THE CULTIVATOR. 
101 
and at every renewal of the rotation, or upon the crop of spring grain. It is 
also in regular use in this country, still more than in Belgium, upon the mea¬ 
dows on cold pasture lands, which do not receive the waters of irrigation. It 
warms the ground and increases and improves its products. The older the 
compost is, the greater its effect, which lasts from 15 to 20 years, at the end of 
which time the dressing is renewed. 
14. The timings of Normandy, the most ancient of France, are kept up in 
the neighbot hood of Bayeux, w hile elsew here they are forbidden in the leases 
however, now they go overall the surface which has need of them; but in 
f ilace of being applied immediately to the soil, as in the ancient method, the 
ime is almost always put in compost. 
LIMING- OF LA SARTHE. 
15 Of the mode of using lime, that of La Sartlie seems preferable. It is 
at once economical and productive, and secures the soil from all exhaustion. 
It is given every three years, at each renewal of the rotation, in the average 
quantity of 10 hectolitres to the hectare,* in compost mnde in advance, with 
seven or eight parts of mould, or of good earth, to one of lime. They use 
this compost on the land for the autumn sowing, and placed alternately with 
rows of f .rmyard manure. This method, of which the success is greater from 
day to day, is extending on the great body of flat argilo-silicious lands, which 
border the Loire ; and it would seem that this method ought to be adopted 
every where, on open soils that permit surplus waler to drain off easily.—On 
very moist soils the dose of lime ought perhaps to be increased. 
YV e would desire much to inculcate with force the suitableness, and eminent 
advantages, of using at the same time lime and [alimentary! manure. Here 
they do better still, in using at the same lime a compost of lime with earth 
and dung. In addition, during the half century that the Manceaux have been 
liming, the productiveness of the soil has not ceased to increase. 
16. The countries of which we have spoken, are those of France in which 
liming is most general. However, more than half the departments, I think, 
have commenced the use, and in a sixth, or nearly, it seems to be established. 
Doubtless, the first trials do not succeed every where. There is required a 
rare combination of conditions for new experiments, even w hen they have 
succeeded, to induce their imitation by the great mass. Still, successful re¬ 
sults are multiplied, and become the centres of impulse, from which meliora¬ 
tions extend. 
ENGLISH LIMING. 
1*. The English limings seems to be established upon quite another prin¬ 
ciple from that of France. They are given with such prodigality, that the me¬ 
lioration upon the limed soil has no need to he renewed afterwards. Whilst in 
France we are content to give from a thousandth to a hundredth of lime to the 
tillable soil, from 10 to 100 hectolitres to the hectare, they give in England 
from one to six hundredths, or from 100 to 600 hectolitres to the hectare. The 
full success of the method of our country might make ns regard the English 
method as an unnecessary waste. It seems that they sacrifice a capital live, 
six, ten times greater, without obtaining from it a result much superior ; and 
that without lavishing [alimentary] manures also afterwards, the future value 
of the soil would be endangered in the hands of a greedy cultivator. 
We will not urge the condemnation of a practice w hich seems to have re¬ 
sulted in few inconveniencies. The abundance of alimentary manures which 
the English farmer gives to his [limed] soils, has guarded against exhaustion : 
and then, in very moist ground, they have doubtless, by the very heavy 
liming, made the soil healthy, and its nature seems modified fora long time to 
come ; and such kinds, and where humus abounds, will take up a heavy dose 
of lime, and, as it seems, always without inconvenient consequences ; there 
is then formed there the humate of lime in the greatest proportion, and we shall 
see that this combination is a great means of productiveness in the soil. 
SURFACE LIMING. 
18. In Germany, where liming and marling, like most other agricultural 
improvements, Viave recently made great advances, besides the ordinary modes 
of application, lime is used as a surface dressing. They sprinkle over the rye, 
in the spring, a compost containing 8 to 10 hectolitres of lime to the hectare, 
fifteen days after having sown clover. Also on the clover of the preceding 
year, they apply lime in powder, which has been slaked in the water of a 
dunghill, the dose being less by one half; the effect upon the clover and the 
following crop of wheat is very advantageous. 
In Flanders where they use lime mixed with ashes, it is e-peeially applied 
to meadows, natural or artificial, and the application is then made on the sur¬ 
face. 
BURNING LIME. 
19. The burning of lime is performed with wood, with pit coal, or with 
peat; in temporary kilns, or furnaces, in permanent, or in perpetual kilns. 
It is burned in many places most economically with coal, but it is not so good 
a manure as the lime burned with wood, because, as it seems, of the potash 
contained in the latter case. There are but few places in which peat is used 
for this purpose ; however, in Prussia they succeed with three-fourths p at 
and one-fourth wood. It is, doubtless, a very economical process, and the 
Snciete <T Encouragement has given in its transactions plans of peat kilns; hut 
I know not whether the operators who received prizes for their use have con¬ 
tinued the practice. 
Temporary kilns admit of the burning of a great quantity of lime ; but the 
perm inent kilns burn it with most economy of fuel In the first, 5 quintals 
of wood burn 4 quintals, or one ton, or 2^ hectolitres of lime—and in the 
oth.ers, the same quantity of wood will suffice for 6 quintals or hectolitres. 
But in the permanent kilns such is the expense of construction and rep irs, 
that they cannot be justified except when kept in frequent use. Coal burns 
from three to four times its bulk of lime—the shape of the kiln, the kind of 
limestone, and that of the coal, making toe difference Hydraulic lime is 
* 11J bushels to the acre.—T r. 
calcined more easily than the common [chaux grasses']. Egg-shaped kilns for 
coal seems to be preferable to the conical, which are more generally met with. 
