AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



HUBLISHCn BV JOSEPH BKECK & CO., .NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aoricultobal Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSKNDEN, EDITOR. 



VOI,. XV 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1836. 



NO. 22. 



^^J^^^^iL^WM^^^ 



ON the: use: oc l-ime: as manure. 



BV M. PCVIS. 

 fContinued ) 



ABSORPTION or PLANTS IN VEGETATION ON CULTI- 

 VATED SOILS. 



32. Vegetation on nnrtiltivateH soils operates 

 under conditions altopnther different from tho.se of 

 the cultivated, so that the results receive modifica- 

 tions ^vhich it is important to examine. 



Nature produces, and continues to produce, all 

 the vegetable mass in s[>ontaneous growth, with- 

 out any other condition than the alternation and 

 succession of the species. In vegetation on culti- 

 vated land, by bringing together the same individ- 

 ual plants which are to grow abundantly on a soil 

 and in 'a climate which, in most cases, are not 

 those which nature had designed, there are requir- 

 ed besides the general condition of alternation of 

 the sjiecie", frequent tillage of the soil, and means 

 to repair its losses, that the culture may be pro- 

 ductive and be continued. However, with these 

 new conditions, the force of absorption of plants 

 on the atmosphere still fiu'nishes the greater part 

 of the vegetable principles in soils not limed — and 

 still more in limed soils. 



To form a |)recise idea, we will take it in the 

 land of the writer, its culture and its biennial rota- 

 tion. As the same qualities of soil are found else- 

 where, as no particular circumstance increases or 

 impairs its ])roducts, there would be found similar 

 results, for the same qualities of soil, with a differ- 

 ent culture. — The inferences which wc will draw 

 from ours will apply them to all others. 



On our soil of (he third class, [or worst quality,] 

 fallow returns every two years, with a biennial 

 manuring of 120 quintals to the hectare. This 

 mass contains more than four-fifths of water, which 

 should not be counted as manure, and consequent- 

 ly the substance which serves for the reparation 

 of the soil is reduced to 24 quintals. We reap, in 

 rye, straw, and buckwheat, alter the year of fal- 

 low, a dry weight of 40 to 50 quintals on an aver- 

 age. Ifitsupjosed that all tlie manure is con- 

 sumed, or employed in forming vegetable sub- 

 stance, still the soil would have furnished 18 to 20 

 quintals more than it received, and which excss 

 would he due to the power of absorption, whether 

 of the soil or of the plants, on the atmosphere. 



On land of middle quality, which yields a crop 

 every year, with a double manuring, that is to say, 

 in two years there is a product of wheat, maize, 

 or potatoes, which amounts to from 12 to 15,000 

 weii^ht, 120 to 150 quintals, of wliieh two-thirds, 

 or 80 quintals at lea.t, are derived from absor,j 

 tion. 



On soils of good quality, with a manuring of 

 one-third more than the last, which is equal to 64 

 quintals of the dry substance to the hectare, there 

 are obtained of dry products, in grain, straw, roots, 

 or hay, double of the last, or nearly so, of which 



three-fourths, or 180 quintals, are due to the |)u.w- 

 er of absorption. 



Lastly — upon the most fertile soils, where ma- 

 nures are useless, the [iroduct, often double, or at 

 half as much more than the last-mentioned, will 

 amount to 360 quintals to the hectare in two yea.rs. 

 This product would be, as in spontaneous vegeta- 

 tion, entirely due to absorption. 



We would have, then to represent the products 

 of two years, in quintals, in the four classes of soil 

 under consideration, the progressive amounts of 

 42, 130, 240, 360 ; or, by deducting from these 

 products the weight of the manure, we would 

 have, to represent the power of absor',ition, the 

 progression 18, 82, 176, 360 quintals. 1-^rom this 

 is deduced, as the first conclusion, that, supposing 

 the plants have consumed and annihilated all the 

 substances of the manure given, (which is beyond 

 the truth,) plants receive a much greater ))art of 

 their substance from the atmosphere than from the 

 soil ; and that this power of drawing foofi from 

 thj atmosiihere increases with tlje goodness of 

 quality in soils. 



33. The proportion of fixed substances, or aslies 

 in agricultural products, is 43 lbs. to the 1000, and 

 consequently, in our four classes of land, the quan- 

 tity amounts to 180, 559, 1032, 1548 poimds. But 

 the soluble saline substances form at least half of 

 these ashes : they are then produced in the two 

 years of the rotation, in the quantities of 90, 279, 

 516, 774 poimds. But according to Kirwan, I arn 

 yard mauiu-e yields 2 per cent, of soluble salts: 

 then the manure given to these soils contained 48, 

 96 lbs. 128 of saline substances, which, being de- 

 ducted from the preceding quantities, leave the 

 four classes of soils stated 42, 183, 388, 774 lbs. of 

 products in soluble salts, in two years of the rota- 

 tion, gained solely by the absorbing forces of the 

 soil and of plants. 



