92 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPTEMBER 26, 18r?8. 



GEOLOGV OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Continued Trom page 85, 



Tlieoi-1/ of the nrtion of Lime on Soils, Manure, and 

 Vegetation. — "The action of limo is threefold ; cacli 

 distinct. 1. It is a jYeutralizer : 2. a Decomposer : ■\. 

 a Converter. 1. I have alreaily alluded to some 

 acid soils : free phos])horlc acid, geic, acetic, and 

 malic acids, also occasionally exist in a free state 

 in soils. Here lime acts as a neiitralizer, 2, 

 Soils may contain abundant geates ; particularly 

 geate of alumina, the least of all demanded by 

 plants, Lonff formed and sun-baked, they are 

 scarcely acted on by rain or dew, and arc almost 

 useless. Here lime, by decomposing these motallic 

 and earthy jreates, forms a combination, vhich, in 

 its nascent state, is rPadily dissolved. If the car- 

 bonate of lime acts better than the hydrate, it is 

 because, following a well known l;\w, double de- 

 composition is easier than single. If any acid 

 geine exists in the soil, or any free acids, carbonic 

 acid is then liberated ; it acts on the geate of lime, 

 eupergeates result, and these are easily soluble," 



" 3. The great use of lime is as a converter ; 

 turning solid and insoluble geine, nay, I go further, 

 solid vegetable fibre, into soluble vegetable food. 

 Here is the great puzzle, the point where our phi- 

 losophy seems to leave us ; giving us our choice, 

 to refer this action to one of the numei*iip ^ases 

 of mysterious ' catalytic ' change, with *^hich we 

 are becoming every day more and more familiar, or 

 to explain the process by referring the whole to 

 saponification. I use this word as conveying to 

 you at once what I mean ; — but I do not mean to 

 say tliat the product of liuie and vegetable matter 

 is soap ; but I cannot make myself more intelligi- 

 ble to a farmer than by saying, this lime makes 

 compounds of vegetable matter, just as it makes 

 soapy compounds of oil and fat. The action of 

 lime on geine I take to be of the same nature, 

 as its action on oils and fat. It is well 

 established that animal and vegetable oils and fats 

 are converted into acids by the action of alkalies, 

 earths, oxides, and even by vegetable fibre itself. 

 The genera] law is, tliat whenever a substance, ca- 

 pable of uniting with the acid of fat or oil, is 

 placed in contact with fat or oil, it determines the 

 production of acid. Now we have seen that alkali 

 produces a similar change on geine ; it developes 

 acid properties. I go further, if alkali has con- 

 verted vegetable oil and o-ef.ne into acids, I see no 

 reason wliy a similar action i.nay .lot be produced 

 ^J all those substances whiciV act th'is on oil. 

 Hence Ihne, earths, and melVllic oxi des, convert 

 •'eu!"' *"'° ^'^''' '■> ^ '^^t a-' t'"s t'<'"p^' pl.we, so fast 

 ft becomJ' ^"'"ble. Then too tht" 'rf-ng action of 

 air on insoluu.'f- geine, rendering it so lub.'e, is it 

 not ttu?il°g""'^ *° ^^^ action of air 6\i oi'ls- ^°'^'' 

 .evolve in'uus pase, vast volumes ofcarboiUc ^cid, 

 the oil becomes geiutiwus and soluble in alfcMi ; 

 does not, a similar cl'iange occur in geine ? _ " '« 

 possible that during the action of liuie on geiL'p, a 

 soluble substance may be produced, bearing tie 

 same relation to this process that glycerine does .to 

 saponification. These views you will see need to 

 be followed out experimentally. If found tenable, 

 the most signal benefit will result.- We place 

 manures on a new foundation, on which great prac- 

 tical results may be erected. 



Practical ytplication of the Theory of the action 

 of Jytmc— Taking the preceding principles as our 

 guide, we may lay down a few general principles 

 Jbr the application of marls. 



1. Enough ought to be applied to neutralise all 

 the free acids in a soil ; which may be known by 

 its ceasing to produce acid plants, such as sorrel 

 and pine. Generally, however, the amount requir- 

 ed for this purpose is small. 



2. It will be serviceable to add enough to con- 

 vert the earthy geates of a soil into geate of lime. 

 The richer a soil is, the greater we may conclude 

 is the quantity of geates which it contains. 



3. It will be serviceable to add enough to con- 

 vert all the insoluble geine and vegetable fibre in 

 a soil into soluble geine. Hence the richer a soil 

 is, and the more manure is added, the more marl 

 will it bear with benefit Indeed, there appears to 

 be no danger of adding too much marl, provided 

 a sufficient quantity of manure he also added. Ig- 

 norance of this principle, I apprehend, is the 

 source of most of the failures that have occurred 

 in the use of lime upon soils. Farmers have sup- 

 posed that its action was like that of common 

 manure, viz., to serve as direct nourishment to the 

 plant ; whereas it only cooks the food, if I may be 

 allowed the expression, which exists in the soil, or 

 is added along with the lime. In nearly all cases 

 of over marling which I have read of, a fresh sup- 

 ply of manure has been found to be the remedy ; 

 which shows the ti'uth of the above principle. 

