 

 by the usual ignorance of the action of lime; from 

 erroneously considering it as alimentary, and di- 

 rectly fertilizing manure, and after applying it, 

 wearing out the soil by continued grain crops. 

 Such effects are spoken of by Bordley. — Tr.] 



By chemical processes the farmer may make 

 himself sure of the nature of the lime which he 

 uses. 



Pure lime is commonly white, and is dissolved, 

 without anything being left, in nitric or muriatic 

 acid. 



Silicious lime is often gray, and leaves a sandy 

 residue [after solution,] which is rough to the 

 touch. 



Argillaceous lime is obtained from stones which 

 have a clayey odor and a|)pearance: it is common- 

 ly yellow ; and leaves, after the solution, a resi- 

 due which is mostly an impalpable powder, which 

 may be formed into a mass when wet. 



Magnesian lime is made from stones common- 

 ly colored brown or pale yellow; it forms a white 

 cloud in nitric acid, diluted with water, and used 

 in less quantity than sufficient for saturation. 



OF SECOND LIMINGS. 



23. When the limed field returns to the state 

 in which it was before the operation, when the 

 same weeds re-appear, and the crops lower in 

 product, it is time to renew the application of lime. 

 It may be conceived that the time of second lim- 

 ing depends on the amount given in the first. 

 When tlie dressing has been light, it is necessary, 

 as is done by the Flemings and the Manceaux, to 

 recommence entirely, or te the extent of the first 

 dressing : when it has been heavj', the next may 

 be diminished one-half. Besides, in this matter 

 we should take counsel of the state of the soil and 

 of experience, because there are some lands which 

 demand, and can use heavier doses of lime than 

 others. 



QUANTITIES APPLIED. 



24. The quantities of first as of second dressings 



of lime, vary with the consistence of soils: they 

 ought to be small on light and sandy soils — and 

 may, without ill consequences, be heavier on clay 

 soils. 



The dose ought to vary according as the soil is 

 more or less i)ervious to water, or as drained well 

 or ill by its texture. Small apidications to soils 

 from which the superfluous water does not pass 

 easily, are but little felt ; but if the dressing is 

 heavy, and the ploughing deep, the lime aids the 

 draining and adds to the heKlthy state of the soil. 

 !t Mjay be conceived that the quantity of lime 

 ought also to be increased with the annual quan- 

 lily of rain that falls — because in proportion to 

 that quantity ought the openness of [he soil, and 

 its fitness for draining, to be extended. 



Nevertheless, the |iractjces of the departments 

 of the North and La Sarihe seem to indicate the 

 average dressing which suits in general for land : 

 thus the liming of the North, which every ten or 

 twelve years gives to the soil 40 hectolitres of lime 

 to the hectare, or a little more than three hectoli- 

 tres a year, agrees with that of La Sarihe, which 

 gives eight or ten hectolitres every three years. 

 The first plan gives at one dressing wliat the other 

 distributes iu four: as both make alike average, 

 it may be thence inferred that the earth demands: 

 annually three hectolitres, [323 bushels to the 

 acre,] to sustain its fecmidily. But as neither the 

 soil nor the plants consume all this quantity of 

 lime, it is to be believed, that at the end of a great- 

 er or less length of time, the soil will have received 

 enough to have no more need of it for a certaiq 

 space of time. 



MANNER OP TREATING LIMED LANDS. 



95. After having, by liming, given the soil a 

 great productive power, having |)ut it in condition 

 to produce the most valuable crops, which are of- 

 ten also the most exhausting, it is necessary to 

 husband these resources — to give manure in re- 

 turn for the ]iroducts obtained — to employ as lit- 

 ter, and not as food, the straw, now increased by 

 one-half — to raise grass crops from the soil now 

 fitted to bear them with advantage — in short, to 

 modify the general plan, and the detail of the cul- 

 ture according to the new powers of the soil, the 

 prices of commoditie.>:, antl to local conveniences. 



However, it is not necessary to hurry the change 

 of the rotation. Such an operation is long, diffi- 

 cult, very expensive, and ought not to be executed 

 but with much deliberation. 



Berks County Silk. — We have recently ex- 

 amined a specimen of Sewing Silk, the first ever 

 manufactured in this county, and it was of such 

 a ((uality, and the manner of its production so 

 creditable, that it did our hearts good. It w:\3 

 the entire pndi ction of a young lady near Reai'- 

 ing, one of Berks county's fairest daughters, who 

 reared and fed the worms, sjiun the silk from the 

 cocoons, and doubled and twisted it into skeins, 

 all with her own hands. Here new is the exam- 

 ple set to our young ladies, and we are persua- 



