48 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
Another Portable Fence. 
Mr. J. A. Boal, Ventura Co., Cal., seeing 
the portable fence in the December American 
Agmculturist, sends sketches of another 
which is, as he thinks, more convenient: 
“ The posts, fig. 1, 
are made of inch 
boards; the panels, 
fig. 2, are 16 feet 
long, and are made 
of inch boards. The 
bottom space is 2% 
inches; second space, 
8 5 / 3 inches. This is 
pig tight, usually, 
but sometimes it is 
necessary to put a strip in the lower two 
spaces, to keep the little pigs in. Wrought or 
annealed nails are used. The bottom of the 
top board of the panel rests on the top of 
the posts, and the bottom board goes under 
the cross piece of the posts. When the fence 
Fig. 2 .— A SINGLE PANEL. 
is set up it is about 2‘/ a inches from the 
ground. By digging a little for the posts it 
makes a veiy secure fence. The fence can 
be opened at any place by raising up the 
ends of two panels. A convenient way to 
make the panels is to take three “ horses,” 
as long as the panels are high, and put a piece 
of sheet iron on the top of each. Nail strips 
on the side, as shown in figure 8 ; these mark 
where the spaces are to be in the panels. 
Then lay the boards on the “ horses,” and put 
the uprights on the boards directly over the 
“ horses,” thus, when the nails are driven, 
Fig. 4.— THE FENCE IN POSITION. 
they will come in contact with the iron and 
be clinched on the under side. Figure 4 
shows the fence complete, and in position. 
A Poor Beginning.—If a farmer wants 
good horses of his own raising, he must be¬ 
gin at the beginning, and not start—as too 
many do—with an old, wind-broken mare 
that is blind in one eye and lame in two legs, 
simply because she can be bought for a little 
money. For breeding purposes, in nine cases 
out of ten, such an animal is dear at any 
price. A good thoroughbred stallion would get 
from such a mare a colt far better than the 
dam, but her weaknesses and constitutional 
traits will sooner or later become apparent in 
the offspring. “ Like begets like,” is a well 
established law, and a superior animal can¬ 
not come from one decidedly inferior. Only 
from sound and vigorous mares can we hope 
for a race of healthy horses. All raisers of 
horses should make a start in the right direc¬ 
tion by breeding from the best on both sides. 
About Limestone and Lime as Fertilizers. 
No other single topic has recently brought 
so many queries. This is due to the extraor¬ 
dinary claims of parties selling ground Lime¬ 
stone, or making machinery for grinding it. 
Limestone is a most widely distributed min¬ 
eral, one of its purest forms being known 
as marble, and is found almost all over the 
country of various qualities and degrees of pu¬ 
rity. It is a Carbonate of Lime, that is Lime 
combined with Carbonic Acid. If a fragment 
of Limestone is placed in a glass of water, 
and a little strong acid is added, the Carbonic 
Acid is set free, and we see it pass off as 
bubbles rising through the water. Lime¬ 
stone is so slightly dissolved by water that it 
is tasteless. It takes 1,600 parts of water to 
dissolve one part of Limestone. Water, in 
which there is much Carbonic Acid, dissolves 
a considerable amount of Carbonate of Lime. 
If a small piece of Limestone be kept at a 
strong red heat for some hours, it will be 
only about half as heavy as the original 
stone. What has it lost in the burning ? If 
tested with acid, as before, no bubbles of gas 
will be given off. The heat has driven out 
all the Carbonic Acid ; it is no longer a Car¬ 
bonate of Lime, but simply Lime (an oxide 
of the metal Calcium, or Calcic Oxide as the 
chemists have it.) Limestone burned in kilns 
produces Lime, often called Quick-lime. If a 
lump of freshly burned Lime have water 
gradually put upon it, it soon becomes hot, 
in a little while it swells up, cracks and falls 
into a very white powder; though much 
water has been added, the powder is quite 
dry. The water has united with the Lime, 
making a solid, Caustic or Slaked Lime. Lime 
exposed takes up moisture from the air, and 
we have Air-slaked Lime. Slaked Lime with 
enough water forms whitewash, or “ Milk of 
Lime.” On standing, the greater part of the 
Lime will settle, leaving clear Lime-water— 
a saturated solution of Lime; that is, the 
water has taken up all it can dissolve, for 
at ordinary temperature it requires 700 parts 
of water to dissolve one part of Quick-lime. 
