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 Z-*<*»» />»vr^ 
 
 ESSAY ^fe^^__^ 
 
 LIME AS A MANURE, 
 
 BY M. PUVIS. 
 
 TRANSLATED PROM THE FRENCH 
 
 E. RUFFIN, ESQ. Editor oj the Farmei'a Register. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 EXPLANATORY OP THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, 
 
 BY JAMES KENWICK, LL. D. 
 
 PROFESSOK OF NAT. EXP. rHILOSOPUT AND CHEHISTRT IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
 
 NEW-YORK; 
 
 SCATCHERD & ADAMS, PRINTERS, 
 Xo. 3S Gold-street. 
 
 1836. 
 
ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE. 
 
 BY M. PUVIS. • 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The task of adapting an Introduction explanatory of the chemical principles most impor- 
 tant in agriculture to the Essay of Mr. Puvis, was undertaken at the instance of a valued 
 friend, James Wadsworth, Esq. of Geneseo. The translation which is employed was 
 liberally placed at my disposal by the very intelligent and practically skilful editor of the 
 Farmer's Register. He has the merit of first bringing the Essay of Mr. Puvis before the 
 American public, and, taken in connexion with his own Essay on Calcareous Manures, he has 
 thus made us acquainted not only with all that was previously known in the theory or practice 
 of the use of Lime in agriculture, but has added himself some most valuable theoretic views, 
 which he has also established by successful and judicious experiments on his own farm. 
 
 James Renwick. 
 
 Columbia College, March, 1836. 
 
 A^ A 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The publication of the following communication to the Annaks de VJlgi-icuUiire Fran- 
 catse, was commenced in the February No. of that journal, (which was received here in 
 May,) and the June No. contains the end of the first part, " On Liming," and enables us to 
 offer the translation of that portion to our readers. Only a few pages of the next portion 
 of the series, " On Marling," has yet appeared, and not enough to permit a judgment to be 
 formed of its worth. 
 
 Though there are many deficiencies in this treatise on liming — and also opinions as to the 
 theory of the action of lime, in which we cannot coincide — still, on the whole, we consider 
 it as presenting far more correct views, and more satisfactory information, both on theory 
 and practice, than any other work on liming that we have before seen. In other points, 
 and those of most importance, the facts here presented (and now first learned from any Eu- 
 ropean authority) strongly sustain the views maintained in the Essay on Calcareous Mw- 
 tmrcs. It would be both unnecessary and obtrusive to remind the reader of these points of 
 difference, and of agreement, whenever passages exhibiting either may occur. They will, 
 therefore, generally be submitted ir, the author's words without comment. A few exceptions 
 only to this rule will be made, in cases which appear particularly to call for them. 
 
 We have no information whatever of Mr. Puvis, the author of this treatise, previous to the 
 appearance of the commencement of the publication in the Annales. But he is evidently well 
 informed on his subject, and is stated by the introductory remarks of the French editor, to be 
 entitled to all respect, lor his long experience, and his practical as well as scientific investiga- 
 tion of the subject. If, then, there remains no ground to distrust his judgment or his facts, the 
 statements made are most important to a very large portion of this country, which has hereto- 
 fore been generally supposed to be deprived of all possible benefit from the use of calcareous 
 manures on account of their remoteness and high price of carriage. M. Puvis states that 
 the most successful and profitable liming in Europe (for the expense incurred) is in repeat- 
 ed applications of very small dressings — making less, on the average, than four bushels of 
 lime to the acre, annually. This small amount, if really as efficacious as is alleged, would 
 cost so little in labor and money, that the limits of the region capable of being limed may 
 be very far extended. It would not matter though the applications should require to be re- 
 peated for ever, provided the annual returns gave good profit upon the annual expenses ; 
 and far greater will be the profit, if (as we think) the soil ultimately will no longer require 
 such repetitions — or only at very distant intervals of time — and still be a highly productive, 
 because it has been made a calcareous and fertile soil. 
 
 I 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Chemical facts and principles which 
 are applicable to Agriculture are neither nu- 
 merous nor complex. They are, however, to 
 be found only in works on General Chemis- 
 try, in which they arc intimately associated 
 with laws and phenomena of a more abstruse 
 description, and in connexion with which they 
 constitute a science of which the most learned 
 are still i'tudents, and to attain which in its 
 existing form may require years of close and 
 attentive study. The language, too, of Che- 
 mistry, which, to those who study it in a re- 
 gular course, serves as an artifici.nl memory, 
 and single words of which call up long trains 
 of thought and experiment, presents to the 
 uninitiated all the difficulties of a foreign 
 tongue. 
 
 Yet it cannot be doubted, that the practical 
 farmer may derive important benefit from ac- 
 quiring 30 much of this language as will ena- 
 ble him to understand the chemical explana- 
 tion of the numerous changes which are con- 
 tinually taking place in the natural actions 
 which it is his high privilege to call into his 
 service, to direct in part, and modify in de- 
 gree. So also are there certain chemical 
 elements and compounds, with the properties 
 of which he ought to be acquainted if he 
 wish to be able to direct his practical skill 
 with more effect, even in circumstances fa- 
 miliar to him, but which may be absolutely 
 necessary, or will at any rate save waste of 
 labour and loss of time, when the know- 
 ledge acquired by practice in one place is to 
 be employed in a new situation, and under a 
 change of circumstances. 
 
 It is the object of this introduction to exhi- 
 bit, in such form as may be intelligible to 
 those who have not made general chemistry 
 an object of study, a concise view of such of 
 the laws and facts of that science, as are ab- 
 solutely necessary for the agriculturist who 
 may wish to improve his practice, and which 
 are more particularly required by those who 
 wish to avail themselves of the knowledge 
 contained in the subjoined essay. To do 
 this has been found no easy task. It would 
 be in itself difficult, but to the au*hor of this in- 
 troduction has been more particularly so, as 
 he has for years been in the habit of impart- 
 ing instruction to those whose habits of life 
 and thoughts are as remote as possible from 
 those of the practical farmer ; persons to 
 
 whom the peculiar language of chemistry is 
 an aid instead of an impediment ; and who, 
 with ample time at their command, have an 
 opportunity of pursuing the study of the sci- 
 ence step by step. Fully aware of these diffi- 
 culties, both general and peculiar, this attempt 
 would not have been made, and certainly 
 not persisted in, had it not have been for the 
 instances of an intelligent, scientific, and 
 successful farmer, who has urged the comple- 
 tion of the task as an object likely to be 
 beneficial to those, who, with perhaps equal 
 zeal and native powers of mind, have not 
 enjoyed, like himself, the advantages ofa sci- 
 entific education. 
 
 The atmosphere which surrounds our earth 
 is the first object to which our attention 
 should be directed. This is the vehicle of 
 the moisture, which, whether it fall in the 
 form of rain or dew, run in streams or issue 
 from springs, is absolutely essential to the 
 success of the farmer's labour. It is also, 
 as we shall presently see, important to him 
 on other accounts. 
 
 The greater part of the atmosphere is 
 made up of a mixture of substances, each 
 of which has the same mechanical properties 
 as the whole mass. These air-like substan- 
 ces are known to chemists by the name of 
 Gaits. 
 
 Of these gases, two make up by far the 
 greater portion of atmospheric air, and exist 
 in it in the proportion of about four to one. 
 That which is the largest in quantity and 
 makes up nearly 4-5ths of the whole atmo- 
 sphere, is called, in the Essay of M. Puvis, by 
 the name of Azot, but is more usually known 
 in English by the name of Nitrogen. 
 
 This substance, although in the largest 
 proportion, is the least important of the gases 
 in its chemical effects. It does not aid in 
 supporting the life of animals, nor in main- 
 taining the burning (combustion) of inflamma- 
 ble bodies. 
 
 The part of the atmosphere which is abso- 
 lutely necessary for these purposes, is called 
 by the name of orj/o-en, and nearly makes up 
 the remaining fifth part of atmospheric air. In 
 its support of life it always, and in maintain- 
 ing combustion often, unites with a chemical 
 element, which is called carbon-. This is 
 familiarly known as forming the principal 
 part of charcoal. In its union with carbon. 
 
oxygen forms a peculiar gas known by the 
 name of carbonic acid. 
 
 Carbonic acid is always found in small 
 quantities in the atmosphere, to which it is fur- 
 nished by the breath of animals and the fumes 
 of burning bodies. It is, when in considera- 
 ble quantities, fatal to the life of animals, but 
 is prevented from accumulating to an inju- 
 rious extent in consequence of its being taken 
 up by water ; it is therefore dissolved, in pro- 
 portions about equal to those in which it is 
 formed, by rivers, lakes, the ocean, and the 
 moisture of the soil. 
 
 Water exists in the atmosphere in the form 
 of vapour. The great source of this vapour 
 is the extended surface of the ocean ; and it is 
 governed by a mechanical law, by which it is 
 continually tending to distribute itself uni- 
 formly over the whole surface of the earth. 
 It may thus exist in as large quantities over 
 the surface of the dryest land as over that of 
 the ocean itself. This tendency to equal dis- 
 tribution is continually counteracted by the 
 changes in the sensible heat (temperature) 
 of the atmosphere, and of the surface of the 
 earth, which follow the alternations of day 
 and night, and the vicissitudes of the seasons. 
 By these alternations and changes, the vapour 
 is caused to fall (precipitated) in the form of 
 rain, snow, hail, dew, or white frost, accord- 
 ing to circumstances. As such changes of 
 temperature are more frequent on the land 
 than on the ocean, the water which falls on 
 the former in either of these forms is greater 
 in quantity than that which falls on equal 
 surfaces of the latter. Thus, by a wise and 
 benevolent provision of Providence, the water 
 of the ocean is continually furnishing vapour, 
 which is precipitated on the land for the sup- 
 port of vegetation and the supply of springs, 
 and whose excess is poured back into the 
 ocean in streams and rivers. 
 
 Water has been found by chemists to be a 
 • compound substance, made up of two ele- 
 ments. One of these, which forms 8-9ths of 
 its weight, is the gas already mentioned under 
 the name of oxygen ; the other, a peculiar gas, 
 known by the name of hydrogen. 
 
 Hydrogen, when free, is the lightest of all 
 known bodies, rising and floating in atmo- 
 spheric air ; it not only combines with oxy- 
 gen, to form water, but with carbon to form a 
 great variety of compounds — gaseous, liquid, 
 viscid, and solid. It also combines with nitro- 
 gen, and forms a gas known by the name of 
 ammonia, which is well known by the peculiar 
 smell it gives to spirits of hartshorn (liquid 
 ammonia). 
 
 Hydrogen also combines with sulphur, 
 forming a gas known by the name of sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen ; this exists in the atmo- 
 
 sphere, but in such small quantities as only to 
 be detected by the nicest chemical tests. It 
 combines in like manner with phosphorus, 
 forming phosphuretted hydrogen gas, whose 
 presence in the air is occasionally perceptible. 
 
 Oxygen, as we have seen, unites with car- 
 bon, to form a gas which we have called car- 
 bonic acid. 
 
 This receives the latter part of its name 
 from its similarity in properties to an ex- 
 tensive class of compound bodies, known 
 by the name of The Acids. The greater 
 part of these, like carbonic acid, are combina- 
 tions of inflammable bodies with oxygen., The 
 most important of these in reference to our 
 present object, are the sulphuric and phos- 
 phoric acids ; named from the two sub- 
 stances (sulphur and phosphorus) which are 
 their bases. Muriatic acid may also be men- 
 tioned here, although its composition is of a 
 different character. Oxygen unites w.tli other 
 bodies to form a class of compounds known 
 under the name of oxides. 
 
 The acids unite with earths, alkalis, and 
 metallic oxides, to form a class of compounds 
 known under the general name of salts. 
 These are named from the two substances 
 which enter into their composition : thus, the 
 salt formed of sulphuric acid and the earth 
 hme, is called sulphate of lime. The sub- 
 stances which unite with acids to form salts, 
 are called the bases of the respective salts. 
 
