THE CULTIVATOR. 
91 
place was two inches thick about a bunch that was par¬ 
ticularly thrifty.” To avoid the inference made from 
this fact, Dr. Dana says, the lime being on the soil did 
not furnish a sufficiency of lime water or uncombined 
alkali to neutralize the organic acids in the soil below; 
and further, that the small portion of lime that has en¬ 
tered the soil “ has caused the inert vegetable matter to 
become acid in a greater degree than the lime can satu¬ 
rate. It has formed with it an acid salt. In this salt 
sorrel finds its food.” Now I have no means of mea¬ 
suring the quantity of uncombined lime that has been 
dissolved and carried iruto the soil below it, around the 
mouth of this kiln. Large quantities of shells have 
been hauled out and slaked there. Occasionally, the 
lime has laid there for days, before it was carted away. 
It has at no time been wholly taken away. The rains as 
they fell found more or less of uncombined lime lying 
on the surface of the ground. Some of the lime must 
have been washed into the ground by every considera¬ 
ble rain. One would naturally suppose lime enough 
must have sunk into the soil to saturate a pretty large 
amount ol organic acids. But it may be asked Dr. Dana, 
what organic acids were there in this soil, to be neutra¬ 
lized? What inert vegetable matter is there, to become 
acid? The reader is requested to look again at the 
description above given of the soil where this lime was 
laid, and where sorrel grew—-water-worn cobble stones 
and water-washed, coarse [silicious] sand. If vegetable 
matter is there, it must exist in an exceedingly minute 
quantity. If organic acids are there, in any quantity, 
how came they there? I have very lately been to the 
kiln, and will add a further fact. Some young plants of 
sorrel, evidently from seed the past season, were found 
growing near the mouth of the kiln. One plant was 
growing in a body of slaked lime, which appeared to 
have lain long enough to become a carbonate. Tracing 
the roots with the utmost care, I could not follow any of 
them below the lime, which in that particular spot was 
from 6 to 7 inches deep. In short, here was a plant of 
sorrel growing in carbonate of lime, without any ap¬ 
parent vegetable matter. But according to Dr. Dana’s 
theory the spot where this plant was growing must have 
contained organic acids in the form of acid salts. This 
body of lime, laid there warm from the kiln, in an 
uncombined slate, 6 inches thick, was not sufficient to 
neutralize the organic acids contained in, and formed 
from the inert vegetable matters within its own mass. 
Dr. Dana may explain this; probably he can do so satis¬ 
factorily to his own mind, and perhaps to that of others; 
but it is beyond the skill of most of us unlearned 
farmers to make the explanation. This is all I have to 
say upon the soundness of Dr. Dana’s theory. To render 
any further discussion upon this point, by me, profitable 
to your readers, requires a better acquaintance with ag¬ 
ricultural chemistry than I possess. 
Let it be admitted that Dr. Dana’s theory is correct, 
and that if lime enough be applied to the soil it will 
prevent the growth of the sorrel, are there not diffi¬ 
culties in reducing this theory to practice, which farmers 
may find insuperable? And will the application of lime 
be what your correspondent Mr. Billings inquired after, 
the “best method to rid the soil of sorrel ?” According 
to Dr. Dana’s prescription the lime must be applied in 
such a dose as “ fully to neutralize” the organic acids in 
the soil. “If you only partially neutralize, says Dr. 
Dana, you supply the sorrel with its natural food.” Here 
there is one rather serious practical difficulty; that is, to 
know what quantity of lime to apply. It would be a 
great disappointment if the farmer, having been to con¬ 
siderable expense to procure lime to destroy his sorrel, to 
find he had only been supplying the weed with additional 
food—that instead of preventing its growth he had made 
it grow the better. Soils differ much from each other in 
the amount of organic matter which they contain; the 
same soil contains this year more or less than it did the 
last. In order to apply the lime in the precise quantity 
proper to cause the destruction instead of the growth of 
sorrel, it seems necessary to know exactly what amount 
of organic acids exist in the soil, and also the exact 
amount of inert vegetable matter that may be operated 
operation will go in generating acid salts. All this is? 
far beyond the skill of the generality of farmers. 