If clear Lime-water be placed in a glass, and 
with a straw or pipe-stem the breath be forced 
into it, the Lime-water will soon become 
cloudy, and then milky. Set the glass aside, 
and a fine white powder will settle at the 
bottom, leaving the water clear above. The 
breath contains Carbonic Acid ; this, when 
forced into the Lime-water, unites with the 
Lime, forming Carbonate, the same as un¬ 
burned Limestone, which, being little soluble, 
separates as a white powder. If we continue 
to breathe into the Lime-water after it has 
become milky, it will soon become perfectly 
clear as at the start. The continued breath¬ 
ing supplies more Carbonic Acid than is need¬ 
ed to convert the Lime into an insoluble car¬ 
bonate ; the excess of Carbonic Acid in the 
water re-dissolves the Carbonate. Heating 
this solution drives off the excess of Car¬ 
bonic Acid, and the Carbonate of Lime will 
be deposited again. Carbonic Acid is always 
present in the atmosphere, and when slaked 
Lime is long exposed, it takes up this Acid 
and slowly becomes Carbonate of Lime. 
Why we Use CtwlcU-litne upon the Uand? 
All cultivated plants contain Lime in their 
ashes, and it is considered necessary to their 
proper growth. But as soils generally con¬ 
tain enough Lime, and we apply it for its ac¬ 
tion upon the soil, Lime acts upon and great¬ 
ly aids the decomposition of organic matter in 
the soil. It is thought to neutralise the or¬ 
ganic acids contained in what are called 
“ sour soils.” In a .complicated manner it 
aids in the fixing of Ammonia. It also acts 
upon the inorganic or mineral constituents 
of the soil, and aids in converting them into 
forms in which they can be taken up by the 
plants, especially in liberating Potash from 
its combinations. The effect of Lime upon 
the mechanical condition of the soil is an im¬ 
portant feature. Upon heavy clay soils its 
effect is most marked ; the particles lose 
their adhesiveness, and allow air and water 
to enter. These are the leading effects that 
follow the use of Lime. In view of the claims 
made for ground, unburned Limestone, it is 
an important question how far it can produce 
the above effects. That the unburned Lime¬ 
stone will supply the demands of the plant 
for Lime, that it may slowly neutralize or¬ 
ganic acids, and help the mechanical texture 
of the soil seems very probable. But that 
it will perform one of the most important 
offices, the decomposition of organic matter 
in the soil, and convert that into plant food, 
seems improbable, because the ability of 
Lime to do this depends in a great measure 
upon its avidity for Carbonic Acid, while 
Limestone being already a carbonate, has no 
need of more. That Limestone can not pro¬ 
duce all the effects of Lime is shown by the 
well-known fact that soils underlaid by Lime¬ 
stone, and naturally containing a large propor¬ 
tion of finely divided Carbonate of Lime, are 
as much benefited by the use of Quick-lime 
as are soils deficient in Limestone. The ad¬ 
vertisements of ground Limestone, that we 
have seen, make great use of the experiments 
of one person in Pennsylvania, who states 
that his yield of wheat treated with ground 
Limestone, was more than double that to 
which slaked Lime had been applied. He 
also claims to have found it a much cheaper 
fertilizer than Lime and Bone Dust, and more 
profitable than Guano or Superphosphate. 
These statements have been sent by several 
who ask our opinion. Our “opinion” is, 
that we do not accept as final the results of 
any one experimenter, when they are in 
direct opposition to the accumulated evi¬ 
dence of those whose practice runs through 
many years. In nothing more easily than in 
in agricultural experiments can an effect be 
ascribed to the wrong cause, and when we see 
the fertilizing value of ground Limestone 
placed above Guano or Superphosphate, we 
do not accept it, but await further testimony. 
The Cow “ Coomassie.”—Just after 
that sheet of the paper upon which is page 
55, containing an engraving of the Jersey cow 
“Coomassie,” went to press, we received 
intelligence which shows that others beside 
ourselves held her in high esteem. Mr. E. J. 
Arnold, the leading dealer at St. Heliers, sent 
us a local paper, which contained as a matter 
of news that he had purchased “ Coomassie ” 
of M. Dorey, for an American customer, at 
£210, the largest price ever yet paid on the 
Island for any cow. The assertion that there 
are better animals in America than there are 
