1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
43 
crops from the same acre, and yet we are informed 
that when compared with highly manured pieces 
of land, producing 56 to 58 bushels per acre, this 
“ far exceeded them.” One gentleman, who vi¬ 
sited this crop, exclaimed, when he first saw it, 
This land has been lavishly dressed with ammo- 
niacal manure.” The soil is stated to be a very 
stiff one—-such results could not probably be ob¬ 
tained from any other. The opinion is advanced 
that soil so treated receives a high manuring by 
means of the ammonia absorbed from the atmos¬ 
phere, and which clay eminently possesses the pow¬ 
er of doing ■; but it may be strongly questioned whe-. 
ther all the elements of fertility received in this 
way will be able to keep up the richness of the 
soil perpetually. We have known heavy clay 
lands in Western New-York, yield heavy succes¬ 
sive crops of wheat for a much longer term of 
years than in the experiment above stated, but 
yet the time for deterioration finally came. There 
is no doubt, however, that farmers generally sus¬ 
tain a prodigious loss by a want of the sufficient 
pulverization of heavy soils, which, by the way, 
can be only effected after thorough drainage. 
Use of Lime and Marl. 
The English agriculturists have used lime ex¬ 
tensively, and for a long time, and have acquired 
a great deal of experience relative to its applica¬ 
tion. At a lecture recently given by Professor 
Nesbit, before the London Farmers ’ Club, he sta¬ 
ted a number of ascertained facts, which, briefly 
related, may be Interesting to such of our readers 
as desire information on this subject. In speaking 
of liming and marling , he said it made little dif¬ 
ference, generally, whether calcareous matter was 
applied in the form of chalk disintegrated by frost, 
marl, quick-lime, or disintegrated limestones. 
Limestone is burned, and thus reduced to fine 
powder—-it very soon returns to a carbonate, pre¬ 
cisely the same state as before burning, except 
that its mechanical condition is entirely changed to 
that of fine powder. This, he regards as the chief 
object of burning. For lime acts beneficially for 
many years in a soil, long after all traces of its 
caustic nature have disappeared. 
Some limestones contain considerable quanti¬ 
ties of potash and of phosphate and sulphate of 
lime, which sometimes add much to their value. 
Here analysis becomes of great use. 
As to the rationale of its action, he regards it as 
operoting. in several ways. First, in dissolving the 
alkalies, for the use of growing plants, a result 
which had been found by trying the experiment 
during a period of six months in the laboratory. 
Secondly, in 'effecting a slow decomposition of or¬ 
ganic matter in soils for the same use ; which Is 
strikingly shown by the fact that new land, or new® 
ly broken fields, are altogether the most benefit- 
fed by its action. The same operation takes place 
upon manures in the soil. The ammonia which 
has been absorbed, is fed to plants through the as¬ 
sistance of lime. Hence on hard-cropped land, 
which has been nearly exhausted of organic con¬ 
stituents, lime is of little use.* On the other 
hand, if soils are deficient in lime, even a manur¬ 
ing of guano, will be of little comparative use. 
If you go to such a place as Exmoor,” says 
Prof. Nesbit, u where the land has not been turn¬ 
ed up within the memory of man, and where the 
soil contains only enough lime for a chemist to 
swear by, you will find the use of any other ma¬ 
nure of no avail without it. I have observed my¬ 
self. oh certain parts of that moor, where lime had 
been put, turneps were splendid; but the instant 
you passed the line up to which the lime had been 
applied, the crop entirely failed. If you were to 
take a handful of slaked lime, and inscribe your 
name on the soil, you would be able to trace, three 
or four years after, the exact spot where it was 
marked.” He quotes the old proverb as contain¬ 
ing much truth— 
ec The use of lime without manure 
Will always make the farmer poor.” 
He states, (what has also been discovered in 
this country,) that there may be a complete ab¬ 
sence of lime in soils resting upon limestone—and 
mentions cases where the limestone has been with¬ 
in six inches or a foot of the surface, and not the 
thousandth per cent of lime in the soil itself • and 
adds that in some of the south-eastern counties 
they are actually chalking the Chalk Downs to 
great advantage. -—o— 
Large and Small Potatoes. 
IF. R. Coppock, of Buffalo, well known to the 
horticultural public, in his late address before the 
Erie County Agricultural Society, gives his views 
and states the following facts, which we believe 
will full} 7 , accord with general experience, always 
excepting the influence of drouth, which in some 
instances will wither and dry up small portions of 
u seed” potatoes, before they have imparted suf¬ 
ficient moisture to the young plant, and which is 
the reason why uncut potatoes are sometimes the 
best■ 
It has been a mooted question in growing potatoes, 
whether it was an essential, as with other seeds to plant 
the finest and best matured tubers for seeds, adopting the 
maxim that ee like produces like.” This point I feel 
satisfied I have fully tested, and as it is one of pecunia¬ 
ry interest to the farmer, I take this opportunity of de¬ 
claring the results of my numerous experiments. In the 
first place we have erred in' supposing the tuber to be 
true seed, which it is not; the seed being in the ball. 
The potato or tuber being merely the underground root, 
* Prof. N. also states that lime is of no value on undrained 
land. 
