THE CULTIVATOR. 
55 
manure of different kinds, of mixtures of earths, of calcined clay: 
and finally, of paring and burning the turf, and the different ques¬ 
tions which peat presents in agriculture. 
OF LIMING—-ON THE USE OF LIME FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SOIL. 
1. Among the immense variety of substances, and of combina¬ 
tions which compose the upper layers of the globe, the earthy sub¬ 
stances, silex, alumine, and lime, form almost exclusively the sur¬ 
face soil: the greater portion of other substances being unfit to 
aid vegetation, they ought to be very rare, upon a surface where 
the Supreme Author willed to call forth and to preserve the mil¬ 
lions of species of beings of all nature, which were to live on its 
products. 
It was also a great benefit to man, whose intelligence was to be 
exercised upon the surface of the soil, to have so few in number 
the substances proper to support vegetation. The art of agricul¬ 
ture, already so complex, which receives from so many circumstan¬ 
ces such diverse modifications, if there had been added new ele¬ 
ments much more complicated, would have been above the reach 
of human intelligence. 
2. But among these substances, the two first, silex and alumine, 
form almost exclusively three-fourths of soils; the third, the car¬ 
bonate of lime, is found more or less mixed in the other fourth: all 
soils in which the latter earth is found, have similar characters, 
producing certain families of vegetables which cannot succeed in 
those in which it is not contained. 
The calcareous element seems to be in the soil a means and a 
principle of friability. Soils which contain calcareous earth in 
suitable proportions, suffer but little from moisture, and let pass 
easily, to the lower beds, the superabundant water, and consequent¬ 
ly drain themselves with facility. Grain and leguminous crops, 
the oleaginous plants, and the greater part of the vegetables of 
commerce, succeed well on these soils. 
It is among these soils that almost all good lands are found. Ne¬ 
vertheless, the abundance of the calcareous principle is more often 
injurious than useful. Thus it is among soils composed principally 
of carbonate of lime that we meet with the most arid and barren, 
as Lousy Champagne, part of Yonne, and some parts of Berry. 
3. The analysis of the best soils has shown that they rarely 
contain beyond ten per cent of carbonate of lime; and those of 
the highest grade of quality seem to contain but from three to five 
per cent. Thus the analyses of Messrs. Berthier and Drapiez, 
show three per cent of it in the celebrated soil of the environs of 
Lille. 
4. But all these properties, all these advantages, all these pro¬ 
ducts, calcareous manures bear with them to the soils which do not 
contain the calcareous principle. It is sufficient to spread them in 
very small proportions: a quantity of lime which does not exceed 
the thousandth part of the tilled surface layer of soil, a like pro¬ 
portion of drawn ashes, or a two-hundredth part, (or even less) of 
marl, are sufficient to modify the nature, change the products, and 
increase by one-half, the crops of a soil destitute of the calcareous 
principle. This principle, then, is necessary to be furnished to 
those soils which do not contain it; it is then a kind of condiment 
disposed by nature to meliorate poor soils, and to give to them fer¬ 
tility. 
ANCIENT DATE OF THE USE OF LIME. 
5. Lime, as it appears, has long ago been used in many coun¬ 
tries. However, nothing proves thal its effect was well known to 
the Greeks and Romans, the then civilized portion of mankind. 
Their old agricultural writers do not speak of the use of lime on 
cultivated lands, nor on meadows. Pliny, the naturalist, tells us 
however, that it. was in use for vines, for olives, and for cherry 
trees, the fruit of which it made more forward: and he speaks of 
its being used on the soil generally in two provinces of Gaul, those 
of the Pictones and iEdui, whose fields lime rendered more fruit¬ 
ful. The agriculture of the barbarians was then, in this particu¬ 
lar, more advanced than that of the Romans. After that, all trace 
of the use of lime in agriculture, is lost for a long time—whether 
that it had ceased to be used, or only that the notice of it was 
omitted by writers on agriculture. The trace is again recovered 
with Bernard Pallissy, who recommends the use of it in compost 
in moist lands, and speaks of his use of it in the Ardennes. Near¬ 
ly a century later, Olivier de Serres, advises its employment in the 
same manner, and reports that they made use of it in the provinces 
of Gueldres and Juliers [in Belgium.] He makes no mention of 
its use in France: but as the practices of agriculture were not 
then much brought together, and were but little known, it may be 
believed that at that time, Flanders, Belgium and Normandy made 
use of lime. 
In England, liming seems to have been in use earlier and more 
generally than in France. But then, and in all time since, good 
agricultural practices have remained in the particular countries 
where they were established, without being spread abroad. Now, 
novelties carry no alarm with them—and in the last twenty years, 
liming has made more progress than in the two preceeding cen¬ 
turies. 
