PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 44t 



or up. When we increase the depth of plowing, we turn up 

 large quantities of lime and bring it to the upper soil. It is 

 therefore best to add lime in small doses and frequently. I 

 never apply more than five bushels of lime to the acre, as a 

 dressing, and then only when the land is in bare fallow. It 

 should never be plowed, or harrowed, or cultivated in. Left 

 upon the surface it gradually sinks, coming in contact with every 

 particle of the soil. 



The effect of lime is to hasten the decay of all fibre and organic 

 matter in the soil, which is not in a living state, to cause it to 

 pass into the condition known as eremecausis. It seizes upon a 

 portion of its silex and converts it into a soluble silicate of lime, 

 capable of coating a corn stalk, giving strength to the blade of 

 grass, or of preventing oats from lodging. It must at the same 

 time free all the other inorganic matter from the surface of that 

 grain of sand, or silex. The lime causes every particle of 

 organic matter to give up a portion of its constituents in such a 

 condition, that they may be more readily appropriated in organic 

 growth. This is equally true of potash and other alkalies. 



We find, for instance, in making common mortar that to insure 

 a good result it is desirable to use as little lime as possible, pro- 

 vided there be enough to form an absolute coating upon every 

 particle of sand. Many years ago, Mr. John B. Dodd tried some 

 experiments at the Mechanic's Institute in making mortar. He 

 took half of the mortar, and passed it many times through crush- 

 ing rollers. He then took six bricks and put them together with 

 mortar as ordinarily made, and six others and put them together 

 with the mortar so manipulated. They were laid by in charge 

 of a committee for two or three weeks, and were then brought 

 out. In attempting to lift the pile constructed with the ordi- 

 nary mortar, the upper brick was separated from the rest. The 

 other pile had been provided with means upon the upper and 

 lower brick for suspending it by a scale beam ; and it was loaded 

 to the extent of 1,400 pounds before it came apart, and it then 

 broke through one of the bricks and not through the mortar. 

 At the same meeting Mr, Dodd remarked that he had seen in an 

 old copy of Vitruvius, a representation of two boys beating 

 mortar with wooden cleavers. 



Mr. Williamson said that when he was a boy his business was 

 to beat mortar for his father, who was a mason. He always 

 made his mortar the year before and put it into pits ; and when 