 Of these bases, the alkalis and earths are 
 the most important. Of the alkalis, it is only 
 necessary to know the names of two, namely 
 potassa and soda, and to be aware that their 
 distinctive properties, are : to possess an acrid 
 taste, a caustic operation, to render oils ca- 
 pable of mixing with water, and to neutral- 
 ize the properties of acids. 
 
 The earth which chemists call by the name 
 of silex or silica, is found almost pure in flint 
 and rock crystal ; it is also almost pure in 
 sharp colourless sands, and is by far the 
 larger part of sands of every description. 
 So far as the farmer needknow its properties : 
 it is bard, rough to the touch, has no attrac- 
 tion for water, which it permits to filter 
 through, or evaporate from it, with the great- 
 est ease. It is capable of uniting with the 
 other earths in compounds which are called 
 silicates, and is the only earth which enters into 
 the formation of soils uncombined with the 
 others or with other elements. 
 
 The earth which chemists call by the name 
 of alumina, is so named because it is obtained 
 by them in a pure form from the well-known 
 salt called alum, of which it is the basis. 
 Its most marked characteristic is plasticity : 
 that is to say, it may be formed into a paste 
 with water, will then easily receive any form 
 
which may be given it, and retain that form culture have not observed this distinction, 
 unaltered, even by violent heaL It never and the term is sometimes applied by them to 
 exists in soils unmixed, but in intimate asso- a decomposed chalk, which may contain little 
 ciation, or more probably chemical combina- or no clay ; and sometimes to clay which 
 tion with silica, it is the well-known substance contains no carbonate of lime. In fact, the 
 called clay, or argillaceous earth. White name is frequently applied by them to any 
 clays are this combination nearly pure, and earthy matter found below the vegetable 
 coloured clays ot\en contain it with no other soil, which is capable of increasing its fertili- 
 addition than metallic colouring matter, ty. From this misapprehension, the sub- 
 Clay retains the plastic property of alumina ; stances which go by the name of marl in New 
 it therefore causes soils to be retentive of Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia do not corre- 
 moislure ; and. when they dry, makes ihe'u spond with the chemical definition, but are 
 form tough clods or crusts, similar in charac- generally beds of fossil shells mixed in vari- 
 ter to sun-dried brick. ous proportions with earthy and saline mat- 
 
 Soils which contain clay are often also mix- ters of various kinds, 
 ed with sand, or with an excess of silica in Lime is a substance very different in its 
 grains, which does not enter into the compo- characters from the two earths of which 
 sitioti of the clay. Such a soil is less liable we have previously spoken. When prepared 
 to form a tough crust than a pure clay, but it by heat from any of the original forms of its 
 will require a very large proportion of sand to carbonate, it retains their shape unaltered, 
 destroy this property altogether. but may have its colour changed, and always 
 
 Clay mixed with sandy soils renders them loses considerably in weight. It is now acrid, 
 more retentive of moisture. Sand and clay caustic, and corrosive, and has some pro- 
 have therefore been used as manures for each pertics in common with potash, which are 
 other ; but . it may reasonably be doubted therefore alkaline. Of these the most im- 
 whether ail the advantage that has been an- portant is, that it unites with acids to form 
 ticipated by some from this process, can be compounds included in the general class of 
 realized, as such a mixture will be merely salts. Of the salts of lime which are import- 
 mechanical, ant to the farmer, the three principal are : 
 I>oamy soils are generally said to be mix- the carbonate, which, as we have stated, is 
 tures of .'!and and clay ; they undoubtedly found in limestone, chalk, shells, and marl ; 
 usually contain both, these earths, and even the sulphate, in which lime is combined with 
 sometimes a large excess of sand. But we sulphuric acid, and which in combination 
 shall give reasons for believing that loams owe with water is the substance so well known to 
 their peculiar value to a combination of clay our farmers under the name of plaster of 
 with another substance, by which a change is Paris, or less familiarly by that of gypsum : 
 produced in its chemical characters. the phosjihale, which constitutes a large part 
 
 Lime is familiarly known to farmers by of the bones of animals, 
 the same name that is generally used by Lime, when exposed to the air, attracts car- 
 chemists. It is obtained by the aid of heat bonic acid, which is always to be found in 
 from rocks which go by the name of lime- the atmosphere ; it thus passes back to the 
 stones. These are combinations of lime state of carbonate, but in so doing gradually 
 with carbonic acid, which is fixed in them falls to powder, and is then said to be air- 
 by chemical attraction, but w hich, when slaked. If slaked with water, it also falls 
 driven off by heat, takes the same form as the to a powder, which still retains the caustic 
 air of the atmosphere, or becomes a gas. character of the burnt lime ; but this powder, 
 This gas from this circumstance has been when exposed to the air, unites with carbonic 
 called fixed air, by which name it is often acid more rapidly than when in mass, 
 known when causing the sparkling and froth Lime, in its caustic state, has the property 
 of cider and beer. The principal part of lime- of rapidly decomposing vegetable and ani- 
 stone is therefore called by chemists carbon- njal substances, thus hastening the natural 
 ate of lime. Carbonate of lime is also found in processes by which they are finally destroyed ; 
 shells, both those of living animals and those or, to speak more properly, have their ele- 
 which exist in the ground in a fossil stale, ments resolved into new combinations. The 
 In the former it is mixed with animal matter, offensive and unwholesome gases, which are 
 which is more or less separated from the lat- given out by this composition, are absorbed by 
 ter according to the time which has elapsed the lime, and prevented from mixing with the 
 since the death of the shell fish. air. The same property is possessed in a 
 
 Marl, in the sense in which the term is used less degree by the carbonate of lime, and 
 by chemists, is a mixture of clay with carbon- probably by its otlier compounds ; but in order 
 ate of lime. The English writers on agri- that either this earth or its compounds shall 
 
manifest this property, they must be in small 
 fragments, or, which is better, in fine pow- 
 der. 
 
 Wet sand and plastic clay, and those soils 
 to which they give their characters, also pos- 
 sess the property of absorbing gases ; but 
 they have this in a very inferior degiee to 
 lime and its compounds. As the gases gene- 
 rated by the decomposition of vegetable and 
 animal substances form a large part of the 
 necessary food of plants, it is obvious that a 
 soil which contains the carbonate of lime, 
 may retain and store them up for use, while 
 they will be lost in soils of a different charac- 
 ter. 
 
 Carbonate of lime may also be made a 
 most important article in the preservation of 
 the most valuable parts of putrescent ma- 
 nures, until they can be applied to the soil. 
 In this way marl is applied to a great extent 
 in China ; the night soil of their numerous 
 population is there formed into cakes hke 
 bricks, with marl, and thus loses its offensive 
 smell ; but when these are applied as manure 
 to the land, they give out the gases again as 
 they are required for the nourishment of 
 plants. So also in Norfolk, the site for 
 dunghills is prepared by a layer of marl, 
 which is incorporated with the manure from 
 time to time, and retains the gases which 
 would otherwise be lost. 
 
 Lime may therefore be applied in its 
 caustic form in some cases in Agriculture, 
 for it will hasten the decomposition of animal 
 and vegetable matters which might otherwise 
 be inert ; it will also neutralize acids, which 
 experienced farmers well know to exist in 
 many soils, which they in consequence call 
 sour. But the latter purpose will be answer- 
 ed as well by the carbonate of lime, which 
 may be applied as it exists in marl or shells, 
 or as it may be prepared by grinding lime- 
 stone. Caustic lime is also dangerous in its 
 application, for it will corrode and destroy 
 living vegetables, and hasten the decomposi- 
 tion of the vegetable matter of the soil to such 
 a degree as to injure its fertility. Except 
 upon turf-bogs, and land loaded with timber 
 not wholly decomposed, quick or caustic lime 
 ought not to be used ; but to burn lime, and 
 then by slaking to reduce it to the form of 
 fine powder, which is speedily carbonated by 
 exposure to the air, is a more ready, and ge- 
 nerally acheaper mode of obtaining the carbon- 
 ate iu a convenient form, than to grind lime- 
 stone to powder in mills. Yet for many of 
 the most valuable uses of lime in agriculture, 
 the latter method, if as cheap, would answer 
 as well. 
 
 Lime slowly combines with the earth silica, 
 and produces a compound very different in 
 
 character from either. It is this, to cite a 
 fact in proof of our statement, which gives the 
 hardness and solidity to ancient mortar. The 
 carbonate of lime will serve to form this com- 
 pound ; and thus, when it has had time to act 
 upon sand, it renders a silicious soil more re- 
 tentive of moisture ; while, if applied to clay, 
 by combining with its silicious matter, it 
 renders it more friable ; and it is to the forma- 
 tion of this compound by slow degrees, that 
 we are inclined to ascribe the valuable me- 
 chanical properties of loamy soils, and the 
 gradual amelioration produced by the use of 
 lime, marl, and shells as a manure. 
 
 Besides silica, alumina, and lime,an earth call- 
 ed magnesia is likewise found in some soils. 
 It is also, in the form of carbonate, a frequent 
 constituent of limestones. This earth has 
 many properties in common with lime ; like 
 lime it is capable of neutralizing acids ; and 
 when deprived of carbonic acid by heat, cor- 
 rodes vegetable substances. It probably 
 also hastens putrefaction, and both it and 
 its carbonate are capable of absorbing the 
 gases let loose in that natural process. It is, 
 however, of little interest in agriculture, except 
 as a part of some of the limestones which are 
 used as manure. These, if applied in large 
 quantities, are sometimes very injurious to 
 vegetation ; the reason of this is, that magne- 
 sia does not repass to the state of carbonate 
 as rapidly as lime, and therefore retains its 
 corrosive quality long after the lime has again 
 become mild by its union with carbonic acid. 
 In less quantities, however, the magnesian 
 limestones may serve as a manure, but their 
 application requires great caution, particular- 
 ly when the quantity of magnesia amounts to 
 25 per cent. 
 
 All of the simple substances we have men- 
 tioned, except perhaps the last, either separate 
 or in various states of combination, ex- 
 ist in plants. The manner and character of 
 the combination is influenced by the vital ac- 
 tion of the plant, which causes Ihem to form 
 compounds, oflen in direct opposition to th 
 manner in which the ordinary laws of chemis- 
 try would direct. It thus happens that so 
 soon as the plant ceases to live, these chemi- 
 cal laws, being no longer impeded, begin to 
 exert their influence ; and if it be in such a 
 state as will admit of the several elements 
 acting readily upon each other, a decomposi- 
 tion, more or less rapid, of the vegetable 
 structure ensues. It is a law of chemistry, 
 that its action is always aided by the bodies 
 being in a fluid state, and the action is often 
 impossible when the bodies are perfectly free 
 from moisture. Hence the direct chemical 
 action, and consequent decomposition, takes 
 place with greater certainty and more rapidi- 
 
6 
 
 tjr in green juicy and succulent vegetables, 
 than upon those which have been deprived 
 of moisture either naturally or artificially. 
 Thus grass, ifheapcd up in a recent stale, de- 
 composes, and if but partially dried, is heated, 
 and may even take fire, by the chemical ac- 
 tion of its elements ; while, if dried by expo- 
 sure to the sun and air, and then laid up in a 
 dry place in the form of hay, it is almost in- 
 destructible. A moderate degree of heat and 
 access to air are also necessary to promote 
 the chemical action by which decomposition 
 is effected. This decomposition is often at- 
 tended with motion among the parts ; and 
 always, if the mass has a liquid form, as in 
 the expressed juice of vegetables, or in 
 the steeps employed by distillers and brew- 
 ers ; it goes in general terms by the name of 
 fermentation. When the vegetable matter 
 abounds in starch, the first change is the con- 
 version of this principle into sugar. Sugar, 
 if thus formed, is next converted into alcohol, 
 as it is, if it previously existed in the plant. 
 The presence of alcohol gives the liquid in 
 which it exists the character of vinous liquors, 
 and if these are permitted to remain in a 
 turbid state, a farther fermentation converts 
 them into vinegar ; and finally vinegar is 
 farther decomposed, and the vegetable mat- 
 ter, giving out an offensive smell, is said to 
 putrify. If the substance be not an express- 
 ed juice or liquid steep, these several stages 
 offermentation ensue with rapidity, may be 
 going on at the same time, and are sometimes 
 sospeedy in their course that no other actionbut 
 the putrefactive fermentation can be detected. 
 Animal bodiesare subject to the same laws, and 
 go through the same stages of fermentation, 
 but the rapidity which ihey run into putrefaction 
 is even greater ; still there are some cases, 
 as in that of milk, where the vinous stage can 
 be occasionally, and the acetic distinctly, ob- 
 served. Thus, a vinous liquor is prepared in 
 some countries from milk, and the sour taste 
 which appears in it when kept, arises from 
 the presence of vinegar. 
 
