PROCEEDIXGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 107 



LIME, SALT, PLASTER, ASHES, FOR POTATOES. 



Solon Robinson. — 0. C. Waitt writes from West Georgia, Yt., 

 for more explicit directions about the application of lime, salt, 

 plaster, and ashes, to potatoes. He asks : 



"1. Do any of these lose their virtue by mixing ? 



** 2. Will the composition injure the young vines if applied 

 directly to them ? 



" 3. Which and how many of these are adapted to dry, sandy 

 or clayey soils ? 



" 4. And which to moist, tenacious ones ? 



" 5. How many of the above manures are profitably mixed 

 with manure from the poultry-house for a top-dressing on corn, 

 or to be used in the hill? 



" 6. To what extent may hot suds, or ley be applied to apple 

 and pear trees, withovit injury, or what degree of heat ? We 

 should not accept that statement, except upon the undoubted 

 authority of the Farmers' Club, Had boiling water been pre- 

 scribed to apply to cattle, we should not have been more sur- 

 prised. We are much indebted to the Farmers' Club for impor- 

 tant information; may they not only prescribe for our infirmities 

 the kind of remedy, but the manner of application." 



I will give brief answers, according to my opinion, to these 

 questions, and will report those of other members, if different 

 from mine. 



I. These ingredients may be mixed in any proportion conve- 

 nient ; but the best way to mix salt and lime is first to saturate 

 salt with water, and then slack lime with the brine, and keep it 

 in a conical heap under cover until efflorescence takes place, and 

 then from time to time rake off the powder formed and put it in 

 casks, until all the lime is reduced to that condition which is 

 called chloride of lime, which, with the carbonate of soda formed 

 by the operation, will be found always beneficial to land that is 

 full of vegetable, fibrous matter, and the best thing in the world 

 to decompose muck. Oyster shell lime is best, or stone lime free 

 from magnesia. It will take one bushel of salt to three bushels 

 of hot lime. This composition may be mixed with plaster and 

 ashes, but I would not do it. I would sow it broadcast upon 

 inverted sod, and harrow in before planting potatoes or corn, and 

 at the rate of quantity that would give about three bushels of 

 salt to an acre. The ashes I would apply a handful to a hill 

 around the plants, not on them, as soon as up, so as to show the 



