1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEIMER. 



321 



sweetness, closeness, and nutritive character 

 of the grasses is remarkably visible ; on ara- 

 ble lands a mellowness of stiff soils is pro- 

 duced." 



Emerson and Flint in their "Manual of Ag- 

 riculture" confirm Prof. Liebig in saying that, 

 "lime amends the soil by setting at liberty the 

 potash and other alkalies which exist in com- 

 bination with clay and in granite sand ; that 

 oyster shell lime is of greater value for agri- 

 cultural purposes than common lime, because 

 it contains a small quantity of phosphoric acid ; 

 , and no soil, however good, and however favor- 

 able the climate will produce first rate crops of 

 wheat unless it contain a proper proportion of 

 lime." 



Prof. Nash in his "Progressive Farmer" 

 gives a table of soils, and the one classed fer- 

 tile without manure, contains a considerable 

 percentage of lime and carbonic acid, while the 

 soil classed barren is nearly destitute of either 

 of these constituents. 



Allen, in his "Farm Book," also speaks in 

 the praise of lime as a manurial agent. Berg- 

 man found that one of the most fertile soils of 

 Sweden contained thirty per cent, of caibo- 

 nate of lime. Chaptal analyzed a very pro- 

 ductive soil in France which gave near twenty 

 five per cent, of the same and seven of the or- 

 ganic matter. Tillet even found jne, and that 

 the most fertile, which yielded <57. 5 of carbo- 

 nate of lime. Some of the Nist in the Missis- 

 sippi valley have yielded upon analysis twenty 

 per cent, of lime, avd many other soils 

 throughout the Unite'^ States contain an equal 

 proportion of carbo-»ate of lime, and such are 

 always the last to wear out. 



C. D. Wilbe-> secretary of the Illinois Natu- 

 ral History Society, speaking of lime, says, 

 "The farrier must have it diffused through 

 every &f^& of his farm or his crops will fail." 

 An anicle upon lime, in the United States Ag- 

 rici'itural Report, 1856, says, "The purposes 

 served by lime as a chemical constituent of the 

 soil are of at least four distinct kinds, namely : 

 First, it supplies a kind of organic food, which 

 appi^ars to be necessary to the healthy growth 

 of all cultivated plants. Secondly, it neutral- 

 izes acid substances which are naturally formed 

 in the soil, and decomposes or renders harm- 

 less other noxious compounds that are not un- 

 frequently within reach of the roots of plants. 

 Thirdly, itchanges the inert vegetable matter in 

 the soil so as gradually to render it useful to 

 vegetation. Fourthly, it causes, facilitates, or 

 enables other useful compounds, both organic 

 and inorganic, to be produced in the soil, or 

 so promotes the decomposition of existing 

 compounds, as to prepare them more speedily 

 for enteiing into the circulation of plants." 

 Hon. Thomas G. Clemsen, LL.D. in the Re- 

 port for 1859 writes substantially as above, 

 with regard to the benefit of carbonate of lime. 

 Here, then, is the testimony of many emi- 

 nent men direct to the point that lime as it 

 exists in limestone, marble and chalk, is bene- 



ficial as a manurial agent. There might also 

 be collected a large amount of testimony from 

 the many that have used lime upon soils, 

 touching the benefits derived from its applica- 

 tion. Even an application of plastering taken 

 from old buildings, to the soil, leaves traces of 

 very marked effects produced, years after the 

 application is made. 



With all this accumulation of testimony in 

 favor of the beneficial effects of lime, in oppo- 

 sition to the statement of Dr. Nichols, the 

 question very naturally arises. Who shall de- 

 cide when doctors disagree? w. h. y. 



FARMERS' CliUBS IN SUMMER, 

 During the winter the reports from these 

 associations have occupied considerable space 

 in our column?, and, judging from the many 

 expressions^ of satisfaction which have come to 

 us through our correspondence, no part of our 

 paper has been more attentively read. Not 

 only this, many of the articles have been cop- 

 idd by the leading agricultural papers of the 

 country, and thus the doings of a Farmer's 

 Club in some corner of our noble State, re- 

 ported through our columns, is made to inter- 

 est farmers in remote States, and possibly give 

 hints, the improvement of which may be of 

 great benefit to them. Since November last, 

 the organization of sixty-two Farmers' Clubs 

 has been reported to us. 



Now that the long evenings are parsed, and 

 the active individual work of members upon 

 their own farms has commenced, we suppose 

 the regular meetings for discussion will be dis- 

 continued until another fail. But in the mean- 

 time the work of the members for the general 

 good of the Club, and the mutual advantage 

 of its members should not cease. It should, in 

 fact, just commence. Each member should 

 this season undertake some experiment or put 

 in operation some train of investigation or 

 thought for determining some disputed opin- 

 ion, or more firmly establishing some partially 

 accepted theory — the result of which should 

 be reported to the club at the commencement 

 of its next winter campaign. Bear this in 

 mind ; and when you begin your season's la- 

 bors, plan some experiment for the benefit of 

 the Farmers' Club. Thus, although the meet- 

 ings for discussion may be suspended during 

 the summer, the period may be one of real 

 work for the Club, inasmuch as the experi- 

 ments and investigations made are such as can- 

 not be performed in the winter, and will fur- 

 nish material about which to talk next winter. 

 — Maine Farmer. 



— A Michigan correspondent of the Rural yew 

 Yorker has been feeding wheat to his "shotes" 

 with satisfactory results. He is convinced that it 

 is a cheaper food for hogs than corn, at the present 

 prices. He boils the wheat until it is thoroughly 

 cooked, which nearly doubles its bulk. 



