THE CULTIVATOR. 
105 
materials is more or less perfect, so does the substance become more 
or less compact, hard, solid, and impervious ; such must be the con¬ 
dition of the soil; and it is but reasonable to suppose that a great 
part of the seed sown upon it must perish.’ 
It may indeed be alleged that the caustic action of quick-lime can 
never be exerted to any great extent, as it attracts fixed air too 
strongly not to become immediately slaked; but its effects are found 
to be powerful even in that short period, provided that it be prompt¬ 
ly and intimately mixed with the soil, for though the land should 
contain an abundance of vegetable matter, yet it it has been injudi¬ 
ciously cropped, or insufficiently manured, the lime will only add to 
its infertility. 
When quick-lime has been deprived of its causticity, it is called 
by chemists, carbonate oj lime, and in that mild state it does not act 
upon animal or vegetable matter with the same violence as quick¬ 
lime, but instead of dissipating any portion of the substance which 
may be contained in the soil, it facilitates its reduction into that state 
by which it the most effectually assists vegetation. Neither has it 
the same tendency to combine, as it were, into a mortar with the 
sand of poor clays. 
Lime, however, whether quick or slaked, when used by itself, with¬ 
out any addition of earth, is not possessed of any vegetative quality: 
thus, ‘seed planted in a flower-pot filled with powdered carbonate 
of lime, regularly watered, vegetated feebly, made little progress, 
and died without coming to perfection; but when partly filled with 
garden-mould, and carbonate offline one and a halfinches thick over 
it, the plants put down their radicles straight through the lime, with¬ 
out ramifying or stretching sideways, till they arrived at the mould.’ 
Even in a mixture where lime was only one-fifth, the plants were 
poor and sickly, and made no progress: and when quick, it, with the 
aid of water, suddenly destroys all vegetable substances. It may 
even be hurtful to vegetation when laid in too large a quantity upon 
very light and warm soils, for, by quickening evaporation, it dries the 
land too much, by which means plants are deprived of the moisture 
necessary to their sustenance; therefore it is that calcareous earths 
are frequently known by farmers as ‘burning soils ;’ and, by its in¬ 
judicious use or repetition, without the aid of animal or vegetable 
manure to supply the nourishment of which they have been deprived 
by crops, the growth of which has been thus forced, land, though ot 
superior quality, may at length become exhausted, Thus experience 
teaches that lime, when applied to land, has different effects upon 
some soils than it has upon others : on many there is a rapid and 
permanent improvement, on others there is less benefit, and on some 
it is said rather to retard than to promote vegetation. 
This is no doubt chiefly influenced by various unascertained pro¬ 
perties in the soil, and partly also by difference in the qualities of the 
lime istelf, arising from its mixture with other earths. 
Whether it possesses any further properties, through the stimu¬ 
lating effects of light and heat upon the vegetable fibre, has been 
conjectured, but has not been supported by any positive fact, and 
seems to be contradicted by the slow effect of effete lime in its ope¬ 
ration upon the soil. It is, however, worthy of remark, that calca¬ 
reous earth is found in the ashes of all vegetables; that it is present 
in a larger proportion in wheat, clover, and some other plants whose 
growth is especially promoted by the use of calcareous manures, 
and many are said not to ripen in ground in which it is entirely 
wanting. We may, therefore, conclude that it is of the highest im¬ 
portance in the process of vegetation, and that an accurate investi¬ 
gation of its mode of action, by enabling us to judge with more cer¬ 
tainty of its powers, would greatly tend to the improvement of agri¬ 
culture. It is indeed much to be regretted that the subject has not 
been more fully investigated, and that some more definite judgment 
has not been framed regarding the properties of lime, the effects of 
which in its application to the soil are exposed to the most contra¬ 
dictory results. Much money has thus been uselessly expended and 
labor thrown away, which, under better information, might have been 
saved; and without scientific analysis of the component parts both 
of soils and of lime, we remain much in the dark regarding their ef¬ 
fects on vegetation ; but, judging from the faint lights with which 
we have been furnished, we shall still endeavor, by comparing sci¬ 
ence with practice, to obtain such instruction as may guide us to an 
economical and useful application of this manure to field culture.— 
British Husbandry .— To be continued. 
“Fortune is as a glass; when she shines she is broken.”— Pub. 
Syr. With its splendor, she also possesses its fragility. 