 In the several stages of fermentation, parts 
 of the vegetable assume the form of gas or 
 vapour, and are given out to the air. The 
 gases which have been detected, are carbonic 
 acid, a gaseous compound of carbon and hy- 
 drogtn, and in some instances ammonia. The 
 vapour is that of water, which escapes in 
 greater quantities than it would under ordina- 
 ry circumstances, in consequence of the 
 heat with which the process is attended. If 
 exposed to rain, soluble salts, with earthy and 
 alkaline bases, are washed from the mass. 
 Finally, a mass of earthy consistence alone 
 remains, which on examination is found to 
 be made up of earths, insoluble salts, and 
 
 carbon, being, in fact, identical with vegetable 
 mould. 
 
 We may hence infer that the following ele- 
 ments exist in vegetable bodies : 
 
 1. Oxygen, developed in the carbonic acid 
 
 and water. 
 
 2. Hydrogen is in the water and carbu- 
 
 rets of hydrogen. 
 
 3. Carbon. 
 
 4. Earths. 
 6. Alkalis. 
 
 6. Nitrogen, occasionally developed in the 
 
 form of ammonia. 
 
 7. Acids, remaining in the insoluble, or 
 
 washed away in the soluble salts. 
 The chemical examination of vegetable 
 bodies ought of course lead to similar re- 
 sults. This examination has been conduct- 
 ed in three different ways. 
 ,1. With the view of discovering the nature 
 of the compounds, called vegetable 
 principles, which exist ready formed 
 in plants. 
 
 2. For the purpose of discovering the che- 
 
 mical elements contained in these 
 principles. 
 
 3. By the destructive action of heat, under 
 
 which some of the elements are whol- 
 ly separated, and others enter into 
 new combinations. 
 In the first of these methods there have 
 been detected : 
 
 I. Certain peculiar acids, of which we may 
 
 cite 
 
 (1) Acetic acid, which, mixed with water, 
 
 forms common vinegar ; 
 
 (2) Citric acid, which is found in the 
 
 lemon and orange. 
 
 (3) Malic acid, which exists in the apple; 
 
 (4) Tartaric acid, in the juice of the 
 
 grape; 
 (6) Oxalic acid in the wild sorrel. 
 
 II. Certain substances of alkaline charac- 
 
 ter, found principally in medicinal 
 plants, to which they give their pecu- 
 liar virtues. 
 
 III. Gum, resin, oils, sugar, starch, and 
 two substances approaching to animal 
 matter in their characters, namely, al- 
 bumen and gluten ; the former of 
 these has a resemblance to the white 
 of eggs, the latter to animal jelly or 
 glue. 
 
 Many other principles are separated by the 
 same method in different plants, but need 
 not be enumerated by us. 
 
 The basis of this method consists in act- 
 ing upon vegetables by water, ether, or recti- 
 fied spirits (alcohol), and the principles above 
 enumerated are either simply, or in the state 
 of combination in which they exist in plants. 
 
soluble in at leasfone of the liquids we have 
 named. 
 
 In all cases some insoluble matter is left, 
 and this is known by the name of the woody 
 fibre. 
 
 AVhen these principles are treated by the 
 second method, oxygen, hydrogen, and car- 
 bon, are the uniform results, but in different 
 proportions in the different cases ; nitrogen 
 is also detected in some of .them, as, for in- 
 stance, in the alkaline principles and in gluten. 
 This method does not appear to be adequate 
 to determine whether earths and alkalis are, 
 or are not, parts of these vegetable princi- 
 ples. From the very remarkable fact, that 
 some of those substances, which are very dis- 
 similar to each other, yield exactly the same 
 proportions of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, 
 we may fairly conclude by chemical analogy, 
 that one or the other, or perhaps both, contain 
 some substances which have escaped the 
 analysis. As an instance we may cite starch 
 and sugar, whose characters are so dissimilar 
 that no danger can exist of mistaking the one 
 for the other ; and yet their analysis by tlie 
 second method gives identical results. 
 
 The third method may be understood by 
 comparing it with the process used in making 
 charcoal. If this be so far altered that the 
 heat employed shall not arise from the com- 
 bustion of a part of the substance to be ex- 
 amined, but from one merely used as fuel, 
 and if the matters which escape in smoke are 
 condensed and collected, we shall have 
 that employed occasionally on a large 
 scale by operative chemists. In this way 
 charcoal will be, as usual, obtained in the 
 solid form. The condensible products will be 
 water, tar, turpentine, or resin ; and the acid 
 which gives that character to vinegar, but 
 which in the present case, in union with the 
 tar and water, is called pyrolignous acid. 
 
 If the charcoal be burnt in a current of air, 
 all its carbon is converted, by union with the 
 oxygen of the atmosphere, into carbonic acid, 
 leaving a residue famiharly known as ashes. 
 The ashes are made up partly of soluble 
 and partly of insoluble matter. The soluble 
 matter is separated by the familiar process 
 of making ley, and the ley, if evaporated, 
 leaves the solid substance so well known as 
 potash. 
 
 Potash is principally composed of a carbon- 
 ate of potassa, but contains, besides silica, 
 rendered soluble by the alkali, sulphate and 
 muriate of potassa, and a peculiar acid known 
 by the name of ulmic, which is a compound 
 of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The inso- 
 luble part is made up of carbonate of lime, 
 sulphate and sometimes phosphate of lime, 
 silica. The carbonate of lime has probably 
 
 in no case existed in the living plant, but 
 arises from the destruction by heat of the pe- 
 culiar acid of the plant ; as, for instance, the 
 citric, the oxalic, or the tartaric ; all of which 
 are by fire converted into carbonic acid. 
 
 The quantity of ashes is extremely various, 
 as is their proportion of the several soluble 
 and insoluble substances, we have mention- 
 ed. Thus the ashes of the stalk of Indian corn 
 yields 12} percent, of ashes, while the soft 
 woods do not furnish more than two parts in a 
 thousand. The proportion of the sulphate and 
 phosphate of lime is even more various. 
 Thus, in some cases the presence of the 
 sulphate is hardly perceptible, while of the 
 ashes of clover it forms a large proportion of 
 the whole weight. Phosphate of lime is found 
 in the proportion of fifteen per cent, in the 
 grain of wheat. 
 
 Water is not only one of the principal 
 component parts of all plants, but is also 
 the sole vehicle of their nutriment. At each 
 extremity of the small fibres into which the 
 roots of plants are divided, is an opening 
 through which that fluid enters ; and it ap- 
 pears that, except in the case of a plant hav- 
 ing lost its vigour by continued drought, it is 
 only through this channel that water can en- 
 ter. By a powerful action inherent in living 
 vegetables, water, which with all the mat- 
 ters it is capable of holding in solution, be- 
 comes the sap,* is raised to the highest parts 
 of the plants, and forced to their most distant 
 extremities. It has been ascertained that 
 plants do not possess the power of rejecting 
 even those substances which ai-e most nox- 
 ious to them ; it is therefore probable that the 
 character of the fluid admitted is the same in 
 all the plants which grow upon the same soil. 
 Whether it undergoes any change in the root 
 does not appear certain, but it has recently 
 been maintained that every description of 
 plant throws oflf by the surface of its roots 
 such matter as, if retained, would be injurious ; 
 but tbis opinion does not appear to be well 
 established. 
 
 The sap, when carried up to the leaves, un- 
 dergoes an important change, principally ow- 
 ing to the action of solar light. When ex- 
 posed to light, the leaves of plants give out 
 oxygen in considerable quantities. This 
 proceeds from a decomposition of the water 
 and carbonic acid, the remaining elements of 
 which two substances and a portion of their 
 oxygen enter into new combinations. These 
 combinations have different characters in dif- 
 ferent vegetables, but are most familiarly 
 known in the shape of gum and resin. These 
 still contain the earthy and saUne matter carried 
 
 * See Roget's Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
8 • 
 
 up by the sap, and after they are formed re- 
 turn downwards towards the roots. In their 
 descent they deposit the several parts which 
 minister to the growth of the plant — the leaves, 
 the bark, and the woody fibre. They also 
 appear to be forced with powerful energy 
 into the flower and the growing fruit, and in 
 these a still more important action is carried 
 fo^^vard, by which the reproduction of the 
 species is ensured. 
 
 The matters which the water that enters by 
 the root may hold in solution, are either de- 
 rived from the atmosphere or from the soil. 
 In its passage through the air it will carry 
 with it a considerable proportion of carbonic 
 acid, and all the sulphuretted hydrogen it 
 meets with. It will also take up a small 
 quantity of oxygen, and of carburetted hy- 
 drogen, and a still less quantity of nitrogen. 
 From the soil it will take all the more solu- 
 ble salts, small quantities of sulphate, phos- 
 phate, and carbonate of lime, provided they 
 be present, and silica. So also if the soil 
 contain animal matter, or vegetables of which 
 nitrogen forms a part, the ammonia generated 
 by their decomposition will likewise be dis- 
 Bolvedbythe water. Inlike manner the carbon- 
 ic acid, which has arisen from the decomposi- 
 tion of vegetable or animal matter, and has 
 not yet escaped, and the soluble compounds 
 of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, which are 
 generated by the same process, will have been 
 taken up, and carried by the water into the 
 root of the plant. It will thus appear that, 
 contrary to the opinion of Mr. Puvis,the atmo- 
 sphere furnishes butlittle of the fixed elements 
 of plants, with the exception of sulphur and 
 carbon ; and that even if the growth of plants 
 were to depend wholly upon the carbon obtain- 
 ed in the form of carbonic acid from the atmo- 
 sphere, their growth must be slow and feeble. 
 It will also appear, that if lime do not exist in 
 the soil, but few plants can find nourishment ; 
 and that for the ripening of the seeds of grain 
 phosphorus must be furnished also. The 
 latter substance may be absorbed in small 
 quantities from the phosphuretted hydrogen. 
 
 which is occasionally present in the atmo- 
 sphere ; but a more certain supply ought to b« 
 sought in putrescent manure, and particularly 
 in that of aHimal origin. 
 
 The uses of lime in agriculture, as will ap- 
 pear from the foregoing remarks and the 
 reasoning of the essay, are as follows : 
 
 1. When a soil contains inert animal or 
 vegetable matter, their decomposition may be 
 promoted, and it may be rendered fit for the 
 food of plants, by the addition of caustic lime. 
 
 2. If the soil contain acid, that may be 
 neutralized either by caustic or carbonated 
 lime, and besides, the organic matter whose 
 decomposition may have been prevented by 
 the acid, will be permitted to pulrify. 
 
 3. Soils containing too much silica, or in 
 other words those which are sandy, are made 
 more retentive of moisture by the addition 
 of lime or its carbonate. 
 
 4. Clays, may be rendered less retentive 
 of moisture, and more friable by the same 
 means. 
 
 5. The gases which escape when vege- 
 table or animal matter putrify, are retained in 
 the soil by means of lime or its carbonate ; 
 and thus a given quanity of manure, or the 
 original vegetable matter of the soil, will re- 
 tain its efficacy longer. By a recent disco- 
 very, it has also been ascertained that the 
 decomposition of plants yields a peculiar acid, 
 called the humic, which forms with lime a 
 salt sparingly soluble in water. The gene- 
 ration of this salt also serves to render the 
 neutriment contained in the soil more lasting. 
 
 6. Lime and its compounds are absolutely 
 necessary, as constituent parts, to the growth 
 of many plants. The sulphate is essential to 
 the growth of clover, and the phosphate to 
 that of wheat. Hence the efficacy of plaster 
 of Paris and crushed bones as manures. 
 
