PeoceedixCtS of the Faemers^ Club. -359 



a large quantity of decaying organic matter, the decomposition of 

 wliicli produces various acids wliicli are hurtful to vegetation. Lime 

 neutralizes these acids, and consequently sweetens and warms the 

 ground, and thus fits it for the better growth of plants ; and more 

 than this, tliese acids very frequently exist in combination with 

 ammonia, and lime, being the stronger alkali, expels the ammonia, 

 wliich, being lield in solution in the moist soil, is more readily absorbed 

 by the plant roots. Lime also acts upon the organic constituents of 

 the soil, as is seen more especially in peat soils, in which the vege- 

 table remains frequently exist to an excessive and injurious degree, 

 the lime in tliis manure changing the structure of the soil and render- 

 ing it more capable of retaining moisture and heat, and consequently 

 greatly facilitating the growth and development of plants. In closing 

 our remarks on this fertilizing agent, we would urge the farmer to 

 always bear in mind the property of lime, hereinbefore adverted to, 

 of displacing ammonia from its combinations ;. for it frequently hap- 

 pens that the husbandman, knowing that barn-yard manure and lime 

 are botli good, thinks to make them both better by mixing them, and 

 is much surprised to find the ammonia driven off, the manure 

 spoiled, and the lime no better. In such a case the lime simply 

 displaces from its combinations the ammonia, which then passes 

 into the air in a gaseous form and is lost. A stronger appre- 

 ciation of simple scientific truths like these would often lead 

 to great economy, and to profitable results in the manifold 

 processes involved in properly tilling and enriching tlie ground. Of 

 potash, the last fertilizer of which we propose to treat in this paper, 

 we make but brief remark, although it constitutes one of the most 

 essential constituents of a fertile soil, and one of the most important 

 of all the fertilizing agents within reach of the agriculturist. In 

 many plants it constitutes more than one-half of their ash, and in 

 most at least one- third. In neutralizing acids in the soil and in the 

 liberation of ammonia, it acts in the same manner as lime; but when 

 it is desired to simply eftect these last mentioned objects, the latter 

 should be used as being cheaper, and potash, generally available iu 

 the form of ashes, should be applied as a manure, using the word in 

 its strictest sense, to indicate a substance that contributes directly to 

 building up the structure of the plants. But considerable care 

 should be exercised in the use of ashes ; and they should never, as is- 

 the practice with some in manuring corn in the hill, be mixed with 

 guano, or the refuse of the hen-roost, inasmuch as the first rain that 

 dissolves them will cause the potash to displace the ammonia, in the- 



