Agriculture is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most noble employment of man .— Washington. 
VOL. V. NEW YORK, JUNE, 1846. NO. VI, 
A. B. Allen, Editor. Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway\ 
APPLICATION OF LIME. 
Lord Dunponald, a Scottish nobleman, who 
spent most of his life and tortune in experimental 
farming and gardening, states m his “ Treatise 
showing the Intimate Connection that subsists be¬ 
tween Agriculture and Chemistry,” published in 
1795, that Jime, when easily procured and properly 
s tacked with water, immediately spread on the 
ground and plowed in, if applied in great quantities, 
will occasion a too immediate dissipation in a 
gaseous state, of the vegetable matters contained in 
ths soil, from which the succeeding crops can only 
be benefited by the proportion it is able to receive 
during the dissipating process. Hence it is mani¬ 
fest that an economical and frequent application of 
lime, in moderate quantities, either mixed with 
peat or other vegetable matter, or even by itself, is 
greatly to be preferred to those abundant dressings 
of lime usually given at one time, which cause an 
action on the soil more powerful and violent than 
is conducive to, or compatible with, a continued 
state of fertility. In short, lime should be consi¬ 
dered in a chemical and medicinal point of view, 
when so applied, acting as an alterative, corrector, 
and a decompounder; a disengager of certain parts of 
the animal and vegetable substances contained in the 
soil, and as a retainer and a combiner with others ; 
and is not to be regarded by the practical farmer as 
a substance fit for the immediate food and nourish¬ 
ment of vegetables, like dung, or decayed vegetable 
or animal matters. For, although calcareous mat¬ 
ter, or lime, forms a component part of vegetable 
and animal bodies, still the quantity that can be ob¬ 
tained from the annual produce of most crops, from 
an acre of ground, will not exceed eighty pounds 
weight. This fact has been well ascertained, and 
if proper attention be paid to it in regulating the 
eamluct of the agriculturist, in the future applica¬ 
tion of lime, it will prove more satisfactory than all 
the chemical reasonings adduced in his treatise. 
IRON HURDLE FENCE. 
We have frequently been asked the cost of this 
kind of fence. Through the politeness of a gentle¬ 
man of this neighborhood, who has just made an 
importation to enclose his pleasure grounds, we are 
enabled to give full particulars as to its cost, size, 
&c. Each hurdle or panel is 6 feet long and 5 feet 
high, with a post in the centre, thus making the 
posts 3 feet apart. The posts are of flat bars of 
iron, 1£ by § of an inch. There are five bars in 
each panel. These are of round iron, § of an inch 
in diameter. The weight of each panel is 75 lbs., 
costing, laid down in this city, with duties, freight, 
and all expenses paid, 4 cents per lb., or $3 per 
panel, or 50 cents per running foot, of the fence. 
A well made picket fence, with locust posts, costs 
38 cents per fooL With the exception of the posts, 
this would require renewing every fifteen or twenty 
years. The hop fence will last a century or more. 
It is consequently much the cheapest in the end, 
besides being far more ornamental; it also has the 
further advantage of not obstructing the view—in¬ 
deed at the distance of 100 yards it can scarcely be 
seen. It can also be taken up at any moment 
with great ease, and set in any other place desired, 
it being moveable at will. The iron posts have 
spreading claw-feet, which are inserted in the 
ground, and hold it up very strong. The panels 
are joined by two bolts passing through holes bored 
in the posts, and then screwed up tight with a nut. 
The above is the heaviest kind, called ox-iron 
hurdles, the fence standing strong enough to resist 
the most unruly animal. We can recommend this 
kind of fence highly, having seen it in extensive 
use in England, and in a few places in the United 
