THE CULTIVATOR. 
77 
by the decomposition of the water which the sun’s rays enable the plant 
to effect, viz. the plant is nourished by the hydrogen, and the atmos¬ 
phere is purified by the restoration of its oxygen. Hence living plants, 
as shade trees, about dwellings, are conducive to health, as not only 
adding to the atmosphere oxygen, but as abstracting from it carbonic 
acid gas. But when water and the sun’s rays, or heat, are applied to 
dead vegetables, the reverse takes place, and the surrounding atmos¬ 
phere becomes impure, especially the exhalations from dead vegetables 
at night. Hence autumnal fevers in marshy situations, and often in 
new cleared districts, when the sun is first let in upon dead vegetable 
matters of the forest. 
It is owing to the expansion of water in freezing, that rocks and 
trees are often split during intense frost, and it it is owing to this force 
that in our late severe winters, many of our fruit and other trees have 
been killed—the sap vessels have been burst, and the vitality of the 
tree consequently destroyed. It has been found, that a sphericle, or 
little globe of water-, only one inch in diameter, expands in freezing 
with a force superior to the resistance of 13£ tons weight. 
Though water takes a solid form in its various combinations, such as 
with lime, saline crystals, &c. there is no method of compressing it 
when in a fluid state. 
If water be thrown on quick lime, it will be retained by it with such 
force that nothing less than red heat will separate it. In its combina¬ 
tion with lime it becomes much more solid than when in the state of ice, 
which may be proved by direct experiment. Calcined plaster of Paris, 
in a pulverulent state, becomes quickly solid by mixing it with water. 
Clay, when mixed with water, retains a tenth of its weight of that fluid 
at a heat which would melt iron. 
It should be remembered, that all bodies which are soluble in water, 
form, during their solution, a chemical combination with water, and 
that solutions in water are different from mechanical mixtures. 
OF LIME. 
Bishop Watson found, by experiment, that upon an average, every 
ton of limestone produced 11 cvvt. 1 qr. 4Tbs. of quick lime, weighed 
before it was cold; and that when exposed to the air it increased in 
weight daily at the rate of a hundred weight per ton for the first five 
or six days after it was drawn from the kiln. This fact is worth the 
consideration of those farmers who fetch their lime from great distances ; 
and it is worth the consideration of athe citizens of Albany, who are 
required to buy their lime by weight. 
When quick lime is spread upon arable land, it destroys, by its caus¬ 
ticity, the organization of all animal and vegetable matters remaining 
in the soil, and thus converts them into food for the future crop. In 
like manner lime would also burn up the tender shoots of the fresh 
plants, and sterilize, instead of fructifying the ground ; but nature has 
so ordered it, that, as the lime falls to powder upon the land, it should 
gradually absorb carbonic acid from the atmosphere, which deprives it 
of its causticity, and converts it into chalk.— Parke. 
Marl is a mixture of carbonate of lime, i. e. limestone in its natural 
state, and clay, or sand. Marls are useful in agriculture only in pro¬ 
portion to the calcarious earth they contain. 
The bones of all kinds of animals are formed of lime and phospho¬ 
ric acid, in the proportion of 43 parts of that earth, and 52 of phospho¬ 
ric acid.— Parke. 
Chalks, calcareous marls, or powdered limestones, act merely by 
forming a useful earthy ingredient of the soil, and their efficacy is pro- 
portioned to the deficiency of calcareous matter, which in larger or 
smaller quantities seems to be an essential ingredient of all fertile soils ; 
necessary perhaps to their proper texture, and as an ingredient in the 
organs of plants.— Davy. Most of the United States east of the Alle 
gany range and its spurs, is deficient in calcareous matters in the soil; 
and to this deficiency is to be ascribed, in a great measure, the unsuit¬ 
ableness of many districts for the growth of wheat, for which lipie con¬ 
stitutes a specific food. 
Slaked lime is merely a combination of lime, with about one-third of 
its weight of water; i. e. 55 parts of lime and 17 parts of water; and 
in this case it is composed of a definite proportion of lime to a definite 
proportion of water, and is called by the chemists hydrate of lime ; and 
when hydrate of lime becomes carbonate of lime, by long exposure to 
air, the water is expelled, and the carbonic gas takes its place.— Davy. 
The solution of the question whether quicklime ought to be applied 
to a soil, depends upon the quantity of inert vegetable matter which it 
contains. The solution of the question whether marl, mild lime or 
powdered limestone ought to be applied, depends upon the quantity of 
calcareous matter already in the soil. All soils are improved by mild 
lime, and ultimately by quick lime, which do not effervesce with acids; 
and sands more than clays.— lb. 
When a soil deficient in calcareous matter contains much soluble ve¬ 
getable manure, the application of quick lime should always be avoid¬ 
ed, as it either tends to decompose the soluble matters, by uniting to 
their carbon and oxygen, so as to become mild lime, or it combines with 
the soluble matters, and forms compounds having less attraction for 
water than the pure vegetable substance.—/£>. 