 7. Iflinieorits sulphate be employed as 
 the means of raising green crops, which have 
 but small exhausting powers, the fertility of a 
 soil may be maintained by ploughing ihem 
 in, or increased by using them to feed cattle 
 whose manure is applied to the ground. 
 
9 
 
 ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE, BY MR. PUVIS. ' 
 
 On the Different Modes of Improving 
 Soil. 
 
 the 
 
 To improve the soil is to modify its composi- 
 tion in such manner as to render it more fertile. 
 This definition, which might be extended to 
 manures charged with vegetable mould [/iu- 
 mtisj or animal substances, which also modify 
 the composition of the soil, is limited by 
 French agriculture to substances which act 
 upon tlie soil, or upon plants, without contain- 
 ing any notable proportion of animal or vege- 
 table matter. 
 
 It is said that manures, [putrescent or en- 
 riching,] serve for the nutriment of plants. 
 But it is the same as to substances improving 
 to the soil, which furnish to it matters which 
 it needs to be fruitful, and which furnish to 
 vegetables, the earth and saline compounds 
 which enter as essential elements in their 
 composition, their texture, and their products. 
 Such improving substances may well be re- 
 garded as nutritive.* 
 
 Thus lime, marl, and all the calcareous 
 compounds employed in agriculture, since 
 they furnish lime and its compounds, which 
 sometimes form half of the fixed principles of 
 vegetables, ought also to be considered as ali- 
 ments ; or, what comes to the same, as fur- 
 nishing apart of the substance of vegetables. 
 Thus again, wood-ashes, pounded bones, 
 burnt bones, which furnish to vegetation the 
 calcareous and saline phosphates which com- 
 pose a sixth of the fixed principles of the 
 stalks, and three-fourths of their seeds, ought 
 well to be considered, and surely are, nutritive. 
 What, then, particularly marks the distinc- 
 tion between manures which improve the 
 soil [ameJirfemcHs] and alimentary manures, 
 [cjiCfrais] is, that the former furnish, for the 
 greater part, the fixed principles of vegeta- 
 bles, the earths, and salts, which are abun- 
 dantly diflused throughout the atmosphere, 
 
 * The two classes of manures wliich are described 
 
 fcnerally above, arc conveniently d'^signated in 
 'rencii eacli by a single word. ^*£»grais,^' which 
 wo can only translate as manure, is liniiti d in signifi- 
 cation to such substances as directly enrich soils and 
 feed growing plants — and " ainendemcns," signifying 
 substances which alter and improve the constitution, 
 texture, and indirectly, the Ibrtilily of soil, but the ope- 
 ration of whicli is not to furnish food to plants. In 
 speaking of the actimi of these difi'orenl classes, the 
 • ensc may be rendered, though not very ]>recisely, by 
 tlie words " enrich" and "improve;" bul there is no 
 one English term that will convey the meaning of 
 either class of substances. ** Alimentary manures" 
 will be used for the first class, and " manures improv- 
 ing the constitution of soil," or some similar awkward, 
 but descriptive phrase, can only render the meaning 
 of the word "amendemcns," unless "improvers" 
 could be tolerated as a substitute for convenience. Tr. 
 
 whence vegetables draw them, by means of 
 suitable organs ; and what is most remarka- 
 ble, is, that the vegetable, by receiving the 
 fixed principles of which it has need, ac- 
 quires, as we shall see, a greater energy to 
 gather for its sustenance the volatile princi- 
 ples which the atmosphere contains. 
 
 The greater part, then, of soils, to be car- 
 ried to the highest rate of productiveness, 
 require manures to improve their constitu- 
 tion. Alimentary manures give much vigor 
 to the leafy products — but they multiply 
 weeds, both by favoring their growth and 
 conveying their seeds ; and they often cause 
 crops of [small grain] to be lodged, when 
 they are heavy. Manures which improve 
 the soil, more particularly aid the formation 
 of the seeds, give more solidity to the stalks, 
 and prevent the falling of the plants. But it 
 is in the simultaneous employment of these 
 two means of fertilization by which we give 
 to the soil all the active power of which it is 
 susceptible. They are necessary to each 
 other, doubling theiraction reciprocally; and 
 whenever they are employed together, fertility 
 goes on without ceasing ; increasing instead 
 of diminishing. 
 
 The greater part of improving substances 
 are calcareous compounds. Their efTect is 
 decided upon all soils which do not contain 
 lime, and we shall see that three-fourths, per- 
 haps, of the lands of France are in that 
 state. Soils not calcareous, whatever may 
 be their culture, and whatever may be the 
 quantity of manure lavished on them, are 
 not suitable tor all products ; are often cold 
 and moist, and are covered w ith weeds. Cal- 
 careous manures, by giving the lime which is 
 wanting in such soils, complete their advan- 
 tages, render the tillage more easy, destroy 
 weeds, and fit the soil for all products. 
 
 Improving substances have been called 
 slimulanls ; they have been thus designated, 
 because it was believed that their effect con- 
 sist( d only in stimulating the soil and the 
 plants. This designation is faulty, because 
 it would place these substances in a false 
 point of view. It would make it seem that 
 they brought nothing to the soil nor to plants ; 
 ami yet their principal effect is to give both 
 principles which are wanting. Thus the 
 main effect of calcareous manures proceeds 
 from their giving, en the one hand, to the soil 
 the calcareous principle which it does not 
 contain, and which is necessary to dcvelope 
 its full action on the atiriosphere ; and, on the 
 other hand, to vegetables, the quantity which 
 they require of this principle for their frame- 
 work and their intimate constitution. It 
 
10 
 
 would then be a better definition than that 
 above, to say, tliaf to itiijirove the soil is to give 
 to it the principles which it requires, and 
 does not contain. 
 
 ImportaiKt of J^Ianures tchich improve the 
 CoMlilulion of Soils. 
 
 The question of improving manure is of 
 great interest to agriculture. This means of 
 meliorating the soil is too little known, and 
 above all, too little practised in a great part 
 of France ; and yet it is a condition abso- 
 lutely necessary to the agricultural prosperity 
 of a country. In the neighborhood of great 
 cities, alimentary manures being furnished on 
 good terms may well vivify the soil ; but ani- 
 mal manures can suffice only in a few situa- 
 tions, and those of small extent ; and in 
 every country where tillage is highly prospe- 
 rous, improving manures are in use. The 
 Department of the North (of France) Belgi- 
 um, and England owe to them, in a great 
 measure, their prosperity. The Department 
 of the North (which is, of all Europe, the 
 country where agriculture is best practised 
 and the most productive,) spends every 
 year, upon two-thirds of its soil, a million of 
 francs in lime, marl, ashes of peat and of 
 bituminous coal [/louiV/e*], and it is princi- 
 pally to these agents, and not to the quality of 
 the soil, that the superiority of its produc- 
 tion is owing. The best of its soil makes 
 part of the same basin, is of the same forma- 
 tion and same quality, as a great part of Ar- 
 tois and Picardy, of which the products are 
 scarcely equal to half the rate of the North. 
 Neither is it the quantity of meadow land 
 which causes its superiority ; that makes but 
 the fifth part of its extent, and Lille, the best 
 ArrondissemenI, has scarcely a twentieth of 
 its surface in meadow, while Avesnc, the 
 worst of all, has one-third. Nor can any 
 great additional value be attributed to ar- 
 tificial meadows, since they are not met with 
 except in the twenty-sixth part of the whole 
 space. Neither can this honor be due to the 
 suppression of naked fallows, since, in this 
 country of pattern husbandry, they yet take 
 up one-sixth of the ploughed land every year. 
 Finally, the Flemings have but one head of 
 large cattle for every two hectares! of land, a 
 proportion exceeded in a great part of 
 France. Their great products then are due to 
 their excellent economy and use of manures, 
 to the assiduous labor of the farmers, to 
 courses of crops well arranged, but, above 
 all, we think, to the improvers of soil, which 
 
 ♦ Statistique du department du Nord. 
 ■( The hectare is very nearly equal to two and a 
 half English (or American) acres. Tr. 
 
 they join to tlieir alimentary manures. Two 
 thirds of their land receive these regularly ; 
 and it is to the reciprocal action of these 
 agents of melioration, that appears to be due 
 the uninterrupted succession of fecundity 
 which astonishes all those who are not accus- 
 tomed continually to see the products of this 
 region. 
 
 At this moment, upon all points in France, 
 agriculture, after the example of the other 
 arts of industry, is bringing forth improve- 
 ments ; in all parts especially, cultivators are 
 trying, or wishing to try, lime, marl, ashes, 
 animal charcoal. It is this particular point in 
 progress, above all, for wliich.light is wanting ; 
 and this opinion has induced the preparation 
 c*" this publication. For more than thirty 
 years the author has devoted himself, from 
 inclination, to agriculture ; but he has been 
 especially attentive to calcareous manures. 
 He has studied in the practice of much ex- 
 tent of country, in that of his own particular- 
 ly, in personal experiments, and in what has 
 been written on them, both by foreigners and 
 countr)'meu. An Essay on Marl has been 
 the first fruit of his labors, an Essay on the 
 •use of Lime will soon be ready : it is with 
 these materials that he now sets himself to 
 work. To prepare for this object, a series of 
 articles, of tbc nature of a recapitulation ra- 
 ther tlian of a regular work, it was necessary 
 to be concise, and yet not to omit any thing 
 essential. It is proper, then, that he should 
 limit himself to the prominent parts of his 
 subject, those especially useful to practice. 
 His advice will then be as often empirical as 
 regular, and his directions will be precise, al- 
 though supported by a few developements. 
 
 An extract from this work has appeared in 
 the Encyclopedie Jlgricole : here it will again 
 appear, but in the form of separate articles, 
 which will be corrected by a general system- 
 atic view of the theory, founded on prac- 
 tice. This is the moment for multiplying 
 publications on this subject, because in al- 
 most all parts of France it is the point in 
 agriculture most controverted; that which in- 
 duces the most labor and the greatest expen- 
 diture ; which presents most doubts ; and 
 which has consequently most need of being 
 made clear. 
 
 We shall not here enlarge upon the man- 
 ner in which improving manures act : we will 
 put olT this important question, with its de- 
 velopements, to the article on lime. Here we 
 only present the theory. Hereafter, that 
 which we will hazard will be founded upon 
 facts, and yet we do not promise these deve- 
 lopements, except so far as may be necessary 
 for the purpose of enlightening and directing 
 practice. 
 
11. 
 
 Of the various kind) oj Improving Manures. 
 
 The first in order, and the most important, 
 are calcareous manures. We comprehend 
 under this name, lime, marl, old plastering 
 mortar, and other rubbish of demolished 
 buildings, beds of fossil shells [_/«/««],* or 
 shelly substances, plaster or gypsum : expe- 
 rience and reason will prove that we ought to 
 arrange in the same class, and by the side of 
 the others, wood ashes, ground bones, and 
 burnt bones. We will not place in the same 
 list the ashes of peat, of bituminous coal, and 
 red pyritous ashes : their effect is not owing 
 to their lime, but (as will be seen afterwards) 
 rather to the effect of fire upon the earthy 
 parts, and particularly upon the argil which 
 they contain. 
 
 We shall next in order treat of manures of 
 the sea, or saline manure of different kinds, of 
 mixtures of earth, of calcined clay : and 
 finally, of paring and burning turf, and the 
 different questions which peat presents in 
 agriculture. 
 
 Of Liming — On the Use of Lime for the Im- 
 provement of Soil. 
 
 1. Among the immense variety of sub- 
 stances, and of combinations which compose 
 the upper layers of the globe, the earthy sub- 
 stances, silex, alumine, and lime, form al- 
 most exclusively the surface 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 millions of spe- 
 cies of beings of all kinds, 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 agriculture, already so complex, 
 which receives from so many circumstances 
 such divers modifications, if there had been 
 added new elements much move complicated, 
 would have been above the reach of human 
 intelligence. 
 
