»•• 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



I'UHMSIir.r) BV JOSEPH HRECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse!)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOI-. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 1836. 



i. 



NO. 24. 



Si>^m.^^ws^isw^^iL 



ii^a 



ON THE USE OP LIJUE: AS MANTJRE. 



BY M. PUVIS. 



f Concluded 1 



OF THE EXHAUSTIO.N OF THE SOIL BY LIMIKG. 



41. " Lime," it is said, " only eniiches the old 

 men : or it eniiclies fathers and ruins sons." This 

 is indeed what experience proves, when, ou lit'ht 

 soils, limed heavily, or'vvithout composts coming 

 between, successive grain crops have been made 

 without rest, without alternations of grass cro;)S, 

 or witliout giving to the soil alimentary manures 

 in suitable proportion. Jt is also v.diat has liap- 

 pened when magnesia, mixed with lime, has car- 

 ried to the soil its exhausting stimulus. Bui when 

 lime has been used in moderation — when, with- 

 out overburdening the laud with exhausting crops, 

 they have been a'ternated with green crops — 

 and when manure has been given in proportion to 

 the products taken otf — the prudent cultivator 

 then sees continue the new fecundity which the 

 lime has brought, without the soil showing, ,-ony 

 s'gn of exhaustion. No where has there been 

 complaint mado of argillaceous soils being dmn- 

 aged by lime ; and the productiveness of light 

 soils is sustained in every case that the liujC was 

 used in compost. 



Iur<Vmerica, where the lime of oy^^ter sLxliii has 

 taken the place of that of miignesian limestone, the 

 complauits of the exhausting effects of lime have 

 ceased. 



HEALTHINESS GIVEN TO THE SOIL AND THE COUN- 

 TRY BY CALCAREOUS AGENTS. 



42. The unhealthiiiessof a country is not caused 

 by the accumulation of water, nor from soil being 

 covered by water. Places ou the bordeis of wa- 

 ter do not become'i-ickly, except when the water 

 has quitted some jiarts of the surface which it 

 previously overflowed, and the sununer'ssun heats 

 the uncovered soil, and causes the decomposition 

 of the remains of all kinds of matter left by the 

 water, and contained in the upper layers of the 

 soil. '! bus, ponds are not unhealthy except when 

 ilrought, by lowering the waters, leaves extensive 

 margins bare, to be acted ou by the sun and air. 

 In rainy years, fevers on the borders of ponds are 

 rare. * 



Epidemic diseases most often rise on the bor- 

 ders of marshes laid dry — in the neighborhood 

 of mud thrown out of ditches or pits — and in the 

 course of bringing new land into cultivation, where 

 the ploughed soil is for the first time exposed to 

 the summer's sun. In the interior of Rome, the 

 vineyards and the gardens are remarkably unheal- 

 thy — while the sickliness disappears where the 

 emanations from the spil are |)revented by buil- 

 dings. In the Pontine marshes, they cover the 

 dried i)arts with water, to arrest the danger of 

 their effluvia. It is then from the soil, and not 

 from the waters at its surface, that insalubrious 

 emanations proceed. Waters placed on the sur- 



face, always in motion, agitated by every wind, 

 are not altered in quality, and do not become un- 

 healthy ; but whenever they are contained in some 

 place witliout power to rceive exterior influen- 

 ces, or to have motion, they are altered in their 

 odor, taste, and consequently injured in relation to 

 health. 



Whenever water then, .vithout covering the soil, 

 penetrates the up])er layer without being able to 

 run through the subsoil, it remains without motion 

 and stagnant, within the soil — is changed by the 

 summers sun, serves to hasten the putrefaction of 

 the broken down vegetable remains in or on the 

 mould, and the exhalations from the ground be- 

 come unhealthy. Thus are all drained marshes, 

 of which the surfitce only is dry, while the water 

 still penetrates the subsoil — thus, all the margins 

 of rivers which have been covered by recent in- 

 undations of summer, are unhealthy ; thus also, 

 (for a great and unhappy example,) tlie argilo- 

 silitious plateaux, whenever the closeness of the 

 sjubsoil does not let the water pass through, pro- 

 duce, in dry years, at the close of summer, em- 

 auationg which attack the health of the inhabi- 

 tants. 



43. But this unhapi)y efl'ect appears almost no 

 where in calcareous regions : the margins of lakes 

 and ponds there situated do not produce the same 

 unhealthiness, and even the marshy groimds there 

 are less unhealthy. 



The waters which spring out of, or run over 

 calcareous beds, are always healthy to driidj. The 

 borers of Artesian wells are anyious that the wa- 

 ter which they obtain, to be good, may come out 

 of the calcareous sqata which they go through. 