Lime always destroys to a certain extent the efficacy of animal ma¬ 
nures, either by combining with certain of their elements, or by giving 
to them new arrangements. It should never be applied with animal 
'manures, unless they are too rich, or for the purpose of preventing 
noxious effluvia. It is injurious when mixed with any common dung, 
and tends to render the extractive matters insoluble.— lb. 
PLANTING—No. II. 
Of the soils and situations most proper for planting, the treatise 
which we are Consulting, “ Useful and Ornamental Planting,” particu¬ 
larizes— 
1. Exposed waste lands, and those that are steep, rocky and precipi¬ 
tous. The loss to individuals, and to the nation, by such large tracts 
of land lying utterly unproductive, is incalculable. 
2. Lands of better quality, which are unproductive by reason of their 
exposure to bleak winds. Cases are cited, where lands altogether un- 
productice before, have been brought to produce good corn and pasture, 
merely by a judicious disposition and arrangement of belts of trees to 
shelter the ground, and thereby ameliorate the climate. 
3i Where the local soil and climate are good, a scarcity of timber 
exists, or is likely to exist soon, for the periodical wants of agricultural 
and manufacturing operations. Here the planting may be confined to 
the angles of enclosures, belts on the exposed borders of the farm, as 
to the north, north-west and north-east, the bleak points of the farm- 
buildings, the borders of permanent divisions, and the highway side. 
Every soil and climate are naturally adapted to to the growth of par¬ 
ticular species of trees. These indications ofnature should be consulted, 
and trees growing naturally on similar soils in the neighborhood, or 
under a like temperature, should be selected. The work before us 
gives the analysis of various soils which had been planted as woodland, 
and indicates the trees which have flourished best upon each. On a 
sandy heath soil, containing but three parts in 400 of clay, incumbent 
on ferruginous stones, the Scotch fir, (Pinius sylvestris,) birch and 
beech succeeded well, and the last best when the subsoil was a deep 
sand. A poor sandy soil, seven parts in 400 of clay, was found conge¬ 
nial to the growth of the pine, larch, sycamore, &c. A sandy loam, 
with nine parts in 400 of clay, grew the larch and fir tribes luxuriantly, 
and also the beech. On a light sand, incumbent on clay, the oak and 
chesnut did well, and the elm tolerably so. A clay loam, on a clay 
subsoil, brought the oak to the highest state of perfection. On a damp 
clayey soil, incumbent on clay, the oak, elm, ash and horn-beam, at¬ 
tained to great perfection, and the tulip tree (whitewood) grew free 
when the ground was trenched. A rich alluvial marsh soil, containing 
32 parts in 400 of claj', and 40 of vegetable matter, is said to be capable 
of growing all kinds of trees, at least the following were found to thrive 
extremely well, viz. willow, alder, (some of the European species of 
these, grow to trees,) elm, sycamore, ash, locust, birch, oak, horse 
chesnut, Spanish chesnut, horn-beam, lime, &c. 
In selecting trees for a plantation, reference should also be had to 
quickness of growth and value of product. Where it is exempt from 
the borer, these qualities are found eminently combined in the com¬ 
mon locust, (robina pseudo-acacia,) with the further advantage, that it 
multiplies rapidly by its roots. The oak, ash, beech, maple, walnut, 
baswood, plane, chesnut, elm, and many other native decidous trees, 
are rapidly propagated by seed, and afford profitable timber and wood. 
Of the coniferous trees, the seeds of several species of the pine, larch, 
and fir, indigenous and exotic may be readily procured. The Scotch 
pine and larch are particularly of thrifty growth, and are useful in the 
arts and on the farm. 
The relative growth of several kinds of trees, during 17 years after 
planting, is shown below, as ascertained on a plantation of the Duke 
of Bedford, in England, upon a porous soil. The measurement was 
meant to indicate the medium size, individual trees being found much 
larger. The last column of figures shows the height at which the 
several kinds are usually planted out, from nursery beds, in Great 
Britain. 
Girth or circumfe¬ 
rence at 2 leet 
Do. do. at 
Height in in¬ 
ches when 
from the ground. 
7 feet. 
planted. 
Poplar,_ 
.. 37 
inches.... 
... 18 to 36 
Larch,. 
....... 37 do 
.. 32§ 
.. 25| 
.. 26 
do 
6 to 25 
Pine, ...... 
.. 321 do 
do 
6 to 20 
Elm,.... 
do 
9 to 30 
Silver fir,... 
. 281 do ... 
.. 25 
do 
... 8 to 20 
Spruce, ..... 
.. 20 
do 
Chesnut, ..., 
.. 22 
do ... 
Birch,. 
Sycamore,... 
.. 20 
do 
...... 24 do ... 
,. 20 
do 
... 6 to 30 
Beech,.. 
. 23 do ... 
,. 21 
do 
6 to 20 
Oak, . 
. 23 do ... 
,. 13 
do 
6 to 30 
Ash, . 
. 17 
do 
