246 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



destroys, to a certain extent, the efficacy of animal manures ; either by corhbining with 

 certain of their elements, or by giving to them new arrangements. Lime should never 

 be applied with animal manures, unless they are too rich, or for the purpose of preventing 

 noxious effluvia. It is injurious when mixed with any common dung, and tends to 

 render the extractive matter insoluble. 



1174. Lime promotes fermentation. In those cases in which fermentation is useful to 

 produce nutriment from vegetable substances, lime is always efficacious. Some moist 

 tanners' spent bark was mixed with one fifth of its weight of quick-lime, and suffered to 

 remain together in a close vessel for tlu-ee months ; the lime had become colored, and 

 was effervescent : when water was boiled upon the mixture, it gained a tint of fawn-color, 

 and by evaporation furnished a fawn-colored powder, which must have consisted of 

 lime united to vegetable matter, for it burnt when strongly heated, and left a residuum 

 of mild lime, 



1175. Different hinds of limestones have different effects. The limestones containing 

 alumina and silica are less fitted for the pui-poses of manure than pure limestones ; but 

 the lime formed from them has no noxious quality. Such stones are less efficacious, 

 merely because they furnish a smaller quantity of quick-linie. There is verj' seldom 

 any considerable portion of coaly matter in bituminous limestones ; never as much as 

 five pai-ts in 100 ; but such limestones make very good lime. Tlie carbonaceous matter 

 can do no injury to the land, and may, under certain circumstances, become a food of the 

 plant. 



1176. The subject of the application of the magnesian limestone is one of great interest. 

 It had been long known to farmers in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, that lime made 

 from a certain limestone applied to the land, often injured the crops considerably. 

 Tennant, in making a series of experiments upon this peculiar calcareous substance, 

 found that it contained magnesia ; and on mixing some calcined magnesia with soil, in 

 which he sowed different seeds, he found that they either died or vegetated in a very 

 imperfect manner, and the plants were never healthy. And with great justice and 

 ingenuity he referred the bad effects of the peculiar limestone to the magnesian earth it 

 contains. 



1177. Magnesian limestone is used with good effect in soine cases. Magnesia has a 

 much weaker attraction for carbonic acid than lime, and will remain in the state of caus- 

 tic or calcined magnesia for many months, though exposed to the air. And as long as 

 any caustic lime remains, the magnesia cannot be combined with carbonic acid, for Ifme 

 instantly attracts carbonic acid from magnesia. When a magnesian limestone is burnt, 

 the magnesia is deprived of carbonic acid much sooner than the lime ; and if there is not 

 much vegetable or animal matter in the soil to supply by its decomposition carbonic acid, 

 the magnesia will remain for a long while in the caustic state ; and in this state acts as a 

 poison to certain vegetables. And that m.ore magnesian lime may be used upon rich 

 soils, seems to be owing to the circumstance that the decomposition of the manure in them 

 supplies carbonic acid. And magnesia, in its mild state, i. e. fully combined with car- 

 bonic acid, seems to be always a useful constituent of soils. Carbonate of magnesia 

 (procured by boiling the solution of magnesia in supercarbonate of potassa,) was thrown 

 upon grass, and upon growing wheat and barley, so as to render the surface white ; but 

 the vegetation was not injured in the slightest degree. And one of the most fertile parts 

 of Cornwall, the Lizard, is a district in which the soil contains mild magnesian earth. 

 It is obvious, from what has been said, that lime from the magnesian limestone may 

 be applied in large quantities to peats ; and that where lands have been injured by 

 the application of too large a quantity of magnesian lime, peat will be a proper and 

 efficient remedy. 



1178. A simple test of magnesia in a limestone is its slight effervescence with acids, and 

 its rendering diluted nitric acid, or aqua fortis, milky. From the analysis of TeAnant, it 

 appears to contain from 20-3 to 22-5 magnesia ; 29-5 to 31-7 lime ; 47-2 carbonic acid ; 

 0-8 clay and oxide of iron. Magnesia limestones are usually colored brown or pale yel- 

 low. ^ They are found in Somersetshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Durham, 

 and Yorkshire ; and in many parts of Ireland, particularly near Belfast. In general, 

 when limestones are not magnesian, their purity will be indicated by their loss of weio-ht 

 in burning ; the more they lose, the larger is the quantity of calcareous matter they con- 

 tain. The magnesian limestones contain more carbonic acid than the common lime- 

 stones ; and I have found all of them lose more than half their weight by calcination. 



1179. Gypsum. Besides being used in the forms of lime and carbonate of lime, cal- 

 careous matter is applied for the purposes of agriculture in other combinations. One of 

 these bodies is gypsum or sulphate of lime. This substance consists of sulphuric acid 

 (the same body that exists combined with water in oil of vitriol,) and lime ; and when dry 

 it is composed of 55 parts of lime and 75 parts of sulphuric acid. Common gypsum or 

 selenite, such as that found at Shotover Hill, near Oxford, contains, besides sulphuric 

 acid and lime, a considerable quantity of water; and its composition may be thus 



