October i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
32 
LIME AS A MANURE. 
"3 TO 10 TONS OR SO APPLIED PER ACRE"? 
An estate proprietor (who signs himself "A Great 
Ignoramus") writes :— "Mr. R. C. Haldane says (vide 
yom editorial in a recent issue:— ' Some of my renders 
may think that such a quantity of lime would burn 
up the coffee.' Then he goes on to quote from Stephen's 
'Book of the Farm':— 'I have used 150 bushels [3 
tons?] of lime per acre with benefit. I have seen as 
much as 510 bushels (10 tons ?) applied to the acre 
of wheat with manifest advantage and (says Mr. 
Haldane) what the tender wheat roots can stand' I 
believe the strong coffee roots can stand also. 
Does Mr. Haldane here refer to immediate applica- 
tions of freshly burnt and unslaked lime, or immedi- 
ate application of slaked lime; or lime slaked on a 
heap, then covered up with earth, and used only after 
a certain interval of time? and if the hitter what in- 
terval of time ought to take place before it is applied? 
If you quoted freely in your Tropical Agriculturist 
regarding the right and wrong uses of lime, 
as regards coffee cultivation, I am of opinion great 
benefit would arise ; for I am under the impression that 
a vast amount of injury has been done to coffee of 
late years by lime being improperly applied. Definite 
and reliable information is required as to the form 
in which lime should be used simply by itself and 
forked into the ground, and also when applied mixed 
with other manures such as bones, castor cake or 
cattle dung, or when applied as a mixture to compost 
heap, or again when applied to nowly dug up but 
implanted land of poor quality in order to prepare and 
improve it for planting a few months (?) later on 
in a cise of this kind (light and poor soil) the ap- 
plication in quau'ily of unslaked lime would probably 
fig it up for one year but utterly ruin it for ever 
afterwards : the question is would it ? What effect 
would unburnt powdered limestone have, if applied 
to coffee fields ?'' Auother estate proprietor writes: — 
" Why do you not place on record some easy method for 
planters to test limestone, A lot of worthless stuff 
must often be used." 
The following extract from the "Elements of 
Agricultural Chemistry and Geology," by Johnston and 
Cameron, will give planters some useful ideas on the 
subject if carefully perused. As a general rule these 
eminent authorities are in favour of both burning and 
slaking limo before applying it to the soil ; but 
whether this would apply in all cuses to our Ceylon 
soils and to coffee cultivation is a question we are 
not prepared to answer. Once again, let our cor- 
renpomlei t get his superintendent to experiment and 
let him treat a few acres indifferent ways on the same 
field and report the result. 
"LIME : ITS USES IN AGRICULTURE. 
" Tha use of lime is of the greatest importance in 
practical agriculture It has been employed in the 
forms of marl, shells, shell-sand, coral, chalk, lime- 
stone, limestone gravel, quicklime, &c, in almost 
every country, and from the most remote period. 
'•Composition of LiMESToNES AND Chalks. — When 
dilutid muriatic acid, or strong vinegar, is poured 
upon pieces of limestone, chalk, common s >da, or 
common pearl-ash. effervescence takes place, and car- 
bonic acid gis is given off (p. 35). If a current of 
this gas bo made to pass through lime-water (8cc tig. 
21), the liquid becomes milky, and a white powder 
falls, which is pure calcic carbonate. It consists of — 
Pet cent. 
Carbonic acid (CO.,) 1 1 
Lime(CaO) 5t> 
10t) 
Limestone i marble, and ehalA consist, for the most 
par', of eoloio GATD m «(«•. In solt chalk, the particles 
arc held more IoomI\ logitlur ; in the hard chalks 
81 
and in limestones, the minute grains have been pressed 
or otherwise brought more closely together, so as to 
a more solid and compact mass, sev- 
In regard to limestones and chalks, there are the 
eral circumstances which it is of importance for form 
practical man to know. For example— 
a. That they are not composed entirely of mineral 
or inorganic particles, such as are formed by the pass- 
age of a current of carbonic acid through the lime- 
water. They consist in great part, sometimes almost 
entirely, of minute microscopic shells, of tt.e frag- 
ments of shells of larger size, or of solidified masses 
of corals, which formed coral-reefs in ancient seas 
which ouce covered the surface where the limestones 
are now met with. The blue mountain-limestones 
contain many of these coral-reefs, while in our chalks 
rocks vast quantities of microscopic shells and frag- 
ments of shells appear. 
b. Being thus formed at the bottom of masses of 
moving water, the chalks and limestones are seldom 
free from a sensible admixture of sand and earthy 
matter, Hence, when they are treated with diluted 
acid, though the greater part dissolves and disap- 
pears, yet a variable proportion of earthy matter always 
remains behind in an insoluble state. This earthy- 
matter is sometimes less than half a per cent of the 
whole weight, though sometimes it amounts to as 
much as 30 or 40 per cent. 
e. All animals hitherto examined contain in cer- 
tain parts of their bodies traces more or less distinct 
of phosphoric acid, generally in combination with 
lime, forming phosphate of calcium, This calcic phos- 
phate, their remains, when dead, retain in whole or 
in part. It thus happens that limestones very fre- 
quently contain phosphoric acid, and that the proportion 
of it usually increases with that of the visible re- 
mains of animals, shells, corals, &c. , which occur in 
it. In the magnesian limestones of the county of 
Durham, the proportion of phosphate of calcium is 
found to be as small as 0.07 to 0.1") per cent; while in 
a limestone from Lanarkshire (Carluke), it amounted to 
1| per cent ; or 100 lb, of the burned lime contained 
as much as 2.', lb. of phosphate of calcium — (Johnstone.) 
d. The parts of animals also contain sulphur, and 
this has given rise to the presence of sulphuric acid 
in chalks and limestones. This acid exists in them 
in combination with lime — in the slate of gypsum. 
The proportion of this gypsum hitherto found in nat- 
ive chalks and limestones is small, varying from one- 
third to four-fifths of a per cent. 
e. Maguesic carbonate, the common magnesia of 
the shops, is also present, almost invariably, in all 
our limestone and chalk rocks. In the purest it forms 
1 or 2 per cent, in the most impure from 40 to 50 per 
cent, ot the whole weight. The rocks called do omitr*, 
or magnesian limestones (p. 107) are characterised by 
the presence of a large proportion of carbonate of 
magnesium. In the Old Red Sandstone forniatibn, 
also, beds of limestone occur which are rich in mug. 
nesia. Such limestones arc usually considered less 
valuable for agricultural purposes. Tiny can bo ap. 
| plied less freely and abundantly to the land, and pos- 
sess what practical men call a burning or scorching 
quality. They are, however, preferred to purer limes 
in some districts, as in the highlands of liall ».iv. 
for application to bill-p&stnres, 
Analyses of I.imkstonk- t6m PbnbItr Pahmbbb' ('u n, 
UV l'ltol'Kssolt ANKVHnKN, Gl.VSIii.W. 
(•I out of 10 specimens) . 
Ouwrv Galore Magnesia Iron oxide Insoluble 
* Carbonate carbonate, uud alumuia. matter. 
Lowther 
villus,.... 
Alston Moot 
Kavcn-ti'iic- 
dulo 
Brampton . 
> l ot) 
'.to-^O 
'.'ISO 
l»-SM 
l'W 
lf>7 
B'86 
ll-.Mi 
OH 
13! 
2-r.r 
No phosphate or nulphaio of calcium could bo found. 