 Agriculturalists have spread marl alone, or with 

 very little manure, upon land that has been worn 

 out, that is, whose geine has been exhausted ; and 

 because such soils have not thereby been recruited, 

 they have inferred that lime was injurious. Without 

 acids, or geine, or geates, or vegetable fibre, to act 

 upon, much excess of lime appears to operate injuri- 

 ously,so as to diuijnish,instead of increasing the crop. 

 They have also expected a sudden and surprising 

 increase of fertility ; whereas in some cases the 

 chief benefit seems to consist in causing the land 

 to produce for a greater number of years, by pre- 

 venting the ultimate decomposition and escape of 

 the organic matter. In general, however, it will 

 add also to the yearly product: but those who em- 

 ploy marl or lime in any form, ouglit to moderate 

 their expectations, that they may not be disappoint- 

 ed, and to be satisfied if they can slowly and 

 surely improve their lands as they most assuredly 

 can do, by this substance, provided they do not 

 expect to accomplish it by the use of lime alone. 



These general rules can afford only a general 

 guidance as to the quantity of marl proper to be 

 used. Both marls and soils vary so much in their 

 composition, that probably direct experiments will 

 always be necessary to ascertain the quantity of 

 any new variety of marl that will be most service- 

 able. And should any of the agriculturists of 

 Berkshire county be disposed, as I doubt not they 

 will be, to try the marls above described, I beg 

 leave to recommend to tliem, as the best practical 

 treatise that has been published in this country, on 

 this subject, " An Essay on Calcareou-s Manures," 

 by Edward Huffin, Esq. of Virginia, Shellbanks, 

 183.5. Tills gentleman has tried a vast number of 

 experiments on the subject, and the perusal of his 

 work is almost indispensable to anyone wlio would 

 successfully prosecute it. He says, " if tJie nature 

 of the soil, its condition and treatment, and the 

 strength of the marl were all known, it would be 

 eat^y to direct the amount of a suitable dressing : 

 but without knowing these circumstances, it would 

 be safest to give 250 or 300 bushels to the acre of 

 worn acid soils, and at least twice as much to new- 

 ly cleared, or well manured land." (Essay pp. 

 .■y.) The marl which Mr. Ruffin used was the 



slielj marl ; a large part of which has no action on 

 the soil for several years ; nor does it contain any 

 geine. On both these accounts probably, the 

 Berkshire marls should be used at first in a smaller 

 quantity ; and I suspect that great care will bo 

 necessary to avoid using too much. 



As to the best mode of ap])lying marl, theory 

 would lead us in general to prefer the method usu- 

 ally adopted, viz: to mix it with compost brlore 

 spreading it on the soil And I would here ex- 

 press a hope, that if experiments are made on the 

 Berkshire marls, a portion of the black veget.ibie 

 matter that lies above them, may sometimes bo 

 mixed with them, to see whether it may not be- 

 come converted into a geate, and thus increase the 

 value of the marl. It would, indeed, be an im- 

 portant discovery, if from the same swamp both 

 the geine and the lime could be obtained, in a 

 state proper to sustain vegetation. 



Marly Clay. — Most of the clay in Massachu- 

 setts contain a very small proportion of carbonate 

 of lime, the greater part of which, however, is 

 converted into those curious concretions called 

 claystones, which usually contain more than 50 per 

 cent, of carbonate of lime. But it was only in 

 the north part of Berkshire county that I found 

 enough calcareous matter in the clay beds to be of 

 any consequence in agriculture. In other parts of 

 the county, I met with but few clay beds; though 

 I doubt not thut others, besides those described 

 below, may be found. The following analysis 

 gives tlie composition of one specimen from Nortlv 

 Adams and another from Williamstown, a littlo 

 southeast from tiie college. Botli were taken from 

 excavations for making brick. 



VVilliamslown, 

 North Adams 



Can there be a doubt, but clays so rich in calca- 

 reous matter as the above, would prove very valua^- 

 ble in cultivation ? especially when we recollect 

 that clay alone, destitute of calcareous matter, is 

 of great service to some kinds of land. The bed 

 in Williamstown, from which the specimen analysed 

 was taken, is composed of the common plastic 

 clay ; but that in Adams, (a little cast of the vil- 

 lage,) is usually sandy ; although a part of the 

 j same bed, less calcareous, is used for making 

 I bricks. On some soils fine sand, so full of calca- 

 I reous matter, must be excellent. The quantity of 

 I magnesia in it is too small to affect its value unless 

 it be favorably. In applying it, the same principles 

 should be our guide as in richer marls. Other 

 beds of marly clay may be found probably, by tl)8 

 use of vniegar or other acids. 



Magnesian Limestone in Agriculture. — Very many 

 limestones contain magnesia, and it seems to be 

 generally admitted, that where this is the case, a 

 large (piantity spread upou soil is injurious ; that 

 is, when the stone has been burnt so as to drive off 

 the carbonic acid. In small quantities, however, it 

 would seem that even calcined magnesia is useful; 

 as we might presume it would be from tlie fact that 

 most soils contain it in small quantity. Again, it ' 

 appears probable, that magnesian limestone, if not 

 burnt, but merely reduced to a fine powder, will 

 operate favorably : or even if we admit that in 

 such a case the magnesia exerts no action, it will 

 not prevent the salutary action of the lime united 

 with it. But since magnesia unites with geic acid 



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