THE CULTIVATOR 
151 
ably to the soil; the other five-sixths are lost, are carried away by the water, 
descend to the lower beds of earth, are combined, or serve to form other com¬ 
pounds, perhaps even the saline compounds, of which we have seen that lime 
so powerfully favors the formation. Another portion, also, without doubt, re¬ 
mains in the soil, and serves to form this reserve, which in the end dispenses, 
for many years, with the repetition of liming. 
OF THE EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL BY LIMING. 
41. “Lime,” it is said, “only enriches the old men: or it enriches fathers 
and ruins sons.” This is indeed what experience proves, when, on light soils, 
limed heavily, or without composts coming between, successive grain crops 
have been made without rest, without alternations of grass crops, or without 
giving to the soil alimentary manures in suitable proportion. It is also what 
has happened when magnesia, mixed with lime, has carried to the soil its ex¬ 
hausting stimulus. But when lime has been used in moderation—when, with¬ 
out overburdening the land with exhausting crops, they have been alternated 
with green crops—and when manure has been given in proportion to the pro¬ 
ducts taken oil'—the prudent cultivator then sees continue the new fecundity 
which the lime has brought, without the soil show ing any sign of exhaustion. 
No where has there been complaint made of argillaceous soils being damaged 
by lime; and the productiveness of light soils is sustained in every case that 
the lime was used in compost. 
In America, where the lime of oyster shells has taken the place of that of 
magnesian limestone, the complaints of the exhausting effects of lime have 
ceased. 
HEALTHINESS GIVEN TO THE SOIL AND TO THE COUNTRY BY CALCARE¬ 
OUS AGENTS. 
42. The unheallhiness of a country is not caused by the accumulation of 
water, nor from soil being covered by water. Places on the borders of water 
do not become sickly except when the water has quitted some part of the sur¬ 
face which it previously overflowed, and the summer’s sun heals the uncover¬ 
ed 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 yea’s, fevers on the 
borders 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 cullivation, where the ploughed soil is for the first time 
exposed to the summer's sun. In the interior of Home, the vineyards, the 
gardens are remarkably unhealthy—while the sickliness 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 efHuvia. It 
is then from the soil, and not from the waters at ils surface, that insalubrious 
emanations proceed. Waters placed on the surface, always in motion, agitat¬ 
ed by every wind, ere not a'terad in quality, and do not become unhealthy; 
but whenever they are contained in some place without power *o receive ex¬ 
terior 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 upper layer 
without being able to run through the subsoil, it remains without motion, and 
stagnant, within the soil—is changed by the summer’s sun, serves to hasten 
the putrefaction of the broken down vegetable remain in or on the mould, and 
the exhdations from the ground become unhealthy. Thus are all drained 
marshes, of which the surface only is dry, while the water still penetrates the 
subsoil—thus, all the mare ins of rivers which have been covered by recent 
inundations of summer, are unhealthy; thus also, (for a great and unhappy 
example,) 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 sum¬ 
mer, 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 situaled do not produce the same unheal¬ 
thiness, and even the marshy grounds there are less unhealthy. 
The waters which spring out of, or run over calcareous beds, are always 
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 meadow’s, in 
changing the nature and quantity of the products. 
Li nnvus thought that the unheallhiness of most countries depended on the 
nature of the water, and was owing to the argillaceous particles which they 
contain; now these argillaceous particles are ahvays precipitated by the calca¬ 
reous compounds. For this reason, the waters which stand upon, or run over 
marl or calcareous rock, are almost always limpid and clear, because the ar¬ 
gillaceous 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 c®ild 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 sub¬ 
jected 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 re¬ 
garded as serving to destroy the contagious miasmata of epidemic and epizo¬ 
otic diseases. ■« •* 
Lime destroys the plants of humid and marshy soils, and makes those su ta¬ 
ble to better soils spring up; then its effect iff to give healthiness 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 calcareous 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'. 1 he 
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 levers prevail—while they have never disappeared in a country 
even where an active culture draws good products from the impermeable ar¬ 
gillo-silicious soil. 
44. To extend the great benefit of healthiness to the whole of a country, it 
is no doubt necessary that the w’hole 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 diminish—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. 
Three-fourths of the whole territory of France, to be rendered fruitful, have 
need of calcareous agents. If the third of this extent has already 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 in¬ 
creased one-half or more, or one-fifth of the total amount. But agriculture in 
enriching itself will increase ils power, its capital, and its population; and will 
naturally carry its exuberant forces, its energies and activity to operate on the 
greater part of the 7,000,000 of hectares of land now [enfriche] untilled, waste 
and without product. By bringing these lands into cultivation and fertilizing 
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 sus¬ 
tenance to a population orie-third greater than France now possesses; and this 
revolution due successively 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 popula¬ 
tion, 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 ow ing 
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, increased to 
44,000,000, would have for each, one hectare and a quarter, and would be less 
confined than the 24,000,010 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 fa¬ 
vored 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 product 
which w’ould not exist in England, with an equal increase of population and 
equal increase of products of agriculture. 
But this prosperity of the country, (yet far distant, but towards which, how¬ 
ever, we will be advanced daily,) would be still much less than in the depart¬ 
ment of the North, where a hectare nearly supports two inhabitants. And yet 
they have more than a sixth of their soil in woods, marshes, or unproduclive 
lands: they have, besides, another sixth, and of their best ground, in crons of 
commerce, which consume a great part of their manure, and which are export¬ 
ed almost entirely. This prodigious result is, without doubt, owing in part to 
a greater extent of good soil than is found elsewhere; but it is principally ow¬ 
ing there, as well as in England, to the regular use of calcareous man ure’s. As 
we have seen, more than two-thirds of this country [the North) 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 
although applied to the least extent of surface, would be most precious. Upon 
one-sixth of our country the population is sickly, subject to intermittent and 
often fatal fevers, and the deaths exceed in number the births. Well! upon 
this soil without marshes, calcareous manures would bring a growing popu¬ 
lation, more numerous than that of our now healthy parts of the country— 
and as labor would offer itself from every side, these rigions, made healthy 
would soon be those where the people would be most happy, the richest and 
the most rapidly increasing in numbers. 
43. If we are not under an illusion, the calcareous principle and ils 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 the surface so little favor¬ 
ed, is found placed the substance necessary to the soil to render it as fertile as 
the best ground, to enable the cultivator to use for his profit the vegetable 
mould which it contains and has been accumulating forages—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 need¬ 
ed to be applied in small proportions, to obtain products of which the first har¬ 
vest often compensates for all the labor and expense. And to complete the 
benefit, insalubrity, which afflicts the infertile soil, disappears; the new po¬ 
pulation finds there at the same time strength, riches, and health. There 
without doubt, is one of the most happy harmonies of the creation, one of the 
greatest blessings with which the Supreme Author has endowed the laborious 
man who is devoted to the cultivation of the earth. 
