156 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
soils which must be attended to in order to insure success. 
Almost all soils, however, contain more or less of this sub¬ 
stance, and it is remarked by Professor Low, that it “gene¬ 
rally, though not always, exists in larger quantities in the 
better, than in the inferior soils.” None of these remarks, 
nevertheless, by any means favor the employment of lime 
upon calcareous soil, in addition to which the plea of not be¬ 
ing able to succeed without it, will be shewn to be untena¬ 
ble, when we are treating of the “Economy of Manure;” 
consequently we may rest assured that Mr. Young’s remark 
is perfectly true, namely, that the quantity of lime must be 
judged by a chemical analysis of the soil. 
Lastly, the farmer must always bear in mind that neither 
hot nor mild lime can act as a manure until it has become con¬ 
verted into carbonate or humate, and consequently that the fer¬ 
tilizing effect of these substances are produced at the expense 
of the organic matter previously existing in the soil; so that al¬ 
though lime is directly useful by calling into activity other¬ 
wise inert matter, nevertheless it undoubtedly exhausts the 
soil by so doing, and this of course should make the farmer 
cautious about repeating it too frequently; and he must be 
particularly careful lest he mistake the dimunition of the pro¬ 
ductive power of soil, caused by the too frequent application 
of lime, for a proof that more lime is required, as in this way 
there is no doubt that many agriculturists have as it were 
poisoned their fields, by the very means by which they had 
hoped to effect a cure. The two apparently opposite effects 
of lime must also be born in mind, namely, that although it 
increases the solubility of inert vegetable matter, still it ren¬ 
ders much less soluble those parts of the organic constituents 
of soil which have already become capable of solution. 
Carbonate of Lime or Chalk— This differs from limestone 
merely in its being of a much softer texture, and hence capa¬ 
ble of being broken down with greater facility. In its action 
it differs entirely from the last substance; thus it has no ef¬ 
fect whatever upon inert vegetable fibre, and I should very 
much doubt whether it is in all cases capable of uniting with 
humic acid, so as to render the soluble parts of the manure 
less prone to decomposition. Its action, however, is never¬ 
theless most beneficial; for example; it tends greatly to alter 
the texture of the soil to which it is applied, and possesses 
likewise the very useful property of being retentive of water, 
without at the same time becoming adhesive; consequently, 
it can be used with the greatest advantage both to clays and 
sands, under certain circumstances. If, for example, you 
wish to open the texture of a clay, and render it more fria¬ 
ble, but at the same time are not desirous of diminishing to 
any considerable extent its retentive powers, you cannot do 
better than apply chalk; and again, if you are anxious to in¬ 
crease the absorbent power of a sand without at the same time 
adding to its tenacity, a good dressing of chalk will in most 
cases produce the desired effect. The advantages of chalk as 
a top dressing to meadows is far too well known to require 
any notice here. It is, however, by no means easy to under¬ 
stand its mode of action, except there were an actual want 
of that substance in the land previous to its application; in 
which case, of course, the good effects could be explained 
upon the principle adhered to throughout all these observa¬ 
tions upon Agricultural Chemistry, namely, that we can never 
expect to be successful in the cultivation of any plant, unless 
we supply it with all the ingredients, whether organic or mi¬ 
neral, which it contains when growing in a state of nature, 
upon a soil of its own choosing, if we may so express it; 
the importance of which remark, in reference to chalk, will 
at once appear, when it is considered that scarcely a plant 
exists which does not contain more or less of this substance. 
As the total want of chalk, however, is a very rare occur¬ 
rence in soil, we must look to other modes of action, in order 
to explain the frequent beneficial effects which result from 
top-dressing grass with this substance; and I may here pre¬ 
mise, that this subject is one upon which extremely little is 
known at present, and consequently we can do little more 
than make a few conjectures regarding the various possible 
modes of action; these, nevertheless, may be of use in di¬ 
recting the attention of those who should wish to examine 
the subject to certain points which they might otherwise be 
apt to overlook. 
