82 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
is not only established by the experience of ail 
ages, and so far as we know, of all countries, 
but must be obvious, when it is known that 
chemical analysis has detected it as a consti- 
tuent ©f every vegetable that grows on the sur- 
face of the earth. It is also the chief element 
of the bones of every animal— even of those 
that feed on grass only. It is therefore not only 
beneficial^ but indispensable to the growth of 
all kinds of vegetation. The All-Bountiful 
Creator has diffused it over the whole globe, as 
extensively as almost any known substance. 
But like all His gilts, it has been, for wise and 
good purposes, no doubt, unequally distributed. 
That it is placed, in some form and to some ex- 
tent, within the reach of all plants, is certain, 
since they all contain it. And a late scientific 
writer on Agricultural Chemistry in our coun- 
try, has attempted to prove that all — even the 
poorest soils, possess an ample supply of it to 
furnish heavy crops of vegetation for countless 
years to come. If this were true, it would be 
worse than useless to expend labor in spread- 
ing it over our lands; millions of farmers be- 
sides myself have acted very foolishly, and you 
would do well to think no more of marling. 
But this is plainly not the case. There are a 
great many soils in which the chemical tests 
now known, have failed to find a trace of it. 
Such is the fact with regard, I believe, to all the 
land 1 cultivate. Such, I will venture to say, 
it is with regard to most, if not all of the lands 
in your county ; though 1 am aware you have 
had pretended analyses made, which exhioited 
large proportions of lime. The reasoning of 
the writer alluded to : All soils are formed by 
the disintegration and crumbling of rocks. 
Most rocks contain lime, especially those which 
disintegrate most readily and form soils. He 
calculates the amount of lime in the quantum 
of rock necessary to create a soil of a certain 
depth, and thence infers that there is so much 
lime in the land. There is no doubt that the 
rocks from which your soil and mine were 
formed, contained lime to the amount estima- 
ted. But it is equally certain that these rocks, 
in their transition from one state to another, 
were subjected for an indefinite period to the 
action of water. I am speaking particularly 
of our immediate section of country. The 
ocean once undoubtedly covered it as high up 
as the falls of our rivers and the belt of sand- 
hills which runs through the middle districts of 
South Carolina and Georgia, and held it as per- 
manent domain. During this period, our marl 
beds were deposited— possibly also our present 
surface of earth. But whether that be so or 
not, and whether the surface we now cultivar<> 
belongs to the Eocene formation, as these marl 
deposits are supposed to do, or to the Post Plio- 
cene, or, as is most probable, to the Diluvial, it 
is evident, from the irregular inter-stratification 
of different kinds of earth, and the rounded 
pebbles on and in it, to a considerable depth, 
which could have been rounded only by the ac- 
tion of water, that the whole of it, like the sand 
and clay now constantly brought down our 
streams, has been atsome remote period, “driit- 
ed from a higher region, and deposited by water 
here. The lime in the rocks being soluble un- 
der eircumsiauces which must have attended 
the “drift,” was retained and carried away in 
th« currents. Our marl beds were probably de- 
posited at a much earlier geological era, and 
have no connection with the soil on our present 
surface, but were upheaved or denuded in some 
of those great convulsions to which our globe 
has been every where subjected. That our 
lands are for the most part destitute of lime is 
certain. That it has been taken from them in 
this way, is more than probable. The masses 
of silieified shells to which I have alluded, and 
which are so abundant in yourcounty, prove that 
the lime may be entirely carried off by water. 
But if there is no lime in the soil, from what 
source do the growing plants derive this indis- 
per.sible constituent may be well asked? It 
has been often asked. Nature has not revealed, 
and science has as yet-failed to discover an an- 
swer satisfactory to all. Whether, as is conjec- 
tured by some, the unknown vital action of the 
plant is sufficiently powerful and comprehen- 
sive to create the requisite modicum — or wheth- 
er it can, as others suppose, by some galvanic 
agency, extract it from sources where its exis 
tence has not yet been delected by chemical re- 
agents, is yet a mystery. But this much expe- 
rience has established and science demonstra- 
ted, that where lime cannot be found in fair pro- 
portions in a soil, the health and vigour ol the 
plants growing on it can always be materially 
improved by a judicious application of it. And 
to this conclusion common sense, without ex- 
perience or science, would lead every one who 
was aware that it is invariably an elerrtent in 
all vegetable matter. 
The precise rationale of the action of lime on 
the soil, and the manner in which it benefits 
vegetation, has never been fully and minutely 
explained. Nature still holds many of the se- 
crets of her . laboratory undisclosed. Many, and 
many of the roost important details of her won- 
derful processes of composition and decomposi- 
tion and of the vast play of her chemical affini- 
ties, yet await the persevering investigation and 
penetrating thought of man. I will endeavor 
to lay before you, succinctly, what is known or 
rationally conjectuied in regard to the opera- 
tions and effects of lime, so far as may be mate- 
rial to the present purpose. 
It is applied to land, either directly or mixed, 
in compost heaps, and carried out in manure. 