 2. But among these substances, the two 
 first, silex and alumine, form almost exclu- 
 sively three-fourths of all soils ; the third, the 
 carbonate of hme, is found more or less 
 niLxed in the other fourth : all soils in which 
 
 *" Falun. Beds formed by shells. There is one 
 of these immense beds in Touraine. The cultivators 
 of that country use this shelly earth to improve their 
 fields." This definition is from Rozier's Cours Cotn- 
 plet, and though it clearly shows that the substance in 
 question is the same as what is called " marl" in Vir- 
 ginia, it is equally clear that neither of these authors 
 consider /ojtin as being mart. Tb. 
 
 the latter earth is found, have similar charac- 
 ters, 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 suit- 
 able proportions, suffer but little from mois- 
 ture, and let pass easily, to the lower beds, the 
 superabundance of water, and consequently 
 drain themselves with facility. Grain and 
 leguminous crops, the oleaginous plants, and 
 the greater part of the vegetables of com- 
 merce, succeed well on these soils. 
 
 It is among these soils that almost all good 
 lands are found. Nevertheless, the abun- 
 dance of the calcareous principle is more 
 often injurious than useful. Thus it is 
 among soils composed principally of carbon- 
 ate 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 hag 
 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 3 to 5 per cent. Thus the analysis 
 of Messrs. Berthier and Drapiez show 3 
 per cent, of it in the celebrated soil of the en- 
 virons of Lille. 
 
 4. But all these properties, all these ad- 
 vantages, all these products, calcareous ma- 
 nures bear with them to the soils which do 
 not contain the calcareous principle. It is 
 sufficient to spread them in very small pro- 
 portions : a quantity of lime, which does not 
 exceed the thousandth part of the tilled sur- 
 face layer of the soil, a like proportion of 
 drawn ashes, or a two-hundredth part (or even 
 less) of marl, are sufficient to modify the na- 
 ture, change the products, and increase by one- 
 half the crops of a soil destitute of the calca- 
 reous principle. This principle, then, is 
 necessary to be furnished to those soils which 
 do not contain it ; it is then a kind of condi- 
 ment disposed by nature to ameliorate poor 
 soils, and to give to them fertility. 
 
 Ancient Date of the Use of Lime. 
 
 5. Lime, as it appears, has long ago been 
 used in many countries. However, nothing 
 proves that its efiect was well known to the 
 Greeks and Romans, the then civilized por- 
 tion 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 cheny trees, 
 the fruit of which it made more forward : and he 
 speaks of its being used on the soil generally 
 
12 
 
 in two provincts of Gaul, those of the Pic- 
 tones i\n(l ^dui,* whose fields lime rendered 
 more fruitful. The agriculture of the barba- 
 rians was tlieui in this particular, more ad- 
 vanced than that of the Uoinnns. After that, 
 all trace of the use of lime in agriculture is 
 lost for a long time — whether because it had 
 ceased to be used, or only because the no- 
 tice of it was omitted by writers on agricul- 
 ture. The trace is again recovered with 
 Bernard Pellissy, who recommends the use 
 of it in compost in moist lands, and speaks of 
 his use of it in the Ardennes. Nearly a cen- 
 tury later, Olivier de Serresf advises its em- 
 ployment 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 (he practices of ngriculture 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 ever 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 within the last 
 twenty years liming has made more progress 
 than in the two preceding centuries. 
 
 Of Soils suitable for Liming. 
 
 6. Lime, as has been said before, suits 
 such soils as do not contain it already. To 
 distinguish these soils from others, chemical 
 analysis is, without doiib*, the surest means ; 
 but it offers often too nmny difficulties, and 
 lime may be met with in a soil in proportion 
 great enough to exert its power on vegetation 
 without producing cflervescence with acids.J 
 But visible characters may furnish indications 
 almost certain. The soils where the cow 
 wheat, \^melampi]re,1 rest-harrow, '[I'ononis, 
 ou arrele-Lccuf,^ thistles, colt's foot, [<t<s«i- 
 lage,'] and red poppy, spring spontaneously — 
 which produce well in wheat, legumes, (or 
 plants of the pea kind,) and especially sain- 
 foin — where the chestnut succeeds badly — 
 which shows but little of dog's-tooth, [c/tte»i- 
 </«»/,] volunteer grasses, or common weeds, 
 l^gramincs adveulices^ except of the small le- 
 
 • JEdui et Piclonfs calee uberrimos feccre ugrns. 
 
 t Who wrote on Agriciillure in tlio rtign of Henry 
 IV. of France. Tr. 
 
 i This is a full thoiigli hulircct arlmission of tlie 
 truth of the doctrine of neiUnil soils, muintained in the 
 Easay on Calcareous Manures. Tr. 
 
 guminous kinds — soils which, after being 
 dry, crumble with the first rain — all these 
 are almost certainly calcareous, have no need 
 of lime, nor its compounds,* and would feel 
 from their use rather ill than good elfects. 
 
 On the contrary, all soils composed of the 
 mouldcrings [r/cbris] of granite or schistus, 
 almost all sandy soils ; those which are moist 
 and cold of the iuunense argilo-silicious table 
 lands \^j)lalcaui argih-silicituj:^ which sepa- 
 rate the basins of great rivers ;t those where 
 rushes, f[pelil ajmtc^ the heath, /fs ;)e/i7»carej: 
 blaitcs, the whitish moss spring spontaneous- 
 ly — almost all the soils infested with aruine a 
 chaptkts, wilh dog's-tooth, with bent grass, 
 [agresiis,^ red sorrel, and the little fever- 
 few — that soil where, unless so clayey as to 
 offer great difficulty to cultivation, only rye, 
 potatoes, and buckwheat, can be made to 
 grow, and m here sainfoin and the greater part 
 of the crops of commerce cannot succeed — 
 where, however, trees of all descriptions, and 
 especially of the resinous kinds, the wood- 
 pine, the sea pine, the larch, the northern 
 pine, and the chestnut, thrive better than in 
 the best land — all these soils are without the 
 calcareous principle, and all the improving 
 manures in wliich it is found, would give to 
 
 ♦ Though hoth the tnitli and the usefulness of this 
 passage, in general, are ailiuitted, yet it is incorrect in 
 the position that none of llie " eoiunounds of lime'* 
 would he advantageously employed on calcareous 
 soils. On the contrary, the sulphate of lime (gjpsum), 
 the most important compound as a manure next to 
 the carbonate, is most ttToctive where the land has 
 lime in some other form : and indeed, (as has been 
 maintained elsewhere,) it seems generally inert and 
 useless on soils very deficient in lime. [Essay on 
 Calcareous Manures, pp. 50, 92.] 
 
 t The character oi" the lands called by the author 
 " pMtaiix ttTt^ilu-silkieiix," and which he refers to fre- 
 (pifinlly in the course of his essay, can only be gather- 
 ed from the conte.xt. They are |>oor, intractable under 
 tillage, and hut little pervious to water. The name 
 indicates then- coniposilinn to be siliceous and alumi- 
 nous earth almost entirely. It may be inferred that 
 such liinds resemble in sod the elevated level ridgeSf 
 which in lower Virgii.ia separate dllTerent watercours- 
 es, and especially those which, in addition to being 
 miserably poor, arc remarkably close, stiff", and " wa- 
 ter-holdiuir," and arc in some places called "cold 
 livery hmd," " pipe-clay," or " cray-fish" soils. Soil of 
 this kind, and ofthc nrost marked character, is partieu- 
 iaily descnbod at page 4(t, E^say on Calcareous Ma- 
 nures, 2d ed. M. IPuvis elsewhere speaks of this 
 orgilo-silieieux" soil as beiiig found every where in 
 l^'rimce, and as known in difTLTcnt places under the va- 
 rious names of "terrain blanc," "blanche terrc," in 
 the south, " boulbenne," in the north, of " terrecly- 
 tre," and " terre a bois" — and the basin of tlic Loire, 
 "tcrre dc Sologne." The last name would direct us 
 to the lands of Sologne, which furnish it, as it may bo 
 presumed, as being of like quality. Arthur Young 
 says, " Sologne is one of the poorest and most unim- 
 proved provinces of the kingdom, and one of the most 
 singular coimliies 1 have seen. It is flat, consisting of 
 a poor sand or gravel, everywhere on a clay or marl 
 bottom, retcniivi; of water to such a degree tiiat every 
 ditch and liolo was full of iU" Tn. 
 
13 
 
 these the qualities of, and nourish the growths 
 peculiar to, calcareous soils. 
 
 But there, more than elsewhere, it is espe- 
 cially necessary to avoid too much haste. 
 Liming upon a large scale ought not to be 
 done, until after having succeeded in small ex- 
 periments oil many different parts of the 
 ground designed to be improved. 
 
 Extent of Surface to which Lime is suitable. 
 
 7. A great proportion of the soil of France 
 does not contain the calcareous principle. 
 The country of primitive formation — the 
 mountains of which the rock is not calca- 
 reous — many soils even, of which the sub- 
 soils inclose calcareous formations — the 
 great and last alluvion which has covered the 
 surface, and which still composes it where- 
 ever the return waters have not carried it off 
 with them — also extensive surfaces, in the 
 composition of which the calcareous princi- 
 ple had not entered except in small propor- 
 tions, and which small amount has been 
 worn out by the successions of vegetation — 
 all these kinds of soil, which comprise at 
 least three-fourths of the surface of France, 
 to be fertilized, demand calcareous manures. 
 If it is admitted that one-third of all this 
 space has already received aid from lime, 
 marl, ashes of wood, or of peat, of bones 
 burnt, or pounded, there will still remain the 
 half of France to be improved by such 
 means ; an immense task, doubtless — but of 
 which the results will be still more prodigious, 
 since it will cause the products of all this 
 great space to^be increased one-half, or more. 
 
 Of the various Modes of apphjing Lime to 
 the Soil. 
 
 8. Three principal modes of proceeding are 
 in use for applying lime. The first is the 
 most simple, and is the most general where- 
 ever lime is obtained cheaply, and where cul- 
 ture is but little advanced in perfection, and 
 manual labor is dear. This consists in putting 
 the lime [the burned limestone] immediately 
 on the ground in little heaps at 20 feet ave- 
 rage distance, and each heap containing, ac- 
 cording to the rate of limiting, from a cubic 
 foot of the stone to half that quantity. When 
 the lime has been slaked by exposure to the 
 air, and has fallen into powder, it is spread on 
 the surface so as to be equally divided. 
 
 9. The second mode differs from the first 
 in this respect : the heaps of stone are co- 
 vered with a coat of earth, about six inches 
 thick, according to the size of the heap, and 
 which is equal to five or six times the bulk of 
 the hme. 'When tlie hme begins to swell, by 
 
 slaldng, the cracks and openings in the heap 
 are filled with earth : and when the lime is 
 reduced to powder, each heap is worked 
 over, so as to mix thoroughly the lime and the 
 earth. If nothing hurries the labor, this last 
 operation is repeated at the end of fifteen 
 days — and then, after waiting two weeks more, 
 the mixture is spread over the soil. 
 
 10. The third process, which is adopted 
 where culture is more perfect, where lime is 
 dear, and which combines all the advantages 
 of liming without oflering any of their incon- 
 veniences, consists in making compost heaps 
 of lime and earth, or mould. For this, there 
 is first made a bed of earth, mould, or turf, of 
 a foot, or thereabouts, in thickness. The 
 clods are chopped down, and there is spread 
 over a layer of unslaked hme of a hecto- 
 litre* for the 20 cubic feet, or a ton to the 
 45 cubic feet of earth. Upon this lime 
 there is placed another layer of earth, equal 
 in thickness to the first, then a second layer 
 of lime ; and then the heap is finished by a 
 third layer of earth. If the earth is moist, 
 and the lime recently burned, 8 or 10 days 
 will suffice to slake it completely. Then the 
 heap is cut down and well mixed — and this 
 operation is repeated afterwards before using 
 the manure, which is delayed as long as pos- 
 sible, because the power of the effect on the 
 soil is increased with the age of the compost ; 
 and especially if it has been made with the 
 earth containing much vegetable mould. 
 This method is the one most used in Bel- 
 gium and Flanders : it is becoming almost 
 the exclusive practice in Normandy : it is the 
 only practice, and followed with the greatest 
 success, in La Sarthe. Lime in compost is 
 never injurious to the soil. It carries with it 
 the surplus of alimentary manure which the 
 surplus of product demands for its suste- 
 nance. Light soils, sandy or gravelly, are 
 not tired by repetitions of this compost. No 
 country, nor author, charges lime, used in this 
 state, with having been injurious to the soil. 
 In short, this means seems to us the most 
 sure, the most useful, and the least expen- 
 sive mode of applying lime as manure. 
 