Vol. I. O 
Household Affairs. 
To Steam Potatoes. —Put them clean washed, with their skins on, 
into a steam saucepan, and let the water under them be about half 
boiling; let them continue to boil rather quickly till they are done 
If the water once relaxes from its heat, the goodness of the potato is sure 
to be affected, and to become soddenedbe the quality ever so good. A too 
precipitate boiling is equally disadvantageous; as the nigher part to 
the surface of the root begins to crack and open, while the centre 
part continues unheated and undecomposed. 
To Make Potato Bread.— Boil the potatoes not quite so soft as 
common, then dry them a short time on the fire, peel them while 
hot, and pound them as fine as possible ; next put a small quantity 
of pearl ash to new yeast; while it is working briskly, add as much 
rye meal or flour as can be worked in. Mix the whole well toge¬ 
ther, but do not add any water to it. After the dough is thus pre¬ 
pared, let it stand an hour and a half or two hours before it is put 
into the oven. Observe it will not require so long baking as regu¬ 
lar flour bread. 
To Make Tomato Catsup. —Boil tomatoes, full ripe, in their juice, 
to nearly the consistence of pulp, pass them through a hair sieve 
and add salt to the taste. Aromatize it sufficiently with cloves, pep¬ 
per and nutmegs. 
To Make Tomato Sauce. —Peel the ripe fruit—if dipped in scald¬ 
ing water the skin readily separates—boil or simmer them in their 
juice, without water, until the moisture is sufficiently evaporated, 
and season with salt. A little crumb of bread, or pulverized crack¬ 
er may be added. 
[The tomato may be raised in every garden. They make a plea¬ 
sant sauce for meats, and habit soon renders them very desirable. 
They are said to promote health by removing biliary obstructions.] 
To Make Rhubarb Pies .—Peal the leaf stalks of the rhubarb, and 
cut them in half inch pieces, lay them on the crust as you would 
gooseberries, currants or other fruit; and strew over a plenty of su¬ 
gar, a little orange peal, and, if you like, some nutmeg, and then co¬ 
ver and bake. 
[Several varieties of the rhubarb are used for pies and tarts. They 
are equal to the gooseberry for this purpose, and resemble this fruit 
very much in flavor. The rhubarb is a perennial herbaceous plant, 
with leaves larger than the burdock, is raised with little trouble, and 
may be used most of the summer. In rich ground a single root will 
afford materials for a dozen or more pies. The seed ripens in Au¬ 
gust, and is best sown as soon as it is gathered, though it keeps good 
till the following year. It may be readily transplanted in fall or 
spring. I have used a new and superior variety this year, the seed 
ot which came to mein July 1833, enclosed in a horticultural publi¬ 
cation from London. It was immediately sown, and last spring 
transplanted.] 
Dutch Pudding. —Cut a round piece out of the bottom of a loaf, 
and put that and the piece that was cut out into a quart of cold new 
milk, in the evening, and let it stand all night. If the milk is all 
soaked up by morning, add some more. Put the piece in the bot¬ 
tom again, tie the loaf up in a cloth, and boil it an hour. Eat with 
sugar, or with melted butter, white wine and sugar sauce. 
Apple Jelly. —Take of apple juice strained 41bs. sugar 1 lb. Boil 
to a jelly. 
Miscellaneous. 
From the Montreal Daily Advertiser. 
THE WHEAT-FLY. 
Sir, —In a paragraph which appeared in your Courier of Friday 
last, copied from the Sherbrooke Advocate, the damage to the kernel 
of wheat in the ear of the growing crop, has been attributed to the 
insect called weevil. This surely is a mistake, the weevil is a very 
different sort of insect from that which has damaged the wheat in 
this neighborhood. 
The Encyclopaedia of Agriculture describes the wheat-fly, which 
has been one of the greaest enemies to the wheat crop in Scotland 
of late years, and I have every reason to suppose it is the same spe¬ 
cies of fly that has caused the injury to wheat this summer. 
The following article is from the Encyclopedia: —In the modern 
nomenclature, °the Rev. W. Kirby informs us that the wheat-fly, 
ormerlv the Tipula tritici of Linnaeus, is now the Cecidomyia tritici: 
and the Hessian fly the C. destructor. The wheat fly generally 
makes its appearance about the end of June ; and according to the 
