104 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
point of the brisket. They are considered the highest breed of In¬ 
dian cattle. They are used in India by the higher order to draw 
their state carriages, and are much valued for their size, speed and 
endurance, and sell at very high prices. They will travel 15 or Id 
hours in a day. at the rate of six miles an hour. A pair reached 
England in 1821). Two calves have been bred from them, and a milch 
cow is now (1833) in calf by the bull. 
Science of Agriculture. 
LIME 
Is applied to a great variety of uses; it is employed in medicine as 
an anti-acid; mortar is composed of it, when combined with sand; 
and it serves as a manure, which is the only view in which we now 
have to regard it. When used far the purpose of agriculture, it is 
formed by exposing the substances we have mentioned to a certain 
degree of heat in the furnace, or kiln, of. the lime-burner. When 
this has been continued for a sufficient length of time, their weight 
becomes considerably diminished, though they retain their former 
shape and bulk; and either limestone or chalk, when thus reduced, 
is in most places known by the name either of lime-shells, or shell- 
lime, or simply shells. In this state it is called quick-lime: the ma¬ 
terials of which it is thus composed possess hardly any active pro¬ 
perty, hut when burned, it then becomes caustic to the tongue, and 
effects the speedy decomposition of most vegetable and animal bo¬ 
dies. When applied in this form—either in the way of compost, or 
spread over the soil by itself—it is so far from affording nutriment 
to any 'hing that may be there growing, that, were its effects to be 
long continued, it would consume it. But if water be thrown upon 
it, a great degree of heat is in a short time generated; the burnt 
shells begin to crack and burst asunder, and the mass gradually 
crumblesdown or falls, as it is more commonly said, into a fine pow¬ 
der, which becomes white, of whatever color it may have been be¬ 
fore it was calcined. Or when it has been exposed for a short time 
to the influence of the atmosphere, it is also found to lose this caus¬ 
tic power, and it is thus reconverted into a substance of the same 
mild nature as that from which it was obtained—in all its proper¬ 
ties exactly resembling chalk. 
This operation is called slacking, or slaking ; and lime, when de¬ 
prived of its scorching quality, is termed slaked-lime, or, in the lan¬ 
guage of chemists, effete. Instead of watering it in heaps, the prac¬ 
tice which generally prevails is to lay the shells upon a fallow, in 
small hillocks of about a bushel and a half each, either thrown up 
around the circumference of each heap, or covered up immediately 
with some fresh soil made very fine, which, when laid on moderate¬ 
ly thick, should be clapped close down with the back of the spade, 
so as to exclude the admission of either air or rain. In this state it 
may remain for a few days, care being taken during that time to keep 
every part of the heaps tight and sound, when it will be found that 
the moisture of the earth will have completely slaked it. Although 
it may be thought that this covering of the lime is unnecessary, it 
yet has this use—that without it the rain would form crusts over the 
heaps, which would not only prevent the moisture from penetrating re¬ 
gularly thro’ them, but would also hinder them from being pulverized 
without considerable difficulty. It will then be fit for use, and when 
spread over the field, it should be immediately ploughed in with a 
shallow furrow, and well stirred with the harrow in every direction. 
Upon an 18 feet ridge these heaps will be the same distance, or six 
yards asunder, from centre to centre, if about 200 bushels be laid 
on per acre ; and so on when other quantities are applied. Instead 
of slaking the lime in this manner, it has however been recommend¬ 
ed, “ to lay it down in a long heap, or mound, on one side of the 
field on which it is to be applied. Two laborers are then employed 
to turn the mound, and a third waters it. When the whole has thus 
been gone over, it is allowed to lie for four or five days, after which 
it is again lurned, and if any part of the lime should be found to be 
still unslaked, more water is added.” 
From this it will be perceived, that one chief cause which renders 
the burning of lime necessary, arises from the extreme difficulty of 
obtaining the powder without the process of grinding; but by being 
thus more finely divided, it can also be more evenly diffused over the 
soil, with which, therefore, it becomes more evenly mixed, and more 
prompt in its effects upon the land ; and when laid upon it in its hot 
state, it not only occasions the destruction of weeds, but powerfully 
stimulates the action of manure. 