 11. The reduction of burnt lime to pow- 
 der by means of a momentary immersion in 
 water in handle-baskets, serves much to has- 
 ten the slaking, whether the lime is to be ap- 
 plied immediately to the soil, or in compost 
 heaps — some hours in this manner sufficing, 
 in place of waiting two weeks ; however, the 
 
 * The hectolitre contains 6102.8 English cubic inch- 
 es, or is equal to 2.82, (or about 2.G-7) Winche.ster 
 bushel?, Therofoie the hectolitre is rather more in 
 proportion to the hectare, than our bushel is to the 
 acre. The decalitre (named next page) is the tenth 
 of a hectolitre, and of course the " double decalitre" 
 is the tit'tli. Tr. 
 
14 
 
 effect of lime, in this state, may well be diffe- 
 rent, as we have then the hydrate of lime, and 
 less ofthe carbonate of caustic lime.* If great 
 rains follow, this process is not without its in- 
 conveniences, because then the lime, which 
 is already saturated with water, is more easily 
 brought to the state of mortar, which ought 
 to be avoided more than every other injury to 
 the manure. 
 
 The reduction of burnt limestone to pow- 
 der, whether it be spontaneous or by immer- 
 sion, produces in the compost a bulk greater 
 by one-half or more than that of the stone — 
 10 cubic feet, producing 15 — or a ton, 10 
 cubic feet. This increase is not uniform 
 with all kinds of lime ; it is greater with the rich 
 [_gi-asses2, and less with the poor varieties. 
 
 Liming, aa praclisf din different Countries. 
 Jn the Department of Ain. 
 
 12. The application of lime in Ain dates 
 fifty years back. At the present time, the 
 soil which has been limed is still more pro- 
 ductive than the neighboring, not limed. 
 Nevertheless, liming is but beginning to ex- 
 tend, while marling, which was begun fifteen 
 years later, has already covered many thou- 
 sands of hectares. This is because marling 
 is an operation within the means of poor cul- 
 tivators, being accomplished by labor alone ; 
 while liming requires considerable advances, 
 especially in this country, where lime is dear, 
 and the dose given is heavy. 
 
 The dressings vary in quantity, from 60 
 to 100 hectolitres the hectare, according to 
 the. nature of the ground, and often accord- 
 ing to the caprice of the cultivators. Al- 
 though these limings have not been m.ide 
 with all the care and economy that was desir- 
 able, they have been very efficacious when 
 the soil has been sufliciently drained. The 
 following tables, extracted from the registers 
 of three contiguous domains, belonging to 
 M. Armand, three years before, and nine 
 years during the progress of liming, give us 
 the means of appreciating the results. The 
 quantities of seed and of crops, are calculat- 
 ed in double decalitres, or in measures of 
 fiflhs of hectolitres. 
 
 ♦ An incorrect expression, certainly, but literally 
 translated. Tr. 
 
 Tahl* of product of the domain of La Croi- 
 selle. 
 
 TBA^RS. 
 
 kVE. 
 
 WUCAT. 1 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 1822 
 1823 
 1824 
 1825 
 1826 
 1827 
 1828 
 1829 
 1830 
 1831 
 1832 
 1833 
 
 110 
 
 110 
 
 110 
 
 107 
 
 106 
 
 100 
 
 90 
 
 82 
 
 60 
 
 78 
 
 55 
 
 61 
 
 600 
 764 
 744 
 406 
 578 
 604 
 634 
 538 
 307 
 350 
 478 
 529 
 
 24 
 24 
 24 
 27 
 
 28 
 30 
 36 
 48 
 60 
 40 
 68 
 62 
 
 146 
 136 
 166 
 251 
 210 
 249 
 391 
 309 
 469 
 417 
 816 
 ■ 546 
 
 Table of prodtict of the domain of Miseriat, 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 RTE. 
 
 WHEAT. 1 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 1822 
 
 120 
 
 487 
 
 16 
 
 100 
 
 1823 
 
 120 
 
 708 
 
 16 
 
 103 
 
 1824 
 
 120 
 
 644 
 
 18 
 
 84 
 
 1825 
 
 112 
 
 504 
 
 28 
 
 228 
 
 1826 
 
 120 
 
 677 
 
 20 
 
 116 
 
 1827 
 
 115 
 
 694 
 
 20 
 
 162 
 
 1828 
 
 118 
 
 726 
 
 40 
 
 328 
 
 1829 
 
 104 
 
 566 
 
 41 
 
 277 
 
 1830 
 
 79 
 
 298 
 
 71 
 
 477 
 
 1S31 
 
 91 
 
 416 
 
 43 
 
 326 
 
 1S32 
 
 79 
 
 411 
 
 75 
 
 786 
 
 1833 
 
 76 
 
 616 
 
 48 
 
 361 
 
 Table of product of the domain of La Ba^ 
 ronne. 
 
 VEARS. 
 
 RYE. 
 
 WHEAT. 1 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Product. 
 
 1822 
 
 110 
 
 605 
 
 22 
 
 180 
 
 1823 
 
 110 
 
 643 
 
 22 
 
 138 
 
 1824 
 
 110 
 
 662 
 
 24 
 
 149 
 
 1825 
 
 102 
 
 398 
 
 32 
 
 252 
 
 1826 
 
 110 
 
 612 
 
 32 
 
 187 
 
 1827 
 
 107 
 
 546 
 
 34 
 
 204 
 
 1828 
 
 98 
 
 696 
 
 38 
 
 343 
 
 1829 
 
 84 
 
 608 
 
 40 
 
 268 
 
 1830 
 
 91 
 
 389 
 
 59 
 
 374 
 
 1831 
 
 92 
 
 411 
 
 40 
 
 295 
 
 1832 
 
 70 
 
 512 
 
 SO 
 
 649 
 
 1833 
 
 75 
 
 611 
 
 61 
 
 471 
 
15 
 
 The application of 3000 hectolitres [8,490 
 bushels] of lime, of the value of 6000 
 francs [$1116] upon 32 hectares [80 acres] 
 of ground, made successively during nine 
 years, has then more than doubled the crops 
 of winter grain, the seed being deducted. 
 The other crops of the farms have received 
 a proportional increase ; and the revenue of 
 the proprietor, in doubling, has annually in- 
 creased two-thirds more than the amount of 
 the sum expended in the purchase of lime. 
 Still, there is not yet half the arable land 
 hraed, since of 66 hectares, only 32 have re- 
 ceived this improvement. 
 
 The products of 1834 are still greater than 
 those of 1833. But these are sufficient to 
 prove the importance and utility of applying 
 lime to suitable soils. 
 
 Many other examples sustain these re- 
 sults ; and from them all it appears, that the 
 wheat seedings are increased from double to 
 triple — that the rye lands, from bringing four 
 to five [to one of seed] in rye, are able to 
 bring six to eight in wheat — and that other 
 products are increased in proportion. The 
 melioration then is, relatively, much greater 
 upon bad ground than upon good, since it is 
 two-thirds and more on the wheat land, and 
 on the rye lands the crop is increased in va- 
 lue three-fold. 
 
 Flemish Liming. 
 
 13. The use of calcareous manures in the 
 department of the North, as in Belgium, ap- 
 pears to be as old as good fanning. It is now 
 much less frequent in Belgium. The an- 
 cient and repeated limings have, as it seems, 
 furnished to great part of the soil all that is 
 necessary to it, for the present. But the de- 
 partment of the North still receives lime, 
 marl, or ashes, every where, or nearly so, 
 where lime is not a component ingredient of 
 the soil. They distinguish in this country 
 two kinds of liming. The first [chaulage 
 foncierl consists in giving to the soil, every 
 10 or 12 years before seed time, four cubic 
 metres, or 40 hectolitres of lime to the hec- 
 tare.* They often mix with the slaked lime, 
 ashes of bituminous coal, or of peat, which 
 enter into the mixture in the proportion of 
 from a third to a half, and take the place of an 
 equal quantity of hme. The other mode of 
 liming [^chaulage (TassohmenQ, is given in 
 compost, and at every renewal of the rota- 
 tion, or upon the crop of spring grain. It is 
 also in regular use in this country, still more 
 than in Belgium, upon the meadows on eold 
 pasture lands, which do not receive the wa- 
 
 * 46 bnshels to the acre, English or American mea- 
 sure. Tr. 
 
 ters 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 limings of Normandy, the most 
 ancient of France, are kept up in the neigh- 
 borhood of Bayeux, while elsewhere they are 
 forbidden in the leases : however, now they 
 go over all the surface which has need of 
 them ; but in place of being applied immedi- 
 ately to the soil, as in the ancient method, the 
 lime is almost always put in compost. 
 
 Liming of La Sarthe. 
 
 15. Of the modes of using lime, that of 
 La Sarthe 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 made in advance, 
 with seven or eight parts of mould, or of 
 good earfti, to one of lime. They use this 
 compost on the land for the autumn sowing, 
 and placed alternately with rows of farm- 
 yard manure. This method, of which the 
 success is greater from day to day, is ex- 
 tending on the great body of flat argilo-sili- 
 cious lands, which border the Loire'; and it 
 would seem that this method ought to be 
 adopted every where, on open soils that per- 
 mit surplus water to drain off easily. — On 
 very moist soils the dose of lime ought per- 
 haps to be increased. 
 
 We would desire much to inculcate with 
 force the suitableness, and eminent advanta- 
 ges, of using at the same time lime and [ali- 
 mentary] manure. Here they do better still, in 
 using at the same time 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 spo- 
 ken, 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 ex- 
 periments, even when they have succeeded, 
 to induce their imitation by the great mass. 
 Still, successful results are multiplied, and 
 become the centres of impulse, from which 
 meliorations extend. 
 
 ' 1 1 J bushels to the acre. Tb. 
 
IG 
 
 English Liming. 
 
 17. The English limings seem to bo csla- 
 blished upon quite another principle from that 
 of France. They arc given with such pro- 
 digality, that the melioration upon the limed 
 soil has no need to be renewed afterwards. 
 VVliilst in France wo 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 
 the hectare. The full success of the me- 
 tliod of our country might make us 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 la- 
 vishing [alimentary] manures also afterwards, 
 the future value of the sod would be endan- 
 gered in the hands of a greedy cultivator. 
 
 We will not urge the condemnation of a 
 practice which seems to have resulted in 
 few inconveniencics. The abundance of ali- 
 nicntaiy 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 for a long time to come ; and such 
 kinds, ahd where humtts abounds, will take up 
 a heavy dose of lime, and, as it seems, al- 
 ways without inconvenient consequences ; 
 there is then formed there the humaU of lime 
 in the greatest proportion, and we shall see 
 that this combination is a great means of pro- 
 ductiveness in the soil.* 
 
 Surface Liming. 
 
 18. In Germany, where liming and marl- 
 ing, like most other agricultural improve- 
 ments, have recently made great advances, 
 besides the ordinary modes of application, 
 lime is used as a surface dressing. They 
 sprinkle over tho rye, in the spring, a com- 
 post 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 
 
 * In this passage the author distinctly affirms the 
 tnitli of the chemical combination in the soil of calca- 
 reous and vegetable (or otlier putrescent) — or t!ie 
 power of calcareous earlii to tix and retain enriching 
 matter — wliich is mnintaiiicd in the Essay on Cn/co- 
 rcoits manures, (pp. 30, 31,) to be the most important 
 action of calcareous matter as an ingredient of soil. — 
 Still M. Puvis seems to attach mucii less importance 
 to this than to other agencies of lime, which are con- 
 aidered in the Essay as of little value in comparison. 
 Tb. 
 
 dose being less by one-half ; the efTsct upon 
 the clover and the following crop of wheat is 
 very advantageous. 
 
