528 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



IiIME, AND THE SOIL THAT NEEDS IT. 

 OCTOR Jackson, in his Geolo- 

 gical Report of Rhode Island, 

 recommends the use of lime in 

 combination with vegetable and 

 animal organisms, in the compost 

 heap. He places full reliance, it 

 seems, upon its power to neutral- 

 ize the noxious acids, which are 

 more or less abundant in the humus of soils, 

 after the compost has been incorporated with 

 the earth. Ruffin, in his able essay on cal- 

 careous manures, recommends the use of lime 

 on all soils not naturally calcareous. 



Lime is one of the most common substajices 

 with which we meet in the crust of the earth, 

 frequently constituting whole mountain chains, 

 and in combination or mechanical association 

 with other earths and metallic oxides, consti- 

 tuting a number of valuable minerals. In the 

 bodies of animals it is detected as an impor- 

 tant ingredient, particularly of bones and 

 shells. It also enters as an indispensable con- 

 stituent into vegetables, and is found in vari- 

 able quantities in the ash, or residuum, which 

 they leave upon burning, as well as in solu- 

 tion in almost all natural waters. 



Formerly, lime was regarded as an elemen- 

 tary substance ; but the results of modern ex- 

 periments have demonstrated it to be a com- 

 pound body, its principal ingredients being a 

 metal, by chemists called "calcium," and oxy- 

 gen, or vital air. 



Phosphorus — a very important principle in 

 vegetable nutrition, may be made to combine 

 with lime by fusing the two together. The 

 substance resulting from this amalgamation, is 

 of a brownish color, called in chemical tech- 

 nology phosphate of calcium, and which is 

 found to possess, in a remarkable degree, the 

 power of decomposing water. "The phos- 

 phate of calcium," says an excellent writer on 

 agricultural matters, "decomposes the water, 

 the hydrogen of which combines with the phos- 

 phorus, forming phosphuretted hydrogen ; while 

 its oxygen combines partly with the calcium, 

 forming lime, and partly with the phosphorus, 

 forming phosphoric, and hypo-phosphoric 

 acids. These acids unite with the lime, and 

 form phosphate and hypo-phosphate of lime." 

 In most light soils of a sandy texture, there 

 is generally found but little humus ; the vege- 

 table power is merely nominal in a natural 

 and unfertilized condition, and the necessity 



of manuring them imperative, in order to se- 

 cure even an ordinary crop. By turning in 

 green crops, such as peas, clover and buck- 

 wheat, and applying lime in liberal quantities, 

 we shall speedily reclaim and render them pro- 

 ductive. 



On poor low lands, of a clayey nature, lime 

 is also found to exert a bene6cial action. Such 

 soils are not unfrequently possessed of clay, 

 iron ore, or marshy ferruginous earth, which 

 is composed, in a great measure, of clay and 

 a liberal proportion of carbonate and phos- 

 phate of iron. These ingredients constitute a 

 hard and compact body, the nature of which, 

 and more especially the phosphate of iron, 

 renders it extremely prejudicial to vegetation, 

 whether reposing in subterranean, elongated 

 strata, or in a state of solution, and occupy- 

 ing a position so superficial as to place it within 

 range of the roots of plants. 



Foul lime is also a valuable article for ame- 

 liorating soils and stimulating crops. It is 

 made by the gas makers, and is the lime used 

 for purifying the product of gas works. In 

 this process the gas is made to pass through it 

 — none but the best quality of lime being 

 available for this purpose — and imparts to it 

 ammonia, carbonic acid, and carburetted hy- 

 drogen, all of which principles are of service 

 in promoting the development of vegetation in 

 every stage of its existence. 



Limestone often contains oxide of iron, 

 silica and alumina. In one specimen of lime- 

 stone which was subjected to analysis, there 

 were found, in 100 parts : — 



Chalk 53.P0 parts. 



Carbonic Acid 42.50 " 



Silica. • 1.12 " 



Alumina 1.00 " 



Iron 0.75 " 



Water 1.63 " 



Total lOO.CO 



In some limestone, the relative proportions 

 of the three ingredients — silica, alumina and 

 oxide of iron — are greater than they were as- 

 certained to be in the specimen the analysis of 

 which is here presented. Chalk is a concrete 

 of lime. It is common in England, Denmark 

 and France, as well as in other countries ; but 

 the Spanish chalk is not identical with this sub- 

 stance, being a sort of steatite, and is classed 

 as a distinct substance. There is, also, a black 

 chalk. 



The lime most used by the English agricul- 

 turists i<i their farming operations, is procured 