Here let me state an experiment of my own made some 
years ago, at a time when I held to your doctrine of neu¬ 
tralizing the oxalic acid for the purpose of destroying 
sorrel. There was a piece of ground containing about 
100 square rods, overrun with sorrel. It was concluded 
to give one-half of it a thorough liming. Accordingly 
60 bushels of oyster shell lime, just burnt and directly 
from the kiln, were spread over one-half the piece and 
plowed in. The other half received a dressing of leached 
ashes and stable manure. The whole was planted with 
corn. I could see no difference in the growth of sorrel on 
the two parts. But the corn crop on the limed half was 
nearly ruined. Here then, according to Dr. Dana was 
an under-dose of lime—192 bushels to the acre was an 
under-dose for sorrel, but, as the event proved an over¬ 
dose for corn. Had there been lime enough applied, 
there can be no doubt the sorrel would have disappeared; 
but would not every thing else have disappeared also? 
It may well be questioned whether it is a possible thing 
to apply lime in such quantity as to destroy sorrel, and 
at the same time leave the soil in a state, fertile for 
other crops. It appears to me there is more nicety 
and precision required, in proportioning properly the 
lime to the acids, than can be put in practice out of the 
laboratory, in the coarse manipulations of the field, by 
men untaught in chemistry. Before Dr. Dana’s theory, 
supposing it to be sound, can be made available for the 
farmer’s benefit, it seems necessary that he or some one 
should give us some plain and definite rules for the 
destruction of sorrel by the use of lime—that we may 
know with some degree of certainty, in what quantity 
we are to apply it in the very diverse soils found in our 
country, and in the varied condition of the same soil in 
successive years. Until these rules are furnished, allow 
me to give in answer to Mr. Billing's inquiry, “ what is 
the best method to rid the soil of sorrel,” the result of 
my experience in the matter. Sorrel spreads, as you 
well know, by long stringy roots, running just under the 
surface of the ground. On these roots, for every inch 
or half inch, spring out buds which grow up into 
leaves and stems. The buds are formed principally in 
the spring and fall months—and there is a pause in their 
groicth about midsummer. Plowing the ground and turn¬ 
ing over the roots, while the buds are growing or ready 
to grow, that is in the spring or fall, has no elfect to kill 
them. Hence, putting in a spring crop (not tilled) like 
oats, or a fall crop, like rye or wheat, tends rather to 
spread the sorrel than subdue it. But if the ground is 
thoroughly broke up about midsummer the sorrel is pret¬ 
ty apt to die. Hence a crop of buckwheat, which is 
sown in July is very effectual; but a crop of Ruta Baga, 
sown in the same month, and kept clean with the hoe or 
cultivator, is a still better destroyer of sorrel. For the 
same reason, if the roots of the sorrel are broken, and the 
leaves cut off through Q - month of July , as may be done in 
tilling a crop of cor “ sorrel will generally perish. 
If it comes up from seed, it is as easily killed by hoeing 
as any weed, provided the hoeing be done soon after the 
plant comes up, and before the horizontal roots have be¬ 
gun to run. If the sorrel, in previous years, has gone 
to seed upon the land, it will be necessary to keep it un¬ 
der cultivation long enough for the sorrel seeds in the 
soil to spring up and be destroyed. 
Noyes Darling. 
New-Haven, Ct., Feb. 1, 1844. 
INQUIRIES ABOUT CLOVER SEED. 
A correspondent wishes to know what time it is best to 
sow clover seed on land that is in wheat. We believe 
that it succeeds well, sown either on some of the last 
snows of winter, or soon after the frost is out of the 
ground in the spring, while the soil is soft. 
Another correspondent wishes to know the proper 
quantity of clover seed to be sown to the acre. We 
think the quantity varies from 8 to 12 lbs, or from 4 to 6 
quarts—but the quantity of this seed should be varied 
according to the quantity of other seeds sown with it. 
As to machines for cleaning seed, we refer s H. D.’ to an. 
upon by the lime, and the exact extent to which that I article in our Jan. no. 
