534. Queries and Ans'mers to Queries. 



too much, and also fortunate enough to get a small house, with a bit of 

 ground to raise the young plants wanted by his customers, I know not a 

 situation in life where an industrious man has a better chance of getting 

 forward. Had Mr. M'Naughton followed this plan, as several I could name 

 have done, it is probable he might have been master of a comfortable house 

 and large garden, and either a florist or nurseryman, as best suited his own 

 fancy. — Superficial. 



Art. VIII. Queries and Ansiuers to Queries. 



Use of Lime in the Culture of the Soil. — Sir, Having noticed, a short 

 time ago, that one of your subscribers had expressed a wish to know some- 

 thing of the use and properties of lime as a manure, I beg to present you 

 with the following short but highly interesting extract by Professor Brande 

 on that subject : — 



" Limestone is a substance of great importance in the arts ; it gives us 

 quick-lime when burnt, and is the base of many cements, forming a mortar 

 when mixed with sand, which has the property of gradually concreting, 

 until it becomes as hard as stone. It is also of great use in agriculture, to 

 say nothing of its ornamental applications, which are very numerous. The 

 fact is, that lime is one of the most important manures which we possess. 

 Quick-lime has the power of acting on animal arid vegetable substances, so 

 as to render them soluble in water ; and it is in this way that the diiFerent 

 vegetable and animal substances are rendered fit for the nourishment of 

 plants, the lime itself becoming inert, and forming a valuable part of the 

 soil. The lime, therefore, ought to be applied to the soil, or mixed with 

 other manures, as quickly as possible after it comes from the kiln ; and 

 hence the great impropriety of leaving heaps of it about the fields, as you 

 often see done, by which it loses its activity and usefulness." 



I conceive that it would appear not only highly presumptuous, but also 

 ridiculous for me, whose pretensions to a knowledge of gardening are so 

 slight, and whose operations therein are so confined, to give, after so able 

 a master, and particularly during the learned dissertation of Mr. G. W. 

 Johnson, the result of any little experiments of my own; I will, therefore, 

 content myself with simply stating that I have found lime, applied^ in a 

 quick state, as soon as it has been slacked, the best corrector and sweetener 

 of all fresh dug soils, particularly of those called heavy, wet, and sour, and 

 the best antidote against the effects of tilt or oxide of iron. It materially 

 assists in breaking and separating stiff" loamy earth ; and, if it does not 

 actually impart warmth, at least it renders it more accessible to the sun's 

 rays, and more subject to the influence of the atmosphere. Nothing hastens 

 the decomposition of all animal and vegetable matter so soon as lime, par- 

 ticularly in those substances which are not easily affected and reduced by 

 a fermenting heat. No ground, where it has been applied in any quantity, 

 ought to be planted, nor any compost, in which it has been mixed, ought 

 to be made use of, for three or four months after. It will by that time have 

 got rid of all its caustic and other active properties, and have become an 

 inert chalky substance, or matter, which will constitute a harmless at least, 

 if not a beneficial, ingredient in any soil. The best time for applying it, as 

 a manure to the garden, is in the autumn. Perhaps some of your more 

 experienced correspondents will continue the subject. Yours, very truly, — 

 Thomas Hogg. Paddington, March 2. 



The Chinese Piimrose. — Sir, I was not aware that there was any doubt 

 or difficulty, as to the proper modes of cultivating the Chinese Primrose 

 (Primula sinensis), till I saw an enquiry on tJie subject in — I forget what 



