118 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ACTION OF LIME ON SOILS. 
Mr. Ruffin, in his Report on his Agricultural 
Surve}' of South Carolina, comes to the follow- 
ing conclusions with regard to the offices per- 
formed by lime on .soils: 
1. In neutralizing the acid principle ot soil 
which is generally present in all naturally poor 
soils, and which is poisonous to all cultivated 
and valuable crops. The total removal of this 
poisonous quality of soils is an immediate and 
the most obvious effect oi the application of cal- 
careous manures. 
2. In the power ol altering the texture and ab- 
sorbency ot soils. Tlieadmixlureof calcareous 
manures with soils, serves in an important de- 
f ree to moderate the previous opposite defects of 
eing either too open and light, from excess of 
clay, and also of being either too little or too 
much retentive of moisture. 
3. By alteration of constitution in soils, pro- 
duced by calcareous manures, all products are 
rendered more perfect and are ripened earlier. 
4. Some lime being essential to the formation 
of every plant, it may therefore be considered a 
specific and climentary vianurc for every crop. 
Still the direct operation is, perhaps, the least 
benefit ot lime. Some plants, how^ever, of 
which clover is one, require so much of this in- 
gredient, that they can scarcely live on ordinary 
soils. 
5. Another operation of calcareous manures, 
and which is verj' important also in agricultural 
and pecuniary value, as w^ll as for other con- 
siderations, is that ol restraining or perverting 
the production ot vialaria, or the gaseous pro- 
ducts of putrefaction of vegetable matter, inju- 
rious to health. No effect yet claimed for the 
operation ol calcareous manures was at first 
heard with more incredulity than this; yet the 
short experience of 12 or 15 years only has been 
enough to remove almost every doubt on this 
subject in low^er Virginia, where marl has been 
most extensively applied. 
6. By turnishing to any soils which had been 
previously very deficient therein, an ingredient 
in calcareous earth, essential to their good and 
perfect constitution, all the functions of the soils 
and ol plants growing thereon, are made more 
perfect and invigorated: and every source ol in- 
jury to the crops, whether from soil, season, de- 
predations ol insects, or other diseases to which 
may be alike exposed the marled and unmarled 
parts of the same field, will be much less hurtful 
(if even perceptible in effect) on the former than 
on the latter. The calcareous manuring does 
not prevent or even lessen these causes ol dis- 
ease and death, but enables the plants, by their 
greater vigor, to withstand and out-grow the in- 
flictions, and thus renders them comparatively 
harmless. 
No agricultural writer in our country has paid 
more, if as much, attention to the properties ol 
lime, its action and benefits, in the melioration 
of the condition of lands, than Mr. Ruffin, and, 
therefore, we take the more pleasure in present- 
ing the above conclusions of his mind, after ma- 
ny years of intense study, close observation, and 
practical experience. 
We are gratified to see, that among the pro- 
perties possessed by lime, he assigns to it that of 
beingan alimentarymanure'' a property which 
we have long since claimed for it, but which 
few were willing to allow it, even amongst 
those who were warme.st in its praise as an im- 
prover of soils. We based our opinion of its 
being anutrieious, as well as mechanical agent, 
upon the fact that all analysis of vegetable sub- 
stances, grown upon limed land, have shown 
very distinct traces of calcareous matter, and 
hence we drew our deduction from that fact, 
that if it had not operated as nourishment, the 
lime thus detected as a constituent of such vege- 
tables, would not have been taken up by their 
roots and distributed through their entire series 
of stems, leaves and Iruit or berry ; for to us it 
has long appealed obvious enough, that unless 
the portions of lime taken up contributed to the 
sustenance of plants, their organs of feeding 
would have had the instinctive sagacity to re- 
ject them; or if not so, that the lime taken up 
would have exerted a deleterious influence up- 
on their growth and elaboration, as well as up- 
on the maturation of their fruit and .seed. But 
vs bile we have thus thought and contended, we 
have always maintained, that, how’ever impor- 
tant the agency exerted by lime — however es- 
sential its application wms to the improvement 
of soil, that still anincal and vegetable manures 
were indispensable pre-requisites, in any perfect 
system looking to the effectual restoration of 
lands which might have been exhausted of their 
fertilit}". 
By the analysis of plants of various kinds, 
their constituent properties have been found to 
consist of many substances; and it is but fair to 
infer that each and all are necessary to their 
healthful development. 
There is one of the offices exerted by lime 
which appears to have escaped tlie notice ol 
Mr. Ruffin. We mean the active agency which 
it performs, in facilitating the decomposition of 
inert vegetable bodies, and converting insoluble 
into soluble substances; thus bringing into ac- 
tive and available use countless organic remains 
which had laid dormant in the earth for ages, 
and w'hich hut for the decomposing powmrs ot 
lime would so have continued to remainforages 
to come. In this way, lime may be considered 
not only ^.manure in itself, but the manufacturer 
of vianure also. Peat, we know, without so.me- 
thing to bring its dormant constituents into a 
state of fermentation, would continue to be una- 
vailable as an improver of soil, and yet the mo 
ment it becomes admixed with a very moderate 
portion of lime, a new constitution or capacity 
seems to be infused into it, and from that mo- 
ment may we discover the commencement of 
decay — from that moment does the process of 
decomposition begin — from that moment does its 
inertia become aroused into activity— and just 
such an effect as we have described to be produ- 
ced on peat, does lime exert on all the inert bo- 
dies to be found in the earth. 
