* 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



37 



My, and not as carbonate of lime, that the 

 thirty bushels of shells per acre were applied. 

 The result of this experiment is but in accord- 

 ance with those of many others I have heard 

 of, on land somewhat ^milarly located, and 

 the question now becoBs an extremely inte- 

 resting one in this region. Whether or not 

 lime acts that important part in vegetable nu- 

 trition and decomposition, which has been 

 almost universally ascribed to it — or if it do, 

 and its presence in the soil in considerable 

 quantities be absolutely essential to its fertility, 

 whether or not that quantity be really present 

 ?iaturaUf/, and the supply will be kept up for 

 an indefinite period by natural agencies con- 

 tinually eliminating that substance! 



That lime in the form of a carbonate is in- 

 dispensable as a food for certain plants, as the 

 clover for instance — and indeed for nearly 

 every plant grown — chemical analysis has of- 

 ten demonstrated — that it is indeed the "basis 

 of all good husbandry," could not perhaps be 

 successfully controverted, and that in compara- 

 tively large quantities it is absolutely essential 

 to the fertility of a soil would seem to be pretty 

 nearly proven, from the fact that no soil of 

 known fertility and productiveness has ever 

 yet been found wanting in a large percentage 

 rda'ivehj of lime, and by the converse, which 

 is true, that no soil, barren under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, has ever been found to abound in 

 lime. 



But the next question to be considered is, 

 what quantity of lime in the form of a carbo- 

 nate, is necessary as food? This will depend, 

 of course, on the kind of crops grown. Sup- 

 posing the crop to be clover, an average growth 

 would probably absorb from the soil one hun- 

 dred pounds, which, if taken off and never 

 returned in the shape of manure, would, of 

 course, deprive the soil of just one hundred 

 pounds of its lime. Should corn follow the 

 clover and the yield be fifty bushels per acre, 

 the quantity of lime abstracted would probably 

 be nearly fifty pounds more— and should wheat 

 follow the corn, and the yield twenty-five 

 bushels, some fifteen pounds more would be 

 taken up— so that should this system be con- 

 tinuously pursued, with the usual grazing al- 

 lowed under the old three-field system, over a 

 period of twenty years, it will be perceived 

 that nearly a ton per acre of carbonate of 

 lime would at the end of the twenty years be 

 abstracted from the soil by the crops. But it 

 is to be borne in mind that'lime has a constant 

 tendency to sink in the soil and to descend 

 beyond the reach of the roots of plants, so 

 that a soil which at first had two tons of car- 

 bonate of lime might at the end of a twenty 

 years' cropping and grazing contain no more 

 than a mere "trace" of that substance. 



In the analysis alluded to by Dr. Morton 

 there was found but one-tenth of one per cent, 

 of carbonate of lime, which is equal to no 

 more than about six-tenths of the one-tenth 

 of "lime"— and really this would seem to be 

 in hardly a Homeopathic proportion, but, in 



truth, the aggregate quantity in an acre would 

 be quite respectable, for estimating the depth 

 of tillage at only six inches and the weight of 

 soil per cubic foot at one hundred pounds, 

 which is not too much if the soil contains as 

 much as seventy per cent, of "silica," the 

 quantity per acre would be about 2,250 pounds, 

 or fully thirty bushels over and above what 

 exists in the subsoil, from which the roots 

 would more or less draw their supply of lime. 

 But in some granite soils the supply of lime, 

 though more abundant, is pretty well kept up 

 by the degradation of certain rocks peculiar 

 to that kind of soil — and such soils will bear 

 cropping for a very long time, often without 

 any material diminution in the quantity of 

 lime, or apparent falling off in the yield of crop. 

 Why the application of the thirty bushels of 

 shells, alluded to by Dr. Morton, failed to 

 make any sensible impression on the soil or 

 on the crops grown, would not be so difficult 

 to understand oh the presumption that lime 

 only serves as a food for plants, and that a 

 sufficient quantity was already present in the 

 soil. But theory indicates and the experience 

 of the thousands who practice "liming" ex- 

 tensively, demonstrates that it accomplishes, 

 as a decomposer, another far more important 

 end in the soil. The supposition of Dr. Mor- 

 ton that the successful application of lime in 

 the tide water section of Virginia may be at- 

 tributable to its combining with phosphoric 

 acid present in those soils, by which phosphate 

 of lime (bone-earth) is formed, will not account 

 for the one thousandth part of the lime there 

 actually found necessary, and besides phospho- 

 ric acid in a free state is but seldom or never 

 found at all in old and barren soils — but the 

 small quantity found is mainly already in 

 combination with lime, for which it has a very 

 strong attachment. 



In soils abounding in inert vegetable matter, 

 as insoluble humus or geine, an application 

 of one hundred bushels of lime per acre, gra- 

 dually converts the whole into a highly soluble 

 humus or geine, said to be universally present 

 in all fertile and productive soils, while for 

 those apparently diseased soils which delight 

 to grow a sour, unhealthy vegetation, large 

 doses of lime prove a most potent and sove- 

 reign remedy. Why it does not exhibit these 

 peculiar and characteristic effects on all soils 

 may depend on various counteracting influ- 

 ences, which it would be tedious now to enu- 

 merate. 



It is more than probable that the old lands 

 in Virginia are generally almost quite ex- 

 hausted of "phosphate of lime," and it is 

 highly probable that these lands, from appli- 

 cations of Peruvian and Mexican guano in 

 combination, and under a liberal cultivation 

 of the artificial grasses, might be brought up 

 to a verv remunerative state without any direct 

 application of lime, but yet never be made very 

 permanently fertile without it, and for that 

 reason the tide water lands, where marl (im- 

 pure carbonate of lime) and lime are ever 