 In Flanders, where they use lime mixed 
 with ashes, it is especially applied to mea- 
 dows, natural or artificial, and tlie application 
 b then made on the surface. 
 
 Burning Lime. 
 
 19. The burning of lime is performed with 
 wood, « ith pit coal, or with peat ; in tempo- 
 rary 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 ; how- 
 ever, in Prussia they succeed with three- 
 fourths peat and one-fourth wood. It is, 
 doubtless, a very economical process, and the 
 Sociele d' Enconragemenl has given in its 
 transactions plans of peat kilns ; but I know 
 not whether the operators who received prizes 
 for their use have continued the practice. 
 
 Temporary kilns admit of the burning of a 
 great quantity of lime ; but the permanent 
 kilns burn it with most economy of fuel. In 
 the first, 5 quintals of wood burn 4 quintals, 
 or 1 ton, or 2i hectolitres of lime — and in the 
 others, the same quantity of wood will suffice 
 for 6 quintals or 3j hectolitres. But in the 
 permanent kilns such is the expense of con- 
 struction and repairs, that they cannot be jus- 
 tified 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 the 
 diflerenco. Hydraulic hme is calcined more 
 easily than the common [cliaux grasses']. 
 Egg-shaped kilns for coal seem to be prefer- 
 able to the conical, which are more generally 
 met with. 
 
 Precautions to he used in Liming. 
 
 20. Whatever may be the method adopted 
 for using lime, it is essential that, like all cal- 
 careous manures, it should be a|)plied in pow- 
 der, and not in a state like mortar — and upon 
 the earth when not wet. Until the lime is co- 
 vered 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 
 of 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 tho 
 
17 
 
 surface water does not sink or pass off easily, 
 the properties of lime remain as it were lock- 
 ed up, and do not make themselves seen, un- 
 til, by new operations, the vegetable mould 
 has been drained and put in healthy condi- 
 tion. 
 
 On an argillaceous and very moist soil, the 
 use of marl, which is applied in great quan- 
 tities, 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 pre- 
 liminary condition, essential to the success of 
 either liming or marling : because in increas- 
 ing 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 compost, it is suffi- 
 cient that the compost be made a long time 
 previously. 
 
 Lime, whether alone or in compost, 
 spread dry upon the soil, ought to be covered 
 by a very shallow first ploughing, preceded 
 by a slight harrowing, in order that the hme, 
 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 de- 
 scends 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 ar- 
 rests 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 magne- 
 sia. Pwe lime is the most economical, the 
 most active, that which can produce the most 
 effect in the least quantity. 
 
 Siliciotis limestone is used in greater quan- 
 tity. The lime from it receives, as does the 
 foregoing, the name of hoi lime, and there is 
 little difference in the application, except that 
 more of the latter is wanting. 
 
 Argillaceous lime is the same as the hy- 
 draulic lime, or the poor lime of builders. 
 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 
 of 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 entire provinces of Ameri« 
 ca,* and it is to this kind that seem due most 
 of the complaints made against lime. 
 
 By chemical processes the farmer may 
 make himself sure of the nature of the lime 
 which he uses. 
 
 Pure lime is commonly white, and is dis- 
 solved, without any thing being 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 impal- 
 pable powder [e< qui prend en masse^, which 
 may be formed into a mass when wet. 
 
 Magnesian lime is made from stone com- 
 monly colored brown or pale yellow ; it forms 
 a white cloud in nitric acid, diluted with wa- 
 ter, and used in less quantity than sufficient 
 for saturation. 
 
 Of second Limings. 
 
 23. When the limed field returns to the 
 state in which it was before the operation, 
 when 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. Be- 
 sides, in this matter we should take counsel 
 of the state of the soil and of experience, 
 because there are some lands which de- 
 mand, and can use heavier doses of lime thaq 
 others. 
 
 Quantities applied. 
 
 24. The quantities of first as of second 
 dressings of lime, vary with the consistence 
 
 * The author has been deceived by exaggerated ac- 
 counts of injury fiom liming in America. It is proba- 
 ble that wherever it occurred, it was caused by the 
 usual ignorance of the action of lime : from errone- 
 ously considering it as alimentary, and directly ferti- 
 lizing manure, and after applying it, wealing out the 
 soil by continued grain crops. Such efTects are spok- 
 en of by Eordley. Tn. 
 
J8 
 
 of soils : they ought to be small on light and 
 sandy soils — and may, without ill conse- 
 quences, be heavy on clay soils. 
 
 The dose ought to vary according as the 
 soil is more or less pervious to water, or as 
 drained well or ill by its texture. Small ap- 
 plications to soils from which the superfluous 
 water does nut pass easily, are but little felt ; 
 but if the dressing is heavy, and the plough- 
 ing deep, the lime aids the draining and adds 
 to the healthy state of the soil. It may be 
 conceived that the quantity of lime ought also 
 to be increased with the annual quantity of 
 rain that falls — because in proportion to that 
 quantity ought the openness of the soil, and 
 its fitness for draining, to be extended. 
 
 Nevertheless, the practices of the depart- 
 ments of the North and of La Sarthe seem 
 to indicate the average dressing which suits 
 in general for land : thus the liming of the 
 North, which every ten or twelve years gives 
 to the soil 40 hectolitres of lime to the hec- 
 tare, or a little more than three hectolitres a 
 year, agrees with that of La Sarthe, which 
 gives eight or ten hectolitres every three 
 years. The first plan gives at one dressing 
 what the other distributes in four : as both 
 make alike average, it may be thence inferred 
 that the earth demands annually three hectoli- 
 tres, [323 bushels to the acre,] to sustain its 
 fecundity. But as neither the soil nor the 
 plants consume all this quantity of lime, it is 
 to b« believed, that at the end of a greater or 
 less length of time, the soil will have received 
 enough to have no more need of it for a cer- 
 tain space of time. 
 
 J\Ianner of treating Limed Lands. 
 
 25. After having, by liming, given the soil 
 a great productive power, having put it in 
 condition to produce the most valuable crops, 
 which are often also the most exhausting, it 
 is necessary to husband these resources — to 
 give manure in return for the products obtain- 
 ed — to employ as litter, and not as food, the 
 straw, now increased by one half — to raise 
 grass crops from the soil now fitted to bear 
 them with advantage — in short, to modify the 
 general plan, and the detail of the culture ac- 
 cording to the new powers of the soil, the 
 prices of commodities, and to local conve- 
 niences. 
 
 However, it is not necessary to hurry the 
 change of the rotation. Such an operation 
 is long, ditficult, very expensive, and ought 
 not to be executed but with much delibera- 
 tion. 
 
 Effects of Lime on the Soil. 
 
 26. The effects of lime, although similar 
 to, are not identical with, those produced by 
 
 marl ; and the qtialities of soils limed, differ 
 in some points from those of natural calca- 
 reous soils. The grain from limed land is 
 rounder, firmer, gives less bran, and more 
 flour, than that from marled land : the grain of 
 marled land is more gray, gives more bran, 
 and resembles that made upon clover, though 
 it may be preferable to the latter. The grain 
 of a limed soil is more like that from land 
 improved with drawn ashes. Limed land is 
 less exposed to danger from drought than 
 marled land, on soils naturally calcareous. 
 The crop is not subject to be lodged at flow- 
 ering time, when the sowing was done in dry 
 earth. 
 
 27. In limed earth, weeds and insects dis- 
 appear. The earth, if too light, acquires stifT- 
 ness, and is lightened if too clayey. The 
 surface of the argilo-silicious soil, before close 
 and whitish, is made friable, and becomes 
 reddish, as if rotten : it hardens and splits 
 with drought, and is dissolved by the rains 
 which succeed. This spontaneous loosening 
 of the soil facilitates greatly the labor of the 
 cultivator, the movement of the roots of the 
 growing plants, and the reciprocal action of 
 the atmosphere upon the soil, which remains 
 open to its influence. 
 
 All these new properties which the limed 
 soil has acquired, doubtless explain in part 
 the fertilizing means which calcareous agents 
 bring to the soil : but we think it is still neces- 
 sary to seek some of these causes elsewhere. 
 
 28. Lime, according to the recent disco- 
 veries of German chemists, seizes in the 
 soil the soluble humus or humic acid, lakes 
 it from all other bases, and forms a compound 
 but slightly soluble, which appears, under this 
 form, eminently suitable to the wants of plants. 
 But as this compound is not soluble in less 
 than 2000 times it weight of water, while 
 without the lime the humus is soluble in a 
 volume of water less by one-half, it would 
 follow that, in consequence of lime, the con- 
 sumption of this substance, and the produc- 
 tive power of the soil would, in like propor- 
 tion, be better preserved. Since the pro- 
 ducts of the soil increase much from the 
 liming, while the humus is economised, since 
 these products borrow very little from the 
 soil, which remains more fertile while thus 
 yielding greater products, it follows that the 
 pnncipal action of the lime consists, at first, 
 in augmenting, in the soil and in the plants, 
 the means of drawing from the atmosphere 
 the vegetable principles which they find there ; 
 and next, in aiding, according to the need, the 
 formation, in the soil or the plants, the sub- 
 stances which enter into the composition of 
 plants, and which are not met with ready 
 formed either in the atmosphere or in the soil. 
 
19 
 
 The researches upon these various points 
 are curious, important, interesting to practice 
 as well as to science — and will lead us to ex- 
 plain, by means not yet appreciated, the 
 action of lime upon vegetation. 
 
 Absorption by plants of the principles of the 
 atmosphere, in the vegetation on uncultivated 
 soils. 
 
 29. Saussure has concluded, from his ex- 
 periments, that plants derive from the soil 
 about one-twentieth of their substance ; and 
 the experiments of Van Helmontand of Boyle 
 have proved that considerable vegetable pro- 
 ducts diminish very little the mass of the soil. 
 But this fact is still better proved by the ob- 
 servation of what passes in uncultivated soils. 
 
 Woodland that is cut over in regular suc- 
 cession {taillis) produces almost indefinitely, 
 without being exhausted, and even becoming 
 richer, the mass of vegetable products which 
 man gathers and removes, and of which the 
 soil does not contain the principles. If, in- 
 stead of woodlands thus partially and suc- 
 cessively cut over, we consider upon the 
 same soil a succession of forests, and, for 
 greater ease of estimation, resinous forests, 
 we find for the products of the generation of 
 an age, forty to fifty thousand cubic feet to the 
 hectare. This product is less than that of 
 the resinous forests of many parts of the 
 country, and yet it is nearly equal in bulk to 
 half of the layer of the productive soil itself : 
 it represents an annual increase of 24,000 
 weight of wood to the hectare — and which is 
 produced not only without impoverishing, but 
 even while enriching the soil, by an enormous 
 quantity of droppings and remains of all kinds. 
 
 These products which do not come from 
 the soil, are then drawn from the atmosphere, 
 in which plants gather them by means of par- 
 ticular organs designed for that use. These 
 organs are the myriads of leaves which large 
 vegetables bear — aerial roots, which gather 
 these principles either ready formed in the 
 air, or which take up there the elements, to 
 combine them by means of vegetable power. 
 But these aerial roots exert quite a different 
 and superior energy in gathering the consti- 
 tuent principles of plants in the atmosphere, to 
 that of the roots in the ground — since the for- 
 mer furnish nearly the whole amount of the 
 vegetable mass, while the latter draw but very 
 little from the soil. 
 
 30. Plants may well find in the atmosphere 
 the greater part of the volatile principles 
 which compose them — the carbon, hydrogen, 
 oxygen, and azote. But it is not so easily 
 seen whence they obtain the fixed principles 
 
 of which their ashes are composed. These 
 products could not exist ready formed in the 
 soil — for the saline principles contained in the 
 ashes of a generation of great trees, which 
 would amount to more than 25,000 weight to 
 the hectare, would have rendered the soil ab- 
 solutely barren, since, according to the experi- 
 ments of M. Lecoq of Clermont, the twentieth 
 part of this quantity is enough to make a soil 
 sterile. We would find a similar result in ac- 
 cumulating the successive products of an 
 acre of good meadow. It is then completely 
 proved that the saline principles of plants do 
 not exist ready formed in the soil. They are 
 no more formed in the atmosphere, or the 
 the analyses of chemists would have found 
 them there. However, as the intimate com- 
 position of these substances is not yet per- 
 fectly known, their elements may exist in the 
 atmosphere, or even in the soil, among the 
 substances which compose them. 
 