One very strong reason for applying it instantly is, that, if spread 
immediately after being turned, and while yet in a powdry and 
caustic state, a smaller quantity may suffice to cover the whole sur¬ 
face of the ground, and to come into contact witn more minute par¬ 
ticles of the soil; whereas, if suffered to lie for any length of time 
exposed to the atmosphere, it imbibes so much moisture that it runs 
into clods, and can never again be so equally divided into small parts, 
wherefore a much larger quantity is required'to produce the same 
immediate effect. It is in this state, also, that it acts the most pow¬ 
erfully upon- all organic matter, which may be already lying unde¬ 
composed within the soil—insects, the fibres and roots of obnoxious 
plants, and the seeds of weeds, which it dissolves and transforms in¬ 
to mould. It is also more efficacious than effete lime in its influ¬ 
ence upon what is called sour land, though simple chalk, if applied 
in large quantities, will correct the evil. Neither is it improbable 
that, during its process of slaking, the heat which it generates by 
absorption of moisture causes it to swell in a manner which the te¬ 
nacity of the soil cannot resist: thus producing fermentation, it not 
only eventually makes the land mellow, but renders matter which 
was comparatively inert, nutritive, and is probably more beneficial to 
land containing much woody fibre, or animal fibrous matter, than 
any calcareous substance in its natural state.* If, therefore, quick¬ 
lime really possesses superior qualities as a manure, it seems only 
fair to infer that, the greater the strength and vigor of such pro¬ 
perties, the more assuredly will they effect its purpose when in that 
state, than after it has been rendered effete. 
Considerable judgment is however requisite in this mode of its ap¬ 
plication ;. for, although it promotes putrefaction, and converts the 
pulp, or saponaceous substance, of vegetable matter into the food of 
plants, yet, if too great a portion of lime be added, it may have a 
contrary effect; and it always destroys, to a certain extent, the effi¬ 
cacy of animal manures, either by combining with certain of their ele¬ 
ments, or by giving to them some new arrangement. It is necessa¬ 
ry to the reduction of carrion, or for qualifying the noxious effluvia 
of night-soil; but is so injurious, when mixed with any common dung, 
that it tends to render the extractive matter insoluble ; thus, if a 
sufficient quantity of quick-lime be added to a heap of stablc-dung in 
a state of fermentation, it will set it on fire, and the whole will be 
consumed. It should never, therefore, be mixed with farm-yard ma¬ 
nure, unless a small quantity be found absolutely necessary for the 
prompt destruction of seed-weeds, or the decomposition of roots ; 
but when laid upon the land during the same season, the dung should 
be ploughed down alone, and the lime afterwards harrowed in with 
the seed-furrow. 
By neutralizing the acids combined with the mould, this manure 
qualifies the vegetable and other soluble substances also present in 
it, and occasions the whole to be converted, by the influence of the 
atmosphere and of water, into nutriment for plants; but in poor soils, 
having less vegetable matter to convert into mucilage, it acts so 
powerfully as not only to exhaust such land by its final effects, but 
to be prejudicial to the immediate crops.f We have, indeed, the 
opinion of a very experienced farmer, wlio is also well versed in che¬ 
mistry, ‘ that, should much rain immediately succeed the ploughing, 
and any considerable portion of sand be either in the lime or in the 
soil, it is almost a moral certainty that such soil will be in a worse 
state than it was before the lime was put on, because, the moisture 
being retained by the lime and the soil, and the tenacity of the sub¬ 
stratum not suffering the superabundance to pass quickly away, it 
causes the whole to run together, and form a compact and imper¬ 
vious bottom, which before, however, might have been pervious in a 
slow degree. That this must be the case is evident from this con¬ 
sideration,—that quick-lime, mixed with a certain portion of sand, 
and duly moistened, contracts and forms a substance which we call 
mortar, or cement; in proportion, therefore, as the quality of these 
* In its first effect, burnt lime decomposes animal matter, and seems to ac¬ 
celerate its progress to a eapioity of affording nutriment to vegetables ; gradu¬ 
ally, however, the lime is neutralized by carbonic acid, and converted into a 
substance analogous to chalk ; but in this case it more perfectly mixes with 
the other ingredients of the soil, and is more pervadingly diffused, more finely 
divided, than mere chalk, artificially applied .—Sir Humphrey Davy, Eleni. of 
Agric. Chem. led. v'li. 
f ‘ All the experiments yet made render it probable that the food of plants, 
ns it is taken up from the soil, is imbibed by the extremities of the- roots only. 
Hence, ns the extremilies of the roots contain no visible opening, we may con¬ 
clude that the food which they imbibe must be in a state of solution at first ; 
and, in fact, the carbonaceous matter in all active manures is in such a state of 
combination as to be soluble in water whenever a beneficial effect is obtained-* 
— Dr. Thomas Thomson's Chemistry, 2 d edit, vol. v.p. 376. 
