104 



appearance, .while on unlimed land, of equal 

 quality, it is yellow and sickly. A more marked 

 improvement is said also to be produced both in 

 the quantity and in the quality of the spring- 

 sown than of the winter-sown crops (Puvis). 



" Potatoes grown upon all soils are more agree- 

 able to the taste and more mealy after lime has 

 been applied, and this is especially the case on 

 heavy and wet lands, which lie still undrained. 



"Turnips are often improved both in quantity 

 and in quality when it is laid on in preparing 

 the ground for the seed. It is most efficient, 

 and causes the greatest saving of farm-yard ma- 

 nure where it is applied in the compost form, 

 and where the land is already rich in organic 

 matter of various kinds. 



u Feas are grown more pleasant to the taste, 

 and are said to be more easily boiled soft. Both 

 beans and peas also yield more grain. 



"Rape, after a half-liming and manuring, gives 

 extraordinary crops, and the same is the case 

 with the colsa, the seed of which is largely raised 

 in France for the oil which it yields. 



" On flax alone it is said to be injurious, di- 

 minishing the strength of the fibre of the stem. 

 Hence, in Belgium, flax is not grown on limed 

 land till seven years after the lime has been ap- 

 plied. 



"It hastens the maturity of the crop. — It is true 

 of nearly all our cultivated crops, but especially 

 of those of corn, that their full growth is at- 

 tained more speedily when the land is limed, 

 and that they are ready for the harvest from ten 

 to fourteen days earlier. This is the case even 

 with buckwheat, which becomes sooner ripe, 

 though it yields no larger a return, when lime 

 is applied to the land on which it is grown. 



"The liming of the land is the harbinger of 

 health as well as of abundance. It salubrities 

 no less than it enriches the well cultivated dis- 

 trict. I have already drawn your attention to 

 this as one of the incidental results which follow 

 the skilful introduction of the drain over large 

 tracts of country. Where the use of lime and 

 of the drain go together it is difficult to say 

 how much of the increased healthiness of the 

 district is due to the one improvement, and how 

 much to the other. The lime arrests the noxious 

 effluvia which tend to rise more or less from 

 every soil at certain seasons of the year, and 

 decomposes them or causes their elements to 

 assume new forms of chemical combination, in 

 which they no longer exert the same injurious 

 influence upon animal life. How beautiful a 

 consequence of skilful agriculture, that the health 

 of the community should be promoted by the 

 same methods which most largely increase the 

 produce of the land ! Can 3^011 doubt that the 

 All-benevolent places this consequence so plainly 

 before you, as a stimulus to further and more 

 general improvement — to the application of other 

 knowledge still to the amelioration of the soil?" 



But it is impossible that within our limited 

 pages we can find room for all that is good and 

 valuable in this incomparable treatise. We hope 

 we have said and done enough to induce every 

 one, who has the facilities for liming his land 

 within his reach, to provide himself (which he 

 can do at an expense of thirty-one and a quarter 

 cents) with the whole work. 



For the Southern Planter. 



VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PAPERS — 

 ASHES FOR STOCK. 



Mr. Editor, — I have been a subscriber to your 

 paper from its commencement, and I would not 

 be without it for twice the amount of the sub- 

 scription. I look forward to the day of its ar- 

 rival with anxiety ; one number has been worth 

 more to me than all the subscription money I 

 have ever paid you. I am using my best exer- 

 tions to obtain subscribers for you. I am a 

 young farmer, surrounded by a community of 

 land killers, who look upon book farming, as 

 they term it, as humbuggery. I showed a num- 

 bur of my Southern Planter to one of my 

 neighbors, and asked him to become a subscriber;- 

 he laughed at the request, and said he would 

 profit by my example. Not long after, one of 

 his oxen got choked with an ear of corn ; he 

 did not know what to do ; some advised him to 

 kill him, but his wife advised him to send for 

 me. Her advice prevailed, and post haste he 

 came over for me. I went over, and from the 

 knowledge I had obtained from the Cultivator, 

 I relieved the animal in five minutes. I had 

 the pleasure of saving the life of an ox, for 

 which he said he would not take twenty dollars. 

 I informed him where I obtained my informa- 

 tion, and asked him again to become a sub- 

 scriber to your paper, but he would not. I have 

 gained much information from your able corre- 

 spondents, and am in hopes I shall be able to 

 give them something in return. 



In fattening my hogs this year, I had a quan- 

 tity of ashes put into my peri, arid sprinkled 

 over with salt, of which they ate greedily, and 

 Z never saw hogs fatten faster in my life; since 

 then, I have used the ashes freely to my cattle, 

 and they have mended wonderfully. 

 B remain yours, &c. 



A. W. Cousins. 



For the Southern Planter. 



EXTRAORDINARY FECUNDITY. 



Mr. Botts, — There was an instance of greater 

 fecundity in my neighborhood a few daj^s ago, 

 than I have ever heard of before. Nature made 

 the effort, but the constitutional powers of the 