It will be remembered, that, in enumerating the various 
constituents of soil, in the first number of this series, I had 
occasion to mention iron as a constant ingredient of soil, al¬ 
though I at the same time observed that it seldom occurred 
in any considerable quantity in fertile soils. All my agricul¬ 
tural readers must be well acquainted with the fact, that, when 
this substance, by any means, becomes soluble in water, it 
is most prejudicial to vegetation of all kinds. Now, it is ex¬ 
tremely probable that this fact will be found of great conse¬ 
quence in explaining some cases, at least, in which the bene¬ 
ficial effects of chalk have been observed. There is no prac¬ 
tice more common (and I by no means wish to censure it) 
than the top-dressing of old pasture-land with farm-yard dung 
at the interval of a certain number of years; but all animal 
matters contain more or less sulphur, so that whenever these 
substances undergo decomposition, sulphuretted hydrogen is 
always one of the products. Now, it is well known to che¬ 
mists that when sulphuretted hydrogen and oxide of iron (the 
form in which iron exists in the soil) come into contact, a 
mutual decomposition takes place, and there results water, 
and sulphuret of iron. This compound, however, is of itself 
insoluble, so that were no further change to take place, no 
harm whatever would accrue from this chemical combination; 
but unfortunately this is not the case, for the sulphuret of iron, 
by exposure to air, gradually undergoes an entire change, and 
is at length converted into a very soluble substance, namely, 
sulphate of iron, or common copperas, or green vitriol as it is 
termed. In this manner, we perceive that, in the progress 
of time, the application of farm-yard dung or any other ani¬ 
mal manures to soils rich in iron, renders this substance solu¬ 
ble, in which state, as before mentioned, it is exceedingly 
prejudicial to vegetables. How, then, is this to be remedied? 
or how is it that this does not always take place ? In soils 
rich in calcareous matter, although the change does take 
place, it is of no consequence whatever, for as soon as the so¬ 
luble sulphate of iron is formed, it is acted upon by the car¬ 
bonate of lime, and the results are sulphate of lime or gypsum, 
and oxide of iron, or in other words the iron is restored to its 
original inoffensive state; but where there is not sufficient lime 
in the soil, as for instance, where there is a large quantity of 
iron, this substance must be added; the form of chalk being 
of course preferable, as in this case no action upon the vege¬ 
table fibre of the soil will be required. When such intricate 
and important chemical changes are constantly going on in 
the soil, and when it is considered that, unless the remedy is 
at hand, the very food given to the plants carries poison with 
it, and consequently, that unless checked by proper means 
many valuable pastures would be rendered useless. Who 
will deny the importance of chemistry to the farmer? or who 
will dare to say that practice alone acts more certainly, though 
more slowly than when aided by science 1 Surely it must be 
evident to every thinking mind, that the practice of agricul¬ 
ture would be upon a much surer basis, were all its votaries 
acquainted with the principles upon which their art was 
founded. And if so, why is there such an apathy evinced 
by the supporters of this all-important art to the advancement 
and cultivation of its science ? To be sure, a slight stir of 
late has been made among some of the leading societies con¬ 
nected with agriculture, but with what effect who can tell? 
and the reason of this is obvious,—the majority of the agri¬ 
cultural population are by no means devoted lo reading, and 
consequently, though all the agricultural societies in Great 
Britain were to publish upon the subject, it would be long 
ere the farmers became acquainted with the fact. To do 
good they must have the advantages of the science laid be¬ 
fore them practically, and this can be done only by the esta¬ 
blishment of experimental farms under the direct superinten¬ 
dence of both a practical and a scientific farmer; or by the 
formation of agricultural schools, in which the youth intend¬ 
ed to follow such pursuits shall be properly instructed in the 
principles which should guide them in the prosecution of 
their business. That some such decided step will be imme¬ 
diately taken by those capable of rendering its success a com¬ 
parative certainty, is the most ardent wish of the author of 
these papers. 
Marl. —This substance naturally comes under our conside¬ 
ration here, as it is generally allowed that marls are valuable 
in direct proportion to the quantity of calcareous matter which 
they contain. The marls most common in England are the 
clay, stone and shell marls; they are in general composed, 
similar to soil, of silica, alumina, carbonate of lime, and fre¬ 
quently oxide of iron, so that, in fact, they might be compar¬ 
ed to calcareous soils. The carbonate of lime varies from 
20 to 80 per cent. One of the best clay marls quoted by Ar¬ 
thur Young was composed of carbonate of lime 40 per cent, 
alumina 40, silica 8 or 10, and a distinct trace of iron. The 
action of this substance is, of course, in the main similar to 
chalk, but the clay marls are likewise very beneficial in giv¬ 
ing tenacity to loose sands. There are two or three points 
to be borne in mind with reference to the application of this 
substance, which we shall here mention. 