Young Men’s Department. 
FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON.—No. V. 
METHOD IN BUSINESS. 
Farm accounts demand your early attention. Keep a daily journal, in which 
note down,—1. All your farm expenses, and all you receive for its products. 
This will enable you to determine your farm income. 2. Note down your 
family expenses. Subtract these, at the end of the year, from the income 
of the farm. The balance will be your annual nett profit. 3. Keep also an 
account of the expense bestowed on each crop, the contents of the ground 
being ascertained, and the lot numbered, and of its products and profits. 
This account may be posted at the close of the year, and will instruct you 
what crops are best adapted to your soil, which are most profitable, what 
rotation is best, and enable you to vary your practice so as best to promote 
your interest and the general improvement of your farm. 4. Note down 
the cost, increase and sale of your farm stock, and its products in cheese, but¬ 
ter, wool, meat, &c. This will show you the relative profits of each. These 
two last items may be posted from your daily journal, if the fields and animals 
are sufficiently designated. And 5. Put down daily, the business and ordinary 
transactions of the farm, and any occurrences that may be deemed worth re¬ 
membering, as matters of reference. All this will occupy you ten or fifteen 
minutes each evening, and when familiar, it will be found an agreeable task, 
and it will assist you very much in regulating your farm concerns. The book 
which I use has three double columns for figures, in one of which, are carried 
out my farm expenses—in another my family expenses, and in the third, the 
moneys received for farm products. A few minutes, at the end of the year, 
suffices to ascertain their aggregate amounts. 
Farm tools and implements should be substantially made, of good pattern, 
kept in order for use, and, when not in use, protected from the weather. A 
slight made implement is likely to break, and occasion a loss of time in getting 
it repaired. A bad pattern is always dearer in the end, whatever be its nomi¬ 
nal price, than a good one. “ It will do well enough for the present ,” should 
never satisfy you. The loss in putting implements in order, at the moment 
they are wanted, often causes serious delay. Besides, they can be put in or¬ 
der at leisure times, or during stormy weather. Exposure to the weather soon 
impairs the value of the best tools. Every implement and tool should have a 
place assigned for it, where it should be deposited, when not in use. It is bet¬ 
ter to spend ten minutes to carry a tool to its place, than to spend sixty, as is 
often the case, in looking for it when it is out of its place. These rules pre¬ 
clude you front habitually lending your tools. There is nothing more vexing 
than to have to send through a neighborhood for one’s tools, when we are in 
immediate want of them. A good farmer will seldom borrow—a bad one will 
seldom buy, as long as he can borrow. Of the tools not in common use on a 
farm, I commend to you particularly the hay or straw cutter. It will enable 
you to save one-quarter of your fodder. The cultivator will soon save its cost 
in the economy of labor it effects, in drilled or hoed crops, and, in most cases, 
is a better implement in this culture than the plough. A revolving horse-rake 
will earn its cost in a season; and a roller is indispensable in good farming. 
The drill-barrow, the corn-sheller, and the potato-hook are also useful and 
economical upon most farms, and the threshing machine upon farms where 
grain is extensively cultivated. 
Early rising. —The farmer’s business, more perhaps than any other, prospers 
by the habit of early rising. As his labors generally terminate with the day; 
there is sufficient time for rest. A farmer’s family should be abroad, or up, by 
five o'clock, at all seasons. The master should set the example. Practice 
will soon render the habit a desirable one. 
INTERESTING FACTS IN CHEMISTRY. 
The creation or destruction of any element is not to be found in the opera¬ 
tions of nature. The numerous phenomena of composition and decomposition, 
which take place upon the surface of the globe, present only changes of com¬ 
binations, which are formed according to fixed, eternal and unchangeable laws. 
Thus nature is regenerated, without being impoverished, and matter experi¬ 
ences only those changes which are produced uniformly and periodically, es¬ 
pecially in organized bodies.— Chaptal. 
A vegetable substance is always acid, whenever the oxygen it contains is to 
the hydrogen in a greater proportion than in water;—it is always resinous, or 
oily, or spirituous, whenever it contains oxygen in a smaller proportion to the 
hydrogen than exists in water;—and if is neither acid nor resinous, but is ei¬ 
ther saccharine or mucilaginous, or analogous to woody fibre or starch, when¬ 
ever the oxygen and hydrogen in it are in the same proportions as in water. 
— Gay Lussac. 
The elements, or matters, of which plants are composed, are almost wholly 
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Whenever the plant dies, and decomposes or 
rots, these elements partially or wholly separate, and enter into new combina¬ 
tions, either animal, vegetable, mineral or eriform. 
