330 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
tion of water, not from soil being cohered by water. Places on the bor¬ 
ders of water do not become sickly except when the water has quitted 
some part of the surface which it previously overflowed, and the sum- ! 
mer’s sun heats the uncovered soil, and causes the decomposition of 
the remains of all kinds of matter left by the water, and contained in 
the upper layers of the soil. Thus ponds are not unhealthy, except 
when drought, by lowering the waters, leaves extensive margins bare, 
to be acted on by the sun and air. In rainy years, fevers on the bor¬ 
ders of ponds are rare. 
Epidemic diseases most often arise on the borders of marshes laid 
dry—in the neighborhood of mud thrown out of ditches or pits—and 
in the course of bringing new land into cultivation, where the plough¬ 
ed soil is for the first time exposed to the Summer’s sun. In the inte¬ 
rior of Rome, the vineyards, the gardens are remarkably unhealthy— 
while the sickness disappears where the emanations from the soil are 
prevented by buildings. In the Pontine marshes, they cover the dried 
parts with water to arrest the danger of their effluvia. It is then from 
the soil, and not from the waters at its surface, that insalubrious ema¬ 
nation proceed. Waters placed on the surface, always in motion, agi¬ 
tated by every wind, are not altered in quality, and do not become un¬ 
healthy ; but whenever they are contained in some place without power 
to receive exterior influences, or to have motion, they are altered in 
their odor, taste, and consequently injured in relation to health. 
Whenever water then, without covering the soil, penetrates the up¬ 
per layer without being able to run through the subsoil, it remains 
without motion, and stagnant, within the soil—is changed by the sum¬ 
mer’s sun, serves to hasten the putrefaction of the'broken down vege¬ 
table remains in or on the mould, and the exhalations from the ground 
become unhealthy. Thus are all drained marshes, of which the sur¬ 
face only is dry, while the water still penetrates the subsoil—thus, all 
the margins of rivers which have been covered by recent inundations 
of summer, are unhealthy; thus also, (for a great and unhappy ex¬ 
ample,) the argillo-silicious plateaux, whenever the closeness of the 
subsoil does not let the water pass through, produce, in dry years, at the 
close of summer, emanations which attack the health of the inhabitants. 
43. But this unhappy effect appears almost no where in calcareous 
regions: the margins of lakes and ponds there situated do not produce 
the same unhealthiness, and even the marshy grounds there are less 
unhealthy. 
The waters which spring out of, or run over calcareous beds, are al¬ 
ways healthy to drink The borers of Artesian Wells'are anxious 
that the water which they obtain, to be good, may come out of the 
calcareous strata which they go through. When the waters which 
hold carbonate of lime in solution in carbonic acid, run over the surface, 
they give health to the meadows, in changing the nature and quantity 
of the products. . ( 
Linnaeus thought that the unhealthiness of most countries depended 
on the nature of the water, and was owing to the argillaceous parti¬ 
cles which they contain; now these argillaceous particles aie always 
precipitated by the calcareous compounds. For this reason, the waters 
which stand upon, or run over marl or calcareous rock, are almost al¬ 
ways limpid and clear, because the argillaceous particles have been 
precipitated by the effect of the solution in the, water of the calcareous 
principle, which is itself dissolved by an excess of carbonic acid. 
We are not far from believing, then, that throwing rich marl, or 
limestone, into a well of muddy and brackish water, might have the 
effect, in part at least, of clearing it, and making it healthy to drink. 
This remedy, if it should not be as useful as we think, at least could 
not produce any injury. 
Lime, in all its combinations, destroys the miasmata dangerous to 
life. Its chloride annihilates all bad odors, arrests putrefaction, and 
in short, has subjected the plague of Egypt to the skill and courage of 
Parisot. The white wash of lime upon infected buildings, upon the 
walls and mangers of stables, is regarded as serving to destroy the con¬ 
tagious miasmata of epidemic and epizootic diseases. 
Lime destroys the plants of humid and marshy soils, and makes 
those suitable to better soils spring up: then its effects is to give heal¬ 
thiness or vigor to the soil, to dry it, and make it more mellow and 
permeable. The water then is no longer without motion, and altered 
consequently in its condition. The limed soil, then, to the depth it is 
ploughed, ought to change the nature of its emanations as well as its 
products; and if the lower strata or subsoil, send up emanations, these 
effluvia, in passing through the improved layers of soil, where the cal¬ 
careous agent is always at work and developing all its affinities, ought 
also to be modified, and take the character of those of the upper bed. 
The limed soil, then, it would seem, ought to be made healthy. 
But what we maintain here by induction, by reasoning, is fortunately 
a fact of extensive experience. Among all the countries in which lime 
has carried and established fertility, there is not cited, that I know of, 
a single one where intermittent fevers prevail—while they have never 
. disappeared in a country even where an active culture draws good 
products from the impermeable argillo-silicious soil. 
