16t 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



KOVEMBER 30. ISSf^; 



ON THE I'SB OP LIME AS MANURE.' 



BY M. PCVIS. 



(Continued 1 



EFFECTS OF LIMF, ON THE SOIL. 



26. The effects of lime although similar to, are 

 not iilentical with, those produced by marl ; and 

 the qualities of soils limed, differ in some points 

 from those of natural calcareous soils. The grain 

 from limed land is rounder, firmer, gives less 

 hraii and more flour, than that from marled land : 

 the grain of marled land is more gray, gives more 

 hran, and resembles that made upon clover, though 

 it may be preferable to the latter. The grain of a 

 limed soil is more like that from land improved 

 with drawn ashes. Limed land is less exposed to 

 danger from drought than marled land, on soils 

 naturally calcareous. The crop is not subject to 

 be lodged at flowering time, when the sowing was 

 done in dry earth. 



27. In limed earth, weeds and insects dsapp^^ar. 

 The earth, if too light, acquires stiffness, and is 

 lightened if too clayey. The surface of the argilo- 

 silicious soil, before close and whitish, is made 

 friable, and becomes redish, as if rotten ; it hard- 

 ens and splits with drought, and is dissolved by 

 the rains which succeed. This spontaneous loos- 

 ening of the soil facilitates greatly the labor of the 

 cultivator, the movement of the roots of the grow- 

 ing plants, and the reciprocal action of the atmos- 

 phere upon the soil, which remains open to its in- 

 fluence. 



All these new properties which the limed soil 

 has acquired, doubtless explain in part the fertiliz- 

 ing means which calcareous agents bring to the 

 soil : but we think it is still necessary to seek 

 some of the causes elsewhere. 



28. Lime, according to the recent discoveries of 

 German chemists, seizes in the soil the soluble 

 humus or humic acid, takes it from all other ba- 

 ses, and forms a compound but slightly soluble, 

 which appears, imder this form, eminently suitable 

 to the wants of plants. But as this compound is 

 not soluble in less than 2000 times its weight in 

 ■water, while without the lime the humus is solu- 

 ble in a volume of water less by one-half, it would 

 follow that, in consequence of lime, the consump- 

 tion of this substance, and the productive power of 

 the soil would, iq like proportion, be better pre- 

 served. Siq.6e the products of the eoil increase 

 much frpm the liming, while the hutnus is econo- 

 mised, since these products borrow very little from 

 the soil, which remains more fertile while thus 

 yielding greater products, it follows that the prin- 

 cipal action of the lime consists, at first in aug- 

 menting, in the soil and plants, the means of draw- 

 ing from the atmosphere the vegetable principles 

 . which they find there ; and next, in aiding, ac- 

 cording to the need, the formation, in the soil or 

 the plants, the substances which enter into the 

 composition of plants, and which are not met with 

 ready formed either in the atmosphere or in the 

 soil. 



The researches upon these various points are 

 curious, important, interesting to practice ns well 

 as to science — and will lead us to explain, by 

 means not yet appreciated, the action of lime up- 

 on vegetation, 



ABSORPTtON BT PLANTS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE 

 ATMOSPHERE, IN THE VEGETATION ON UNCULTI- 

 VATED SOILS. 



29. Saussure has concluded, from his experi- 

 ments, that plants derive from the soil sbout one- 



twentieth of their substance ; and the experiments 

 of Van Helmont and of Boyle have proved that 

 considerable vegetable products diminisii very 

 little the mass of the soil. But this fact is still bet- 

 ter proved by the observation of what passes in 

 uncultivated soils. 



Woodland tliat is cut over in regular succession 

 [tailtis) produces almost indefinitely, without be- 

 ing exliausted, and even becoming richer, the mass 

 of vegetable products which man gathers and re- 

 moves, and of which the soil does not contain the 

 principles. If, instead ofwooillands thus partially 

 and successively cut over, we consider upon the 

 same soil a succession of forests, and, for greater 

 ease nf estimation, resinous forests, we find for 

 the products of the generation of an age, forty to 

 fifty thousand cubic feet to the hectare. This pro- 

 duct is less than that of the resinous forests of ma- 

 ny parts of the country, and yet it is nearly equal 

 in bulk to half of the layer of the productive soil 

 itself: it represents an annual increase of 24,000 

 weight of wood to the hectare — and which is 

 produced not only without impoverishing, but 

 even while enriching the soil, by an enormous 

 quantity of droppings and remains of all kinds. 