[The proportion of ashes of different plants, and 

 of their saline nialler.«, vary greatly — and the uni- 

 form proportions assumed above, are far from cor 

 rect, even as averages of unequal proportions, 

 'ibis will sufficiently appear from Saussare's table 

 of the products of various vegetable substances. 

 -Tr.] 



34. 15ut, in the same soils, with the same ma- 

 nures and the same tillage, by the addition to the 

 thickness of the ploughed layer of only one-thou- 

 sandth part of lime, the products whether volatile 

 or fixed, are increased in a strikiug manner: the 

 SI il of the first named (or lowest) quality reaches 

 the product of the second — the second rises one- 

 half or more — and that of the best (of the ma- 

 nured soils) increases a fourth. '1 bus, our scale 

 of product becomes 130,200,300 quintals — and 

 dedticting the manure, 106,152,236 quintals, for 

 tlie two years of the rotation. 'I he m(St fertile 

 soil cimnot receive lime beneficially, because it 

 contains it already ; these lands all be'ong to allu- 

 vions, where the calcareous principle has almost 

 always been found in greater or less proportion. 



35. The product of fixed i)rinciples [as ashes] 

 in the three classes of limed soils, wo uld b 



559,868,1290 i>ounds, and in soluble salts ''•28,430,- 

 645 poimds; and, deducting the soluble -alts of 

 the manure, the quantites would be 230,334,525- 

 A light addition of lime has then doubled the 

 force of absorjuion, and aln.ost tripled the quanti- 

 ty of saline principhs prorlticed. One of the most 

 remarkable effects of Jjme consists then, in mak- 

 ing a soil produce a much greater proportion of 

 saline principles ; and il^ the experiments of M. 

 Lecoq upon the efficacy oi" saline suustances on 

 vegetation are to be admitted, it would be in part 

 to the phenomenon of th,-ir pcodnction that liino 

 would owe its fertilizing efffct. 



36. It results from wbat precedes, tliat ?alts are 

 formed in the soil or in vegetables ; thus we see 

 every day the nitrates of potash and of lime form 

 underour eyes in the soil, or elsewhere, wrthuut 

 anything indicating to us th e origin of the potasb 

 which is contained. But po tash itself asam f""J^» 

 spontaneously iu drawn aslii 'S, according to ii,^ 

 observations ff the chemist Ge Ihen. We see salts 

 also renewed in the artificial 1 litre bcd.s, with tbe 

 aid of moisture and exposure to the air. But it [». 

 tlie presence of linie that deterr, nines this forma^ 

 tion more particularly. The ni (rates abound in. 

 the ruins of demolished edifices ; they are formed- 

 in the walls, and in nU parts of houses situated in 

 damp places ; they efiloresce on the buildings of 

 chalk in Cbampaiine ; they are pt oduceil sponta- 

 neously in the ploughed lands of the kingdom of 

 iVIurcia. This effect, which we see that the cal- 

 careous principle produces everywhere, we think 

 It produces in all the soi's to which it is given, 

 and where meet the ciicumstances which favour 

 the formation of nitrates, viz : humidity, vegetable 

 mould, and exposure to the air. But, according 

 to the experiments of M. Lecoq and others, and the 

 opinion which is established of the old agricultu- 

 rists, the nitrates are the most fertilizing salts. It 

 would be then to their formation, which it pro- 

 motes in the soil, that lime owes, in part, its effect 

 on vegetation. 



37. The foregoing proofs of the daily formation 

 in the soil, and by vegetable life, of saline and 

 earthy compi unds, taken in nature and on agrtat 

 scale, are doubtless sufficient ; but they may still 

 be supported by the experiments and opinions of 

 able men who have adopted the same system. 



And first — in the experiment of Van Helmont, 

 in fiie year.«, a willow of five iiounds grew to 

 weigh 169 and has caused a loss of only two oun- 

 ces to the soil wliieh bore it. But the 164 jiounda 

 which the willow had taken contained five pounds 

 of ashes, which are due entirely to absorption, 

 since the leaves and the other droppings of five 

 years, which were not saved, would have given at 

 least one pound of ashes, which makes up for, be- 

 sides all that wl i h, in spi;e of the sheet of 'ead 

 which covered the top of the vessel in which the 

 willow grew, it might have received in the water- 

 ings, and from other fortuitous circumstances. 

 Boyle has repeated and confirmed this experiment 

 in all its parts. 



Lampadius, in different isolated compartments, 