44. To extend the great benefit of healthiness to the whole of a coun¬ 
try, it is no doubt necessary that the whole country should receive the 
health-giving agent. However, on every farm in proportion as liming 
is extended over its surface, the chances of disease will be seen to di¬ 
minish—and the healthiness of the country will keep pace with the 
progress of its fertility. 
RESULT OF THE USE OF IMPROVING MANURES ON THE SOIL OF FRANCE 
IN GENERAL. 
45. Three-fourths of the whole territory of France, to be rendered 
fruitful, have need of calcareous agents. If the third of this extent has al¬ 
ready received them, (which we believe is above the truth,) upon the 
other two-thirds, or the half of the whole, the agricultural products, 
by this operation, would be increased one-half or more, or one-fifth of 
the total amount. But agriculture, in enriching itself will increase its 
power, its capital, and its population ; and will naturally carry its exu¬ 
berant forces, its energies and activity to operate on the greater part 
of the 7,000,000 of hectares of land now [cn friche\ untilled, waste, 
and without product. By bringing these lands into cultivation and fer- 
tilizating them by liming, or by paring and burning the surface, they 
would be made to yield at least one-sixth of the total product. The 
gross product of the French soil, then increased by a third or more, 
might also give employment and sustenance to a population one-third 
greater than France now possesses; and this revolution due succes¬ 
sively to the tillage of the soil, to annual improvements keeping pace 
with the progressive increase of crops, would be insensible. The state 
would grow in force, in vigor, in wealth, in an active and moral popu¬ 
lation, which would be devoted to peace, and to the country, because 
it would,belong.to this new and meliorated soil. And this great result 
would be owing simply to applying calcareous manures to the extent of 
the soils of France which require them- 
46. Upon our extent of 54,000,000 of hectares, our population, in¬ 
creased to 44,000,000, would have for each, one hectare and a quar¬ 
ter, and wouid be less confined than the 24,000,000 of inhabitants of 
the English soil, who have only one hectare to the head; and yet our 
soil is at least as good, and it is more favored by climate. And then our 
neighbors consume in their food at least a fourth or fifth of meat, while 
only one-fifteenth of the food of our population consists of meat; and as 
there is required twelve or fifteen times the space to produce meat as 
bread, it follows that twice the extent of soil is necessary to support 
an Englishman as a Frenchman. Hence it results, that with an in¬ 
crease of one-third, our population would, still have a large surplus pro¬ 
duct which would not exist in England, with an equal increase of popu¬ 
lation and equal increase of products of agriculture. 
But this prosperity of the country, (yet far distant, but towards 
which, however, we will be advanced daily,) would be still much less 
than in the department of the North, where a hectares nearly support two 
inhabitants. And yet they have more than a sixth of their soil in woods, 
marshes, or unproductive lands; ihey have, besides, another sixth, and. 
of their best ground, in crops of commerce, which consume a great part 
of their manure, find which are exported almost entirely. This pro¬ 
digious result is, without doubt, owing in part to a greater extent of 
good soil than is found elsewhere; but it is principally owing there, as 
well as in England, to the regular use of calcareous manures. As we 
have seen, more than two-thirds of this country [the Norih] belongs 
to the class of soils not calcareous, to the argillo-silicious plateaux, and 
makes use of lime, marl, or ashes of all kinds. 
47. After this great result of increased productiveness, that upon 
health, althcugh applied to the least extent of surface, would be most 
precious. Upon one-sixth of our country the population is sickly, sub¬ 
ject to intermittent and often fatal fevers, and the deaths exceed in num¬ 
ber the births. Well! upon this soil without marshes, calcareous ma¬ 
nures would bring a growing population, more numerous than that of 
our now healthy parts of the country—and as labor would offer itself 
from every side, these regions, made healthy, would soon be those 
where the people would be most happy, the richest, and the most ra¬ 
pidly increasing in numbers. 
48. If we are not under an illusion, the calcareous principle and its 
properties upon the soil, form the great compensation accorded by the 
Supreme Author to man, in condemning him to till the earth. Three- 
fourths of our soil, seem not to-produce, except by force of pain and 
labor, the vegetables absolutely necessary for man. On all sides, and 
often beneath surface so little favored, is found placed the substance 
necessary to the soil to render it as fertile as the best ground, to ena¬ 
ble the cultivator to use for his profit the vegetable mould which it con¬ 
tains and has been accumulating for ages—and to cause the entire soil 
to be covered by a population active, moral, and well employed. And this 
precious condiment, this active principle of vegetation, is only needed 
to be applied in small proportions, to obtain products of which the first 
harvest often compensates for all the labor and expense. And to com¬ 
plete the benefit, insalubrity, which afflicts the infertile soil, disappears; 
the new population finds there at the same time strength, riches, and 
jhealth. There, without doubt, is one of the most happy harmonies of 