First, And this is of great importance, marls are often 
very injurious when applied to the soil immediately after 
they are dug; whereas this effect is completely prevented by 
allowing them to remain exposed to the air for a certain length 
of time, as, for example, by placing them in a heap and turn¬ 
ing it frequently. I have never been able to find any attempt 
to explain this very curious fact, and I candidly confess that 
I do not know how to account for it. The fact, however, is 
universally acknowledged, and that the only probable plan 
of discovering the cause of the injurious effect would be to sub¬ 
ject specimens, wherein the evil was known to exist, to care¬ 
ful chemical analysis, and. in this manner, discover in wh-at 
particular they differ from others which do not possess this 
injurious property. An investigation of this sort is, howev¬ 
er, far too delicate to be performed by any person who does 
not possess a thorough knowledge of chemistry, and I should 
therefore recommend the proprietors of marl-pits of this de¬ 
scription to employ a professional person to discover the 
cause of the injury, as in all probability such discovery would 
point out some means of cure, which would require much 
less time and trouble,—those invaluable commodities,—than 
the process by exposure above referred to. 
Secondly, The farmer must always bear in mind that marl 
acts merely on account of the carbonate of lime it contains, 
unless it is added for the express purpose of altering the tex¬ 
ture of the soil, as, for example, when applied to very light 
sands, in which case it will act beneficially, even although 
the land should not be in actual want of calcareous matter. 
In this instance, however, pure clay would answer as well, 
and be more advantageous, inasmuch as the whole quantity 
carried will be of value, whereas if marl were used, about 
one-third of the quantity would consist of chalk, which, in 
this instance, would be of no value. On the other hand, 
marl is of course far inferior to chalk or lime for clay land; 
this fact seems well known to farmers, as will be seen by the 
following rhymes, which occur in a paper upon peat, pub¬ 
lished by the Rev. Dr. Walker in the Transactions of the 
Highland Society for 1803. In speaking of the application of 
marl as a manure, he observes that the Lancashire farmer 
says, 
“ If you marl sa id you may buy land, 
“ If you marl moss you shall have no moss, 
“ If you marl clay you throw away all.” 
Lastly, When marl, or any other substance dug from be¬ 
low the surface of the ground, and used in large quantities, 
is applied, the farmer must always recollect that surface-soil 
alone contains organic matter, and that fresh subsoil has the 
power of combining chemically with a considerable quantity 
of soluble manure, and rendering it much less decomposable, 
so that, unless the soil is rich in manure at. the time of appli¬ 
cation, the farmer must not expect to see any marked im¬ 
provement immediately after he has applied the marl; nor 
should he condemn the practice even although the first crop 
should be somewhat inferior to those before the marl was 
used. 
Gypsum, or sulphate of lime. This substance more proper¬ 
ly belongs to a class of manures, which are at present very 
little known among farmers, but which I trust will soon at¬ 
tract that degree of attention that they undoubtedly merit; I 
mean those which the ingenious Mr. Grisenthwaite denomi¬ 
nates specific manures, by which term is implied, that the sub¬ 
stance in question does notact as organic manure, by supply¬ 
ing organized matter to the plant, nor as many mineral ones, 
by acting chemically upon the vegetable fibre of the soil; but 
owe their beneficial effects to their power of supplying the 
plants with certain saline combinations which are essential to 
their perfection, and are for the most part peculiar to the 
plant itself, or, in other words, belong to a few plants only. 
Upon this very interesting topic we have frequently had oc¬ 
casion to throw out a few hints, but have not hitherto made 
any express remarks, as we considered that they would be 
much more suited for this place. The subject being, almost 
entirely new, is at present in a very imperfect state, and the 
subsequent remarks will serve merely to direct the farmer’s 
attention to the point, and I sincerely hope they may be the 
means of inducing some one to follow out the work in the 
only way in which it can be achieved, namely, by chemical 
analysis. 
It has been proved by chemical analysis, that many plants, 
probably all, contain some saline substance peculiar to them¬ 
selves, and consequently of great importance to the well- 
fare of the plant. These salts are frequently of a kind which 
by no means constantly occur in soil, as for example, phos¬ 
phate of lime, sulphate of lime, nitrate of potass, fyc. and, of 
course, the plants which require these cannot be expected to 
thrive under such circumstances, unless they are supplied 
artificially with the required substance. It comes, therefore, 
to be a point of the greatest, consequence to the farmer, that 
a very careful analysis should be made of all the cultivated 
plants, in order that the exact constitution of the saline mat¬ 
ter should be ascertained, and in this manner the farmer will 
be enabled, in many instances, to grow plants in situations 
which probably could never before be made to bear them 
profitably. For example, to apply this remark to the specific 
manure now under consideration. Gypsum has been the sub - 
ject of several experiments, in order to ascertain its value as 
a manure, the results of which prove that it is often useful 
for grasses, aud always valuable for clover, saintfoin, lucent, 
and analogous leguminous plants. Now these are the very 
plants whose saline matter contains abundance of sulphate of 
lime. Sir Humphrey Davy’s remarks upon this subject are 
truly valuable. He says, for example, that most grasses, es¬ 
pecially meadow fox-tail, cocksfoot and florin, contain gypsum; 
and he observes that the application of this manure would 
probably be of great value in restoring lands which have been 
exhausted by frequent clover crops and the like. The reason 
why this substance is not constantly required is, that most 
soils contain a little of it, but more especially because all ani- 
mal manures have a certain proportion of this substance, and 
therefore, cultivated land seldom requires any to be added to 
it. On the other hand, however, it is well known that there 
are few crops so uncertain as the clover crop, and conse¬ 
quently it would be of great importance to ascertain how far 
this failure may depend upon the want of sulphate of lime, 
as, of course, that could be prevented with the greatest ease. 