PRECAUTIONS TO BE USED IN LIMING. 
20. Whatever may be the method adopted for using lime, it is essential that, 
like all calcareous manures, it should be applied in powder, and not in a state 
like mortar—and upon the earth when not wet. Until the lime is covered up 
finally, all rain upon it ought to be avoided, which reduces it to paste or to 
clots : and this injures its effect greatly, and even more than reasoning can 
explain. It ought not to be placed except upon soil, the surface mould . f 
which drains itself naturally [by permitting the water to pass through.] On 
a marshy soil, unless the upper layer has been well dried, or in a very moist 
soil, from which the suiface water does not sink or pass off'easily, the proper¬ 
ties of lime remain as it were locked up, and do not make themselves seen, 
until, by new operations, the vegetable mould has been drained and put in 
healthy condition. 
On an argillaceous and very moist soil, the use of marl, which is applied in 
great quantities, is preferable to that of lime, because it can have a more 
powerful effect in giving the deficient health to the surface mould. On soil 
of this kind, a deep ploughing is a preliminary condition, essential to the suc¬ 
cess of either liming or marling : because in increasing the depth of the tilled 
soil, we increase also the means of putting the surface into healthy condition. 
21. To secure the effect of lime on the first crop, it ought to be mixed with 
the soil some time before the sowing of the crop : however if it is used in com¬ 
post, it is sufficient that the compost be made a long time previously. 
Lime, whether alone or in compost, spread dry upon the soil, ought to be co¬ 
vered by a very shallow first ploughing, preceded by a slight harrowing, in 
order that the lime, in the course of tillage, may remain always, as much as 
possible, placed in the midst of the vegetable mould. 
Lime, reduced to the smallest particles, tends to sink into the soil. It glides 
between small particles of sand and of clay, and descends below the sphere of 
the nutrition of plants, and stops under the ploughed layer of soil: and when 
there in abundance, it forms by its combinations a kind of floor, which arrests 
the sinking water, and greatly injures the crops. This is an inconvenience of 
lime applied in heavy doses, and is hastened by deep ploughing. 
VARIOUS QUALITIES OF LIME. 
22. It is necessary for the farmer to know the nature of the lime which he 
uses. It may be pure, or mixed with silex, clay, or magnesia. Pure lime is 
the most economical, the most active, that which can produce the most effect 
in the least quantity. 
Silicious limestone is used in great quantity. The lime from it receives as 
does the foregoing, the name of hot lime, and there is little difference in the 
application, except that more of the latter is wanting. 
Argillaceous lime is the same as the hydraulic lime, ortli epoor limeof build¬ 
ers. It appears that the first two kinds are more favorable to forming grain 
while the latter favors more the growth of straw, grasses, and leguminous 
crops. It is better for the improvement of the soil, but a heavier dose ol it is 
required. 
Magnesian lime acts very powerfully, but exhausts the soil if given in a 
large dose, or if it is not followed by alimentary manure in abundance. It 
has exhausted some districts in England, and enlire provinces of America *and 
it is to this kind that seem due most of the complaints against lime. 
3y chemical processes the farmer may make himself sure of the nature of 
the lime which he uses. 
Pure lime is commonly white, and is dissolved, without any thing beintu 
left, in nitric or muriatic acid. 
Silicious lime is often gray, and leaves a sandy residue [after solution] 
which is rough to the touch. ’ 
Argillaceous lime is obtained from stones which have a clayey odor and 
appearance : it is commonly yellow . and leaves, after the solution, a residue 
which is mostly an impalpable powder [et quiprend, en masse] , which may be 
formed into a mass when wet. 
Magnesian lime is made from stone commonly colored brow n or pale yellow ■ 
it forms a white cloud in nitric acid, diluted with water, and used in less 
quantity than sufficient for saturation. 
OF SECOND LIMINGS. 
23. When the lime field returns to the state in whirh it was before the 
operation, w lien the same weeds re-appear, and the crops lower in product it 
is time to renew the application of lime. It may be conceived that the time 
of the second liming depends on the amount given in the first. When the 
dressing has been light, it is necessary, as is done by the Flemings and the 
Manceaux, to recommence entirely, or to the extent of the first” dressing • 
when it has been heavy, the next may be diminished by one-half. Besides 
in this matter vve should take counsel of thestateof the soil . nd of experience! 
because there are some lands which demand, and can use heavier doses of 
lime than others. 
PICKING, OASTAGE, AND BAGGING OF HOPS, 
are the operations which close the culture of the hop, which begins ‘-to 
bell,” or show the seed-vessel, some time in August; and if the weather prove 
favorable, it will be ripe by the end of the month, or the beginning of Sep¬ 
tember. When the seed begins to change from a pale straw-color to a light 
brown, to emit a fragrant smell, to feel firm, and to be easily rubbed to pieces 
they are signs which indicate its having arrived at maturity, and being ready 
to be gathered. 
* The author has been deceived by exagerated aecouuts of injury from liming 
in America. It is probable that wherever it occurred, it was caused by ihe 
usual ignorance of the.action of lime : from erroneously considering it as ali¬ 
mentary, and directly fertilizing manure, and after applying it, wearing out 
the soil by continued grain crops. Such effects are spoken of by Bordley.--TR. 
