76 
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF LIME. 
over the plants after a rain, or while the dew is 
on, are sometimes effectual remedies. In addition 
to the value of the above applications for killing 
the insect, they are all directly beneficial in pro¬ 
moting the growth of the plants to the full value 
of the cost of the material and labor. 
Folding sheep on the ground where turneps are 
to be sown, is an excellent preparation. New 
land when it can be had, is admirably adapted 
for a turnep crop, as it is free from insects, and 
possesses an abundance of the alkalies, which are 
every way suited to the rapid growth of the turnep. 
Burning the rubbish on the land required for this 
crop is a good precaution, as thereby a portion of 
the eggs and insects are destroyed. Deep plowing 
will exterminate all that are placed so far beneath 
the surface, as to be unable to reach it again. The 
use of long manure, or sowing on a stubble-field, 
are objectionable, as they harbor and protect the 
insects. 
ip Where enemies are numerous, 3 or 4 pounds of 
seed should be sown in drills, and twice as much 
more broadcast, which affords more food for the 
fly, and there may possibly be sufficient left for a 
crop, after supplying the foragers with all they 
want; the excess, if any, may be thinned with the 
cultivator and hoe. But in all cases the soil should 
be in good condition, and be prepared with some 
rich, stimulating manure, such as night-soil or 
other concentrated aliment, by which the plant 
will be enabled to push itself rapidly beyond the 
reach of marauders. Alternating turneps with po¬ 
tatoes, sugar-beet, and other crops in no way rela¬ 
ted to this family of plants (the cruciferee), is useful, 
by cutting off the supply of food to its enemies, 
by which it is starved out or compelled to shift its 
quarters for subsistence. 
The frequent use of the cultivator and hoe is 
beneficial in disturbing and destroying the insects, 
besides materially assisting the growth of the plant. 
All family weeds, colewort, water-cresses, hedge- 
mustard, and the like, which afford food to the 
common enemy, should be carefully exterminated; 
and such other kindred vegetables, as cabbages, 
cauliflower, mustard, table and horse-radish, &c., 
should be cultivated remote from the tumep-field, 
so as to afford no rendezvous for their perpetuation. 
R. L. A. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF LIME. 
Clinton, N. J., March 11th, 1843. 
Mr. A. B. Allen, Dear Sir : Mr. De Russy did 
not exaggerate the beneficial effects of lime upon 
the soil here; and I can safely say that the product 
of the soil for a section, embracing at least one 
third of the county—the northern part—has been 
more than doubled in the last 12 or 15 years. 
Fifteen or twenty years ago, our farmers raised lit¬ 
tle or no wheat; rye bread was used almost exclu¬ 
sively in families, and rye, corn, and oals, our 
main dependance. Previous to that period, lime 
had not grown into general use; now, every farm¬ 
er here limes, and with hardly an exception, every 
farm has its lime-kiln. At this time many farmers 
sow no rye at ail, and those that do, sow it more 
for the straw than the grain, the straw being su¬ 
perior to wheat for feed and tying stalks when we 
cut up our com. 
As to your first inquiry, “ the character of the 
soil,” it is extremely diversified, and has but one 
general characteristic—the substratum being a 
yellowish clay, and stiff. The country is very un¬ 
even and hilly, indented with valleys and streams, 
tributary to the south branch of the Raritan. Our 
hills are a gravel, loose, and not. unusually stony 
(granite). In our valleys, the limestone is found, 
and here the land is pretty even, and the soil to 
the surface a yellow clay, and tolerably stiff. We 
have also the gray shell, and a dark reddish soil 
much intermixed with round flinty stones, and the 
black loam common to bottom meadows; the last 
four are all found on my farm of 200 acres. There 
is very little sandy land, and it takes less perma¬ 
nent benefit from lime than any other kind. On 
all the abovementioned varieties of soil, lime is 
highly fertilizing, and it is difficult to say which 
variety is most benefited, though I think the effect 
upon the lime of stone lands is least apparent. 
Wet lands, while they remain so, can not be 
brought up by lime. 
Our system of tillage is a constant rotation of 
crops. Our fields of winter grain we always put 
down in clover in the spring; this we mow the 
following year, and the next spring plant it with 
com. If not sowed with winter grain, as soon as 
the com is cut (a practice on the increase), it is 
sowed the next spring with oats or barley, and 
clover-seed; this the following year is pastured or 
suffered to grow to be turned under for wheat— 
open fallows are getting out of date. 
The quantity of lime applied at one time varies 
according to the strength of the soil, from 25 to 50 
bushels per acre. The best method of putting it 
on, is to stack it as it is taken out of the kiln in a 
large heap, throwing a few pails of water upon 
the heap occasionally as you are adding to it; in a 
few days after the lime will be found puffed up 
light, and in the proper state for spreading; if it is 
then put on we think it does most good. Some 
throw it on the top in the fall, to be plowed in 
next spring or summer; but the best method is to 
put it on after the last plowing and harrow it in— 
plowing buries it too deep. 
For raising land to a high state of culture, our 
way here has been to crop pretty freely when the 
land is in good heart; clovering after every crop 
of straw, occasionally turning it under green, and 
often suffering it to fall and rot on the surface ; this 
with a sprinkling of lime every two or three years, 
until the quantity amounts to about 80 or 100 
bushels per acre, has invariably succeeded. I 
must not forget, however, that our farmers bestow 
a high value on their barnyard manure, and think 
it indispensable to a heavy crop of wheat. 
Plaster is universally used here upon clover and 
corn, and the advantage of it is undoubted; whether 
greater or less, with or without lime, it is out of 
my power to determine. Ashes made in burning 
lime, are considered about as fertilizing as lime, 
bushel for bushel; but the effect of lime is far 
more permanent. A part of your 4 th and 5th 
questions are yet unanswered. 