There is another effect of time upon clays 
that we had intended, w'hen we commenced this 
article, to have remarked upon, hut as our able 
friend of the Maine Farmer has treated the sub- 
ject — the action of lime upon the potash found 
in clays— better than we could, we copy his ar- 
ticle : 
Improvement of Clay Soils by Lime and Burning. 
Lime has been used upon soils for centuries, 
sometimes with good effect, and sometimes with 
no apparent effect at all. Various theories have 
been brought forward to explain its action 
where it did good, and its want of action where 
no benefit was apparent. 
Some parts of the theories, or explanation of 
its action .are undoubtedly correct; but, as eve- 
ry year the research of farmers and chemists 
bring something new to light, we see that we did 
not know all about the action of this substance, 
and, of course, all our theories could not be cor- 
rect. That lime enters into the composition of 
some plants, w'hen combined with other substan- 
ces, and thus becomes “ part and parcel” of the 
crop, is true — that it also renders some stiff clays 
more open and easy of culture, is true — that it 
combines with acid matters in the soil, is true. 
A German chemist, while experimenting on 
lime and clays, observed that if common potter’s 
clay, or pipe clay, were diffused through water, 
and this added to milk of lime, (common white- 
wash,) the mixture wmuld thicken immediately. 
If this mixture be kept for some months, and 
then strong acid be added, the clay would be- 
come a sort of jelly, (or gelatinous,) which it 
would not have become if it had not been mixed 
with the lime. It appears that the lime, on 
combining with the clay, changes its character, 
softens it down, or liquifies it, and also liberates 
the greater part of the alkalies which it contains. 
Here is -t hint towards explaining the action of 
caustic or quick lime upon stiff clayey soils, 
which will guide the farmer in its application to 
the soil. It acts as a key to unlock the impris- 
oned alkalies, which are indispensable in the 
production of stem and fruit, and thus become a 
valuable agent. To effect this on very stiff 
clay, requires quite a large amount. 
Clay is made up of alumine and silex, and 
sometimes of potash. Alumine, when combin- 
ed with pota.sh and sulphuric acid, forms, as eve- 
ry one probably knows, the common alum which 
we buy at the shops. Many clay soils contain 
all these elements, but very intimately combin- 
ed, and are then mule or less barren; becau.se 
tho.se elements, or at any rate, the flmty part and 
the potash, or alkali, are necessary to the growth 
of the plant. Novv, any process w hich will dis- 
unite the materials and render them capable of 
being taken up by vegetation, will be advanta- 
geous to the former. One mode is to add lime 
as above stated. Another mode is to burn the 
clay. 
The plan of burning clayey soils has been 
long known, without any definite idea of the 
why or the wherefore of the cause of the benefit. 
It has been found, however, by the chemist, that 
ifyou take a lump of clay m its native state and 
put it into any of the .strong acids, it will not be 
acted upon at all, but if you heat it to redness a 
short time, and then apply acids, you will find 
that an essential change has been effected ; if 
will then be acted upon by sulphuric acid — the 
alkali and albumen combining with it, and the 
silex or flint being separated in a jelly or gela- 
tinous form. You have often seen newly built 
brick houses become coated with a white coat, 
or powder, in moist weather. What is the 
cause of this f Why, the alkali which was in 
the clay before the bricks vv'ere burnt, becomes, 
by burning, liberated, and is brought out, or dis- 
solved, by the moisture, and when the moisture 
evmporates, remains on the wall, like a white 
powder. On a careful examination of walls 
that show this powder, it will be seen that it ge- 
nerally appears fiist where the lime of the mor- 
tar and the bricks are in contact. Hence we 
see that the opei ation of lime upon clayey soils 
is more or less beneficial accordingly, as it acts 
upon the alkaline material in the clay, and also 
that an improvement is effected in such soils by 
burning. The latter, howev^er, is an expensive 
process, and cannot always be used. 
From the Mwchester Operative. 
I HAVE NO TIME TO READ. 
The idea ot many that they have not time to 
read is a mere phantom. Did not Franklin find 
lime, in the midst of all his labors, to dive into 
the hidden recesses of philosophy and to explore 
an untrodden path of science? Did not the 
great Frederic, in the midst ol a war, yea on the 
eve of a battle which was to decide the fate of 
his kingdom, find time to revel in all the charms 
of philosophy and intellectual pleasures ? Did 
not Buonaparte, with kings in his anti-chamber 
begging lor thrones — with thousands whose des- 
tinies were suspended on the brittle thread of 
his arbitrary nod, have time to converse with 
books 1 Caesar, when he had curbed the spirit 
of the Roman people, and was thronged with 
visitors from the remotest kingdom, found time 
to cultivate his intellect. And every man has 
time ; ifhe is careful to improve it as well as he 
might, he can reap a three-fold reward. 
Let the mechanics and laborers of the United 
States then make use of the hours at their dis- 
posal, if they w'ant to obtain a proper influence 
and rank in society. They are the life-blood 
and the sinew of the community; they can, if 
the}'^ are so disposed, hold in their own hands 
the destinies of the republic ; they are numerous, 
respectable and powerful ; they have only to be 
educated half as well as other professions to 
make laws for the nation, and cause the drones 
and aspiring demagogues to leave their fat offi- 
ces, which they hold, and pull off their white 
gloves, and appl3Their hands to work. Let eve- 
ry laborer, then, devote more of his time to 
study and the acquisition of useful knowledge. 
There are but very few who cannot devote daily 
two hours for mental cultivation. If they 
would do even this together with combination, 
how much greater would be their influence and 
how’- long would labor be considered as disgrace- 
ful? 