There is one point to be attended to with reference to the use 
of gypsum, namely, that is is apt to fail in some cases where 
a farmer would least expect it, namely, in soils rich with ani¬ 
mal manures; chemically, however, this is just what we 
should have been led to expect; because, during the decom¬ 
position of animal matters, carbonate of ammonia is produced, 
which reacts upon the sulphate of lime, and produces sulphate 
of ammonia and carbonate of lime, neither of which are ca¬ 
pable of supplying the place of gypsum as a specific manure. 
It is stated that gypsum is particularly useful when it is in¬ 
tended to cut the crops green, as it makes the plants renew 
their shoots much more vigorously than they otherwise do. 
Annual Address, 
Before the Kentucky State Agricultural Society—delivered at 
the Capitol in Frankfort, January 14, 1839, on the dignity 
of the profession of agriculture, and the propriety of legis¬ 
lation for its improvement. 
BY COL. C. S. TODD, OF SHELBY. 
( Concluded.) 
Agriculture constitutes the business of seven-eights of every 
civilized community, and is the ultimate source of all na¬ 
tional power and wealth, commerce and manufactures being 
only subordinate results of this main spring. If it be con¬ 
ceded that it is the duty of the legislator to consult the good 
of the greatest possible number in the community, the trans- 
cendant claims of this class will not be questioned; and tak¬ 
ing for granted that the condition of our agriculture admits 
of improvement, and that such improvement will lead to the 
receipt of greater revenue, there will be no difficulty in ob¬ 
taining an assent to the proposition that the state is bound to 
elevate the standard of good farming. This high object has 
been effected in some of our sister states and in some por¬ 
tions of Europe, by the endowment of agricultural societies 
of Europe, by the endowment of agricultural societies and 
of agricultural professorships in colleges, to induce experi¬ 
ments and impart scientific knowledge in all the branches of 
farming. These measures have been adopted with the hap¬ 
piest results—those who originated them having concurred 
in the opinion of Sir John Herschel, the great astronomer, 
that “ the arts cannot be perfected till their whole processes 
are laid open: they are the application of knowledge to a 
practical end; if this knowledge be experience, reasoned upon 
and brought under general principles, it is scientific art.” 
The advances made in agriculture by the Romans, so beau¬ 
tifully illustrated by their poets and orators, shared the fate 
of other improvements that were buried in the dark ages, and 
it was not until after the revival of letters that the present 
system of farming commenced in Flanders about 800 years 
ago; and although the soil was originally a barren white 
sand, it now yields twice as much as the lands in England. 
The practicability of creating soil is shown in the history of 
Flemish husbandry. They seem to want nothing but a space 
to work on, whatever was the quantity or the quality of the 
soil, they made it productive. Itis their maxim, that “with¬ 
out manure there is no corn—without cattle there is no ma¬ 
nure—and without grain crops or roots, cattle cannot be kept.” 
The productiveness of their lands proceeded from six causes 
—small farms, manure, rotation of crops, clover and roots, 
cutting the forage and grinding the grain—and the farmers 
giving their personal attention to their farms; no lumbering, 
no fishing, no speculation, no hankering after office. It the 
personal digression be pardonable, I will refer in connexion 
with this subject, to an incident which occurred in my own 
history when entering upon the cultivation of the soil. In 
conversing with an experienced farmer, I was led to inquire 
as to the best mode of making corn. He told me that I must 
keej) my work horses fat» I did not then perceive the com- 
prehensive character of his counsel, but have long since 
realized that it implies every thing connected with good cul¬ 
tivation, although neither he nor 1 then knew that Cato, one 
of the most illustrious of the R,omans, 2000 years ago, had 
announced that “ the true secret of farming consists in feed¬ 
ing well.” . , t. . . 
The great Von Timer first introduced into Prussia, under 
the auspices of the sagacious Frederic, the agricultural schools, 