 When the waters which hold carbonate of lime in 

 solution in carbonic acid run over the surface, 

 they give health to iho meadovv.s, in changing the 

 natin-e and quantity of the prodin-ts. 



Linnaeus thought that the unhealthiness of most 

 countries depended on tlie natuie of the water, 

 and was owing to the argillaceous jiarticles which 

 thcv contain ; now these argillaceous (jarticles are 

 always precipitated by the calcareous compounds. 

 For this reason, the waters which stand upon, or 

 .run over marl or calcareous rock, are almost al- 

 ways limpid and cleai'; because the argillaceous 

 particles have been precipitated by the effect of 

 the solution in the water of calcareous principle, 

 which is itself dissolved by an excess of carbonic 

 acid. 



We are not far from believing then, that throw- 

 ing rich marl, or limestone, into a well of muddy 

 and brackish water, might have the effect, in part 

 at least, of clearing it, and making it healthy to 

 drink. This remedy, if it should be as useful 

 as we think, at least, could not produce any in- 

 jury. 



Lime, in all its combinations, destroys the mias- 

 mata, dangerous to life. Its chloride annihilates 

 all bad odors, arrests putrefaction, and in shoit, 

 has subjected the plague of Egypt to the skill and 

 courage of Parisot. The white Nvash of lime upon 

 infl'cted buildings, upon the walls and mangers of 



stables, is regarded as serving to^destrcy -flietpfin- V. 

 tagious miasmata of ejiidemic and c|li^ooti,«^itfti- 

 eases. ' .'• 



Lime destroys the plants of humid a:i,(J'-marshy 

 soils, and makes those suitable to better soils spring 

 u]) : then its effect is to give healthiness-or vigor 

 to the soil, to dry it, and make it more- mellow 

 and permeable. The water then is nof longer 

 without motion, and altered con.sequentiy'jl'r its 

 condition. 'I'he limed soil then, to the depth it is • 

 ploughed, ought to change the nature of '.its ema- ^ 

 nations as well as its products: ilnd if the lower 

 strata or subsoil, seird up emanation.^, this eftluviji ' 

 in passing through the improved layers-of sod,' 

 where the calcareous agent is always at ^ei,'k and 

 developing all its aflinitics, ought also to-fje modi- 

 fied, and take the character of those of tliejipper 

 bed. The limed soil then, it would sce^^lught 

 to be made healthy. 



But what we maintain here by induciion, by 

 reasoning, is fortunately a fact of e.xten^^ expe- 

 rience. Ainoug all the countries in vvlHch lime 

 has carried and established fertility, UlBfje is not 

 cited, that I know of, a single one vvtW^ inter- 

 mittent fevers prevail — while they have never 

 disappeared in a com. try, even where an active 

 culture draws good products from the impermea- 

 ble argiio-silicions soil. 



44. To extend the great benefit of healthiness 

 to the whole! of a country, it is no doubt neces- 

 s-iry •that lJt<!it,|jfi)ole co:inlr| /Ijo.Al receive the 

 health-giving agent. Howeytr, -on' t'.-.ry . tai-fii,' •' •' 

 in proportion as liming is e.'jtendud over its sur- 

 face, the chances of disease will beseen to dimin- 

 ish — and the healthiness of the country will keep 

 pace with the progress of its fertility. 



UESULT or THE tJSE OF IMPROVING MANURES ON 

 THE SOIL OF FRANCE IN GENERAL. 



Three fourths of the whole territory of France, 

 to be rendered fruitful, have need of calcareous 

 agents. If the third of this extent has already re- 

 ceived tliem, (vvhich we believe is above the truth) 

 upon the other two-thirds or the half of the whole, 

 the agricultural products, by this operalion, would 

 he increased one-half or more, or one-fifth of the 

 total amount. But agriculture, in enriching itself 

 will increase its power, its capital, and its popu- 

 lation ; and will naturally carry its exhuberant 

 t'orccs, its energy and 'activity to operate on the 

 greater part of the 7,000,000 of hectare.s of land 

 now [en friche] untilled, waste, and without pro- 

 duct. By bringing these lands into cultivation 

 and fertilizing them by liming, or by paring and 

 burning the surface, they would be made to yield 

 at least one-sixth of the total product. The gross 

 product of the French soil, then increased by a 

 third or more, might also give employment and 

 sustenance to a |iopulation one-third greater liiaii 

 France now possesses ; and this revolution due 

 successively to the tillage of the soil, to annual iiii- 

 proveiJienls keeping pace with the progressive in- 

 crease of crops, would be insensible. The slate 

 woidd grow in force, in vigor, in weidth. in an 



