BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 195 
No. 18.— On the Prominence of Carbonate of Lime as a 
Constituent of Solutions obtained by Percolating Dry Cul- 
tivable Soils with Water. By F. H. Stormr, Professor of 
Agricultural Chemistry. 
On the occasion of percolating a considerable quantity of an ordi- 
nary loam with distilled water, I have recently been forced to observe, 
more distinctly, it would seem, than any one had ever observed before, 
that carbonate of lime is dissolved in abundance from most cultivable 
loams, when they are treated with cold water after they have long 
been dry. Even the purest water, which is of itself completely free 
from carbonic acid, produces this effect, and will be found to hold dis- 
solved a noteworthy amount of carbonate of lime after it has been 
allowed to trickle through a quantity of the dry loam. 
The solution of the lime-carbonate is manifestly due, at least for the 
most part, to the presence of carbonic acid, which the water takes up 
from the pores of the soil; and the formation of the solution of super- 
carbonate of lime is so general with different specimens of loam, and 
so well marked, that it is impossible to escape the conviction that it 
must play a highly important part as an active chemical agent in the 
economy of nature. It is plain that the solution in question must 
often exert no inconsiderable influence upon the formation of soils and 
the growth of crops, as well as upon the maintenance of the fertility 
of the land, even in countries that are wholly devoid of limestone, in 
the ordinary acceptation of the idea. The special abundance of the 
soluble lime-carbonate in earth that has long been dry goes to show, 
moreover, that the occasional absence of water from soils may, per- 
haps, be advantageous. In other words, it is not improbable that 
droughts are sometimes useful, by promoting the disintegration of the 
soil in a way that has hitherto been unsuspected. 
The fact of finding carbonate of lime in solution in water in which 
loam has been soaked is not new. De Saussure,* for example, found, 
long ago, in his experiments on the extractive matter of soils, that 
dry loams of various kinds, which he moistened with water free from 
carbonic acid, and left to stand for several days, and then subjected to 
* “Récherches Chimiques sur la Végétation,” Paris, 1804, pp. 168, 169. 