Those products which do not come from the 

 soil, are then drawn from the atmosphere, in which 

 plants gather them by means of particular organs 

 designed for that use. These organs are the my- 

 riads of leaves which large vegetables bear — 

 aerial roots, which gather these principles either 

 ready formed in the air, or which take up there 

 the elements, to combine them by means of vege- 

 table power. But these aerial roots exert qiiite a 

 different and superior energy in gathering the con- 

 stituent principles of plants in the atmosphere, to 

 that of the roots in the ground — since the former 

 furnish nearly the whole amount of the vegetable 

 mass, while the latter draw but very little from 

 the soil. 



30. Plants may well find in the atmosphere the 

 greater part of the volatile principles which com- 

 pose them — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote. 

 But it is not so easily seen whence they obtain the 

 fixed principles of which their ashes are composed. 

 These products could not exist ready formed in 

 the soil — for the saline principles contained in 

 the ashes of a generation of great trees, which 

 would amount to more than 25,000 weight to the 

 hectare, would have rendered the soil absolutely 

 barren, since, according to the experiments of M. 

 Lecoq of Clermont, the twentieth part of this quan- 

 tity is enough to make a soil sterile. We would 

 find a similar result in accumulating the success- 

 ive products of an acre of good meadow. It is 

 then completely proved that the saline principles 

 of plants do not exist ready formed in the soil. 

 They are no more formed in the atmosphere, or 

 the analyses of chemists would have found them 

 there. However, as the intimate composition of 

 these substances is not yet perfectly known, their 

 elements may exist in the atmosphere, or even in 

 the soil, among the substances which compose 

 them. 



Neither can it he said that those salts may be 

 derived from the atomic dust which floats in the 

 air ; for this dust is composed of fragments organ- 

 ic and inorganic, carried especially to the plants 

 themselves and then, in estimating this atomic 

 matter at the most, we will scarcely find it in the 

 hundredth part of the saline substances contained 

 in the vegetable mass produced. We ought then 

 to conclude that the saline substances of plants 



are formed by the powers of vegetation or of the 

 soil. 



3L In like manner as with the saline princi- 

 ple.s, the lime and the phosphates which are form- 

 ed in ashes ought to be due to the same forces, 

 whether the roots take up their unperceived ele- 

 ments in the soil, or the leaves gather them in the 

 atmosphere. This consequence results evidently 

 from this fact — that plants grown in soils, of 

 which the analysis shows neither lime nor the 

 phosphates, contain them notwithstanding in large 

 proportion in their fixed principles — of which 

 [or of the ashes] they often compose half the 

 n ass. 



[This fact is explained very different hy the 

 Essay on Calcareous Manures [Ch. VII.] where 

 it is used to sustain the doctrine of neutral soils. 

 -Tr.] 



(From the Northampton Courier.) 

 PEA-NUT COCOONS FROM ITALiT. 



We have seen some cocoons ef a superior qual- 

 ity raised in Northampton the present year, being 

 the product of Italian eggs 240 of which weighed 

 one pound — one peck of which were reeled at 

 Northampton Silk factory, produced seven ounces 

 of silk, of superior fibre and most brilliant lustre, 

 being at the rate of 1 3-4 pound of silk to a bushel. 

 The cocoons were long, firm, and in the shape of 

 a Pea-nut, having a depression or stricture mid- 

 way of the cocoon. They were small, firm and 

 heavy, the thread of unusual length, so much so 

 that the reeler almost despaired of finding an end. 

 We have the impression that the worms were 

 fed on the Canton mulberry. We understand the 

 demand for, and sales of mulberry trees and cut- 

 tings this fall is tmprecedented. We afiprove of 

 the removal of the trees to the place of destination, 

 before winter, that they may be ready for setting 

 next spring, nnd avoid exposure to the spring 

 frosts and drying winds. Trees and cuttings 

 should be set immediately after being removed 

 from the place of deposit. 



The present prospect is, that the silk growing 

 business will be prosecuted with more energy the 

 next, than in any preceding year ; an impulse 

 has been given, that cannot be easily checked or 

 paralysed. It is hoped that the few individuals 

 who have thoroughly investigated and tested the 

 mulberry culture, will not relax their exertions to 

 acquire and communicate practical and useful in- 

 formation on the subject of silk culture, but that 

 they will persevere until a mulberry patch shall 

 be planted, and found as common about every 

 mansion in the country village and cabin of the for- 

 est, as is the currant bush in our gardens. 



It has been proved by actual experiment that 

 worms may be fed on the foliage of the Chinese 

 mulberry the same year the plants or cuttings are 

 set out, with evident benefit to the plant, produc- 

 ing more foliage, and may be plucked the same 

 season, always leaving the leading shoots untouch- 

 ed until the last collection of the foliage, and then 

 take off the leading shoots to facilitate and promote 

 the formation of wood. 



Fatal Accident. — A lad named Joseph Hager 

 was killed in the paper mill at Dover on Monday 

 week. He accidently became entangled in the 

 machinery, and was so sadly injured that he ex- 

 pired the next day. 