But lor the additional labor the latter would al- 
ways be the best method. Where it is used in 
large quantities, it is much cheaper to spread it 
at once upon the land, and apply manure, &c,, 
afterwards, as circumstances may dictate or 
permit. It is sometimes put on land in the'state 
in which it comes from the kiln, that is as quick 
or caustic lime. Sometimes it is first slaked 
in water, when it becomes a hydrate of lime. — 
Most commonly it is slaked by mere exposure 
to the atmosphere, when it assumes the lorm of 
carbonate or mild lime, that is, lime combined 
with carbonic acid, which it extracts from the 
air in the proportions I have already stated. It 
i.s in this form that it is found most abundantly 
in nature. Sulphate and phosphate of lime are 
also found, but quick-lime never. The lime in 
shells, marble, limestone, marl, &c. is usually 
all of it the carbonate. Its action, however, in 
the long run, is always the same, whether ap- 
plied in the mild or caustic state, being depen- 
dent on its intrinsic properties as lime. — 
When caustic, it at first rapidly decomposes 
whatever of vegetable fibre or animal matter it 
comes in contact with. But its caustic quality 
is soon exhausted, or rather it soon becomes 
changed itself by the action of the substances it 
meets with, and thus loses its causticity. On 
lands con'aining a great excess of vegetable 
matter, such as peat and rich bog, and where 
rapid decomposition is desirable, quick-lime is 
the best lorm of application, if equally cheap, 
as it saves time, and fenders the soil produc- 
tive much sooner than the carbonate will do it. 
Although lime is found most commonly com- 
bined with carbonic acid, the fact is owing more 
to the abundance of that acid which exists in 
the atmosphere, in water, and is continually a- 
rising irom vegetable decay, than because it has 
any affinity for carbonic over oth r acids. On 
the contrary, it will yield it up and combine in 
preference with almost any other. Not only the 
strong mineral, but most vegetable acids, even 
vinegar, as I have before mentioned, will drive 
it off. The effervescence which takes place 
whenearb.of lime is thrown into them, is caused 
by the carb. acid escaping in the form of gas. — 
From this great affinity of lime for all acids re- 
sultsoneof its primary and most important effects 
in soils. Acids are antiseptic and arrest spon- 
taneous decay. Lime combines with them 
wherever it finds them free from other combina- 
tions, and neutralizes their injurious effect.— 
Hence, on lands that we call sour — and on many 
that are really sour without our knowledge o( 
the fact — all land covered with broom sedge for 
example — itisof inestimable value. Itdestroy.« 
the sourness, and thereby' promotes the decay ol 
whatever matter may have been locked up by 
acids, which is calculated to nourish useful 
vegetation. From this quality of lime, ii isde- 
mominated an Alkaline Earth— alkali being the 
reverse and antagonist ol acid. Whenever an 
alkali and acid meet, they neutralize one anoiher 
in certain proportions, and form whai is called 
a salt. For instance, our common salt is muri- 
atic acid, and the alkali soda. So carbonate of 
lime is in fact itself a salt. 
These salts, and especially those of which 
lime is a component part, are of the highest va- 
lue in agriculture. Some of them are soluble in 
water, and these are the most valuable. It is 
in fact only when they are thus dissolved that 
they afford any diiect nourishment to growing 
plants which can imbibe nothing by their roots, 
hut watery solutions, and are <ed altogether in 
this way from the ground. But the salts which 
are readily soluble in water are soon exhausted. 
Every shower dissolves them, and whatever sur- 
plus is left after the plants have absorbed the so- 
lution to the extent of their capacity, is liable to 
escape by evaporation, or to be carried by the 
water into the earth below the reach ol vegeta- 
tion, or to run off with it into the streams. Salts 
then that are not immediately soluble in water, 
if they can be made soluble gradually, are in the 
long run the most useful to the farmer. Of this 
class are most, it not all, of the sab.s formed by 
lime. Carbonate^lime isindeed wholly inso- 
luWein pure watelfand il lime remained forev- 
er in that state it would be ol little value in the 
soil other than its mechanical influence on the 
texture of it. But if carbonic acid be added in 
excess— that is more ol it than 44 pans in lOO 
which are .-equired to make the carbonate, this 
salt becomes soluble This excess is in point 
of tact constantly furnished in small quantities 
by the air, by rain water, and by the decay of 
vegetable substances in the ground, and hen^e, 
one advantage from keeping lime near the sur- 
face. The lime thus dissolved enters into the 
plant and feeds it. fn this way, and this way 
onlv, is it a direct manure. All its other influ- 
ences are indirect, on w’hich account it is most 
generally regarded as a stimulent rather than a 
manure, f am speaking, ol course, of carb. of 
lime as it exists in our marls, and notol the sul- 
phate or phosphate of lime. 
Its indirect action however is as important as 
it is varied I have already said it promotes 
decay by neutralizing acids. But while lime 
from its neutralizing power promotes decay, by 
arresting the influence of acids and giving effi- 
ciency to the legitimate agents which accom- 
plish it, it is a watchful guardian over their ac- 
tion, retarding their wasteful haste, and some- 
times wholly pr.=venting furihf r progress for a 
time. Itexpsls, for instance, from decomposing 
substances, ammonia, which is the most active 
and rapid conductor of putrefying contagion, 
driving it into the air, to de-cend in future show- 
ers, or if they are at hand, into other substances 
less advanced in the stages ol decay. 
The ultimate result of the. vegetable decom- 
position thus judiciously forwarded by lime, is 
a substance to which various names 'have been 
applied by chemists, such as, '■‘humus’^ “geine'' 
“u'mni,” &c,, which, so far as agriculture is 
concerned — their treatment and influence on the 
growth of vegetation, are one and the same thing ; 
meaning, substanlialty, that residuum of de- 
composition which is familiarly knovvn to us 
as ‘'vegetable moidd," without a sufficiency of 
which in our soils, w'e are all aware that com- 
pensating crops cannot be made. In the pro- 
gress of decay the most soluble portions of this 
mould are exhausted and assume new forms, 
and what at last remains apparently fixed in the . 
soil is the undissolved sediment. This is said 
to be wholly insoluble in water, but when plow- 
ed up and frequently exposed to the action of the 
air, il becomes so sparingly. Yet without aid 
from some other source than the atmosi here, 
water will not lurnish it to plants in sufficient 
quantities for their vigorous growth. Now the 
alkalies and alkaline earths (lime being the 
most important of this last class) act directly on 
this insoluble substance. Their presence — and 
