270 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



desirable to practise horse-hoeing at such 

 a period — you might have supposed that 

 loosening the soil between the turnips 

 would let in heat to the roots of the tur- 

 nips, and dry them up. Now, gentlemen, 

 remember that, if you have no rain com- 

 ing down in the day, you have dews fall- 

 ing at night; and let me tell you that to 

 have a thoroughly-pulverized soil, and to 

 keep continually exposing it to the action 

 of the air, is the best mode of absorbing 

 the greatest obtainable amount of dew from 

 the air, so that during the very best por- 

 tion of the day the plants may have a cer- 

 tain amount of moisture, which they have 

 taken from the air in the night, to sustain 

 them. Let me, then, recommend to you 

 the stirring and horse-hoeing of your root- 

 plants during dry weather, if you wish to 

 secure the greatest development for them 

 which is attainable' under such circum- 

 stances. 



# # * # # # 



I now go on to speak, therefore, of the 

 use of lime. This is a matter of conside- 

 rable importance to all -western farmers. — 

 Throughout the eastern and the midland 

 districts of England lime is found very 

 generally disseminated, not only in the 

 limestone rocks there, but also throughout 

 the clay soils ; and, consequently, the ap- 

 plication of it to the land is not required 

 there to anything like the same extent 

 that it is here. On the other hand, in 

 those soils which prevail toward the west, 

 lime is, as I know from my own analyses, 

 found generally only in very minute pro- 

 portions, and then not always in the con- 

 dition in which it ought to exist in the 

 soil in order to develope its best charac- 

 teristics and powers. Hence the large 

 amount of lime which has been found 

 practically useful here in the fjrm of sim- 

 ple lime; and further to the south and the 

 west in the form of shell-sand, which is 

 carried on to the land in large quantities. 

 Now, the action of lime, gentlemen, is 

 this : it helps to liberate a certain amount 

 of the insoluble materials in the soil, which 

 would otherwise not be liberated within 

 the same period of time. If I were to 

 powder a piece of feldspar, mix it with 

 common water and some lime, and then 

 leave ,the whole for a twelvemonth, I 

 should, at the expiration of the period, find 

 a much larger amount of potash liberated 

 through the action of the lime than could 



have been liberated had there been no 

 lime. So that lime, you see, produces a 

 very powerful effect in liberating and 

 making soluble some of the mineral ingre- 

 dients of the soil. It also operates pow- 

 erfully in relation to the dead vegetable 

 matter which exists in the soil,, helping it 

 to assume the form in which it is best 

 adapted for the production of vegetable 

 life. Let me mention a case which will 

 serve to illustrate how powerful is the ef- 

 fect of the use of lime. A few years ago, 

 having had some soils at Exmoor sent to 

 me for examination, my report upon them 

 was this : "You may use guano, you may 

 use superphosphate, or anything you please 

 to stimulate production ; but if you do not 

 also use lime the result will not be satis- 

 factory; lime is the first essential, and af- 

 ter that has been applied, you may have 

 recourse to artificial manures." Well, a 

 twenty-acre field, on Exmoor, cultivated 

 by Mr. Smith, the well-known and intelli- 

 gent steward of Mr. Knight's property was 

 pared and burnt, and lime was applied to 

 all but about an acre, where, in- conse- 

 quence of there not being enough lime 

 brought up for the whole, none was used. 

 The whole of the land had guano applied 

 to it, and the turnips were drilled with su- 

 perphosphate of lime. To one inch, where 

 lime was put, there was a beautiful crop 

 of turnips; and to one inch, where no lime 

 was put, there were no turnips at all. — 

 This is a case which clearly proved neces- 

 sary is the presence of lime. But, gentle- 

 men, if I were to tell you that you might 

 go on liming year after year without doing 

 anything else, I should be saying what 

 might lead you into a very great error. — 

 Lime ought to be regarded by you as an 

 amendment to the soil, not as a manure.— 

 You ought to consider lime as a substance 

 to be added to the land occasionally, chiefly 

 in order to ameliorate its condition, and 

 render it better adapted for the application 

 of manures, though of course at the same 

 time it supplies a certain amount of lime 

 to the plant itself. You should on no ac- 

 count apply it indiscriminately, and to any 

 amount. If you do that, you will bring 

 your land into a bad state, and will lose a 

 certain amount of income — a result which 

 is to be carefully avoided in these days of 

 high rents and taxes. In order to proceed 

 on the right basis, you must, .as I have be- 

 fore intimated, view lime in the light of a 