 Neither can it be said that these salts may 
 be derived from the atomic dust which floats 
 in the air ; for this dust is composed of frag- 
 ments organic and inorganic, carried especial- 
 ly to the plants themselves, and then, in es- 
 timating this atomic matter at the most, we 
 will scarcely find in it the hundredth part of 
 the saline substances contained in the vegeta- 
 ble mass produced. We ought then to con- 
 clude that the saline substances of plants are 
 formed by the powers of vegetation or of the 
 soil. 
 
 31. In like manner as with the saline prin- 
 ciples, the lime and the phosphates which are 
 formed in ashes ought to be due to the same 
 forces, whether the roots take up their unper- 
 ceived elements in the soil, or the leaves gather 
 them in the atmosphere. This consequence 
 results evidently from this fact — that plants 
 grown in soils, of which the analysis shows 
 neither lime nor the phosphates, contain them 
 notwithstanding in large proportion in their 
 fixed principles — of which [or of the ashes] 
 they often compose half the mass.* 
 
 Absorption of plants, in vegetation on culti- 
 vated soils. 
 
 32. Vegetation on uncultivated soils ope- 
 rates under conditions altogether different 
 from those of the cultivated, so that the results 
 receive modifications which it is important to 
 examine. 
 
 Nature produces, and continues to produce, 
 all the vegetable mass in spontaneous growth, 
 
 " This fact is explained very different by the Es- 
 say on Calcareous Manures (Ch. VII.) where it is 
 used to sustain tlie doctrine of neutral soils. — [Tr.] 
 
without any other condition than the alternation 
 and succession of the species. Id vegeta- 
 tion on cultivated land, by bringing together 
 the same individual plants which are to grow 
 abundantly on a soil and in a climate which, 
 in most cases, are not those which nature had 
 designed, there are required, besides the ge- 
 neral condition ofalternation of the species, fre- 
 quent tillage of the soil, and means to repair 
 its losses, that the culture may be productive 
 and be continued. However, with these new 
 conditions, the force of absorption of plants 
 on the atmosphere still furnishes the greater 
 part of the vegetable principles in soils not 
 limed — and still more in limed soils. 
 
 To form a precise idea, we will take it in 
 the land of the writer, its culture and its bien- 
 nial rotation. As the same qualities of soil 
 are found elsewhere, as no particular circum- 
 stance increases or impairs its products, there 
 would be found similar results, for the same 
 qualities of soil, with a different culture. — 
 The inferences which we will draw from ours 
 will apply then to all others. 
 
 On our soil of the third class, [or worst 
 quality,] fallow returns every two years, with 
 a biennial manuring of 120 quintals to the 
 hectare. This mass contains more than four- 
 fifths of water, which should not be counted 
 as manure, and consequently the substance 
 which serves for the reparation of the soil is 
 reduced to 24 quintals. We reap, in rye, 
 straw, and buckwheat, after the year of fal- 
 low, a dry weight of 40 to 50 quintals on an 
 average. If it is supposed that all the ma- 
 nure is consumed, or employed in forming 
 vegetable substance, still the soil would have 
 furnished 18 to 20 quintals more than it re- 
 ceived, and which excess would be due to the 
 power of absorption, whether of the soil or of 
 the plants, on the atmosphere. 
 
 On land of middle quality, which yields a 
 crop every year, with a double manuring, that 
 is to say, of 48 quintals of dry manure, in two 
 years there is a product of wheat, maize, or 
 potatoes, which amounts to from 12 to 15,000 
 weight, 120 to 150 quintals, of which two- 
 thirds, or 80 quintals at least, are derived from 
 absorption. 
 
 On soils of good quality, with a manuring 
 of one-third more than the last, which is equal 
 to 64 quintals of the dry substance to the hec- 
 tare, there are obtained of dry products, in 
 grain, straw, roots, or hay, double of the last, 
 or nearly so, of which three-fourtlis, or 180 
 quintals, are due to the power of absorption. 
 
 Lastly — upon the most fertile soils, {sols 
 (Texceplion,) where manures are useless, the 
 product, often double, or at least half as much 
 more than the last-mentioned, will amount to 
 
 360 quintals to the hectare in two years. 
 This product would be, as in spontaneous 
 vegetation, entirely due to absorption. 
 
 We would have, then, to represent the pro- ^ 
 ducts of two years, in quintals, in the four HI 
 classes of soil under consideration, the pro- ^' 
 gressive amounts of 42, 130, 240, 360 ; or, 
 by deducting from these products the weight 
 of the manure, we would have, to represent 
 the power of absorption, the progression H 
 18, 82, 176, 360 quintals. From this is de- ^ 
 duced, as the first conclusion, that, suppos- 
 ing the plants have consumed and annihilat- 
 ed all the substance of the manure given, 
 (which is beyond the truth,) plants receive a 
 much greater part of their substance from the 
 atmosphere than from the soil ; and that this 
 power of drawing food from the atmosphere 
 increases with the goodness of quality in soils. 
 
 33. The proportion of fixed substances, 
 or ashes, in agricultural products, is 43 lbs. to 
 the 1000, and consequently, in our four class- 
 es of land, the quantity amounts to 180, 559, 
 1032, 1548 pounds. But the soluble saline 
 substances form at least half of these ashes : 
 they are then produced in the two years of 
 the rotation, in the quantities of 90, 279, 516, 
 774 pounds. But, according to Kirwan, barn 
 yard manure yields 2 per cent, of soluble 
 salts : then the manure given to these soils 
 contained 48, 96 lbs. 128 of saline substances, 
 which, being deducted from the preceding 
 quantities, leave the four classes of soils stat- 
 ed 42, 183, 388, 774 lbs. of products in so- 
 luble salts, in two years of the rotation, gain- 
 ed solely by the absorbing forces of the soil 
 and of plants.* 
 
 ^34. But, in the same soils, with the same 
 manures and the same tillage, by the addition 
 to the thickness of the ploughed layer of only 
 one-thousandth part of lime, the products, 
 whether volatile or fixed, are increased in a 
 striking manner : the soil of the first-named 
 (or lowest) quality reaches the product of the 
 second — the second rises one-half or more 
 — and that of the best (of the manured soils) 
 increases a fourth. Thus, our scale of pro- 
 duct becomes 130,200,300 quintals — and de- 
 ducting the manure, 106,152,236 quintals, 
 for the two years of the rotation. The most 
 fertile soil {sol d'exception) cannot receive 
 lime beneficially, because it contains it alrea- 
 
 ♦ The proportions of ashes of different plants, and 
 of their sahne matters, varj' greatly — and the uniform 
 proportions assumed above, are tiir from correct, even 
 as averages of unequal proportions. This will suf- 
 ficiently appear from the following exarnpU s extract- 
 ed front Saussure's tahle of the products of various 
 vegetable substances. (Sec Davy's Ag. Chem. Lee 
 III.) 
 
21 
 
 dy ; these lands all belong to alluvions, where 
 the calcareous principle has almost always 
 been found in greater or less proportion. 
 
 35. The product of fixed principles [as 
 ashes] in the three classes of limed soils, 
 would be 559,868,1290 pounds, and in solu- 
 ble salts 278,430,645 pounds ; and, deduct- 
 ing the soluble salts of the manure, the quan- 
 tities would be 230,334,525. A light addi- 
 tion of lime has then doubled the force of ab- 
 sorption, and almost tripled the quantity of sa- 
 line principles produced. One of the most 
 remarkable effects of lime consists then, in 
 making a soil produce a much greater propor- 
 tion of saline principles : and if the experi- 
 ments of M. Lecoq upon the efficacy of sa- 
 line substances on vegetation are to be ad- 
 mitted, it would be in part to the phenomenon 
 of their production that lime would owe its 
 fertilizing effect. 
 
 36. It results from what precedes, that salts 
 are formed in the soil or in vegetables : thus 
 we see every day the nitrates of potash and 
 of lime form under our eyes in the soil, or 
 elsewhere, without any thing indicating to us 
 
 Constituents of 100 parts of ashes. 
 
 Names of Plants. 2 
 
 £ 
 
 <! OT H y 
 
 AVheat, in flower 
 
 , — 43,25 
 
 12,75 0,25 32 0,5 
 
 12,25 
 
 Do. seeds ripe 
 
 1—11 
 
 15 0,25 54 1 
 
 18,75 
 
 Do. seeds ripe, 
 
 33 10 
 
 11,75 0,25 51 0,75 
 
 23 
 
 Straw of wheat, 
 
 43 22,.5 
 
 6,2 1 61,5 1 
 
 78 
 
 Seeds of do. 
 
 13 47,16 44,5 0,5 0,25 
 
 7,6 
 
 Bran, 
 
 52 4,16 46,5 0,5 0.25 
 
 8,6 
 
 Plants of maize, : 
 
 122 69 
 
 5,75 0,25 7,5 0,25 
 
 17,25 
 
 (Indian corn,) i 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 month before 
 
 
 
 
 flowering. 
 
 
 
 
 Do. in flower, 
 
 81 69 
 
 [6 0,25 7,5 0,25 
 
 17 
 
 Do. seed ripe. 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 Stalks of do. 
 
 84 72,45 5 I IS 0,5 
 
 3,05 
 
 Spikes (tassels,) 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 of do. 
 
 
 
 
 Seeds of do. 
 
 10 62 
 
 36 1 0,12 
 
 0,88 
 
 Oats (entire plant) 
 
 ,31 1 
 
 24 60 0,25 
 
 14,75 
 
 The proportion of soluble salts, 2 percent, found by 
 Kirwan in barn-yard manure, however correclly as- 
 certained in a particular case, can no more be relied 
 on as a fixed and uniform proportion, or even a true 
 general average, as used by M. Puvis in the estimates 
 above. ITr.] 
 
 the origin of the potash which is contained. 
 But potash itself again forms spontaneously 
 in drawn ashes, according to the observations 
 of the chemist Gelhen. We see salts also 
 renewed in the artificial nitre beds, with the 
 aid of moisture and exposure to the air. But 
 it is the presence of lime that determines this 
 formation more particularly. The nitrates 
 abound in the ruins of demolished edifices ; 
 they are formed in the walls, and in all parts 
 of houses situated in damp places ; they ef- 
 floresce on the buildings of chalk in Cham- 
 pagne ; they are produced spontaneously in 
 the ploughed lands of the kingdom of Mur- 
 cia. This effect, which we see that the cal- 
 careous principle produces every where, we 
 think it produces in all the soils to which it is 
 given, and where meet the circumstances 
 which favour the formation of nitrates, viz : 
 humidity, vegetable mould, and exposure to 
 the air. But, according to the experiments 
 of M. Lecoq and others, and the opinion 
 which is established of the old agriculturists, 
 the nitrates are the most fertilizing salts. It 
 would be then to their formation, which it pro- 
 motes in the soil, that lime owes, in part, its 
 effect on vegetation. 
 
 37. The foregoing proofs of the daily for- 
 mation in the soil, and by vegetable life, of 
 saline and earthy compounds, taken in nature 
 and on a great scale, are doubtless sufficient : 
 but they may still be supported by the experi- 
 ments and opinions of able men who have 
 adopted the same system. 
 
 And first — in the e.xperiment of Van Hel- 
 mont, in five years, a willow of five pounds 
 grew to weigh 169, and had caused a loss of 
 only two ounces to the soil which bore it. 
 But the 164 pounds which the willow had 
 taken contained five pounds of ashes, which 
 are due enfirely to absorption, since the 
 leaves and the other droppings of five years, 
 which were not saved, would have given at 
 least one pound of ashes, which makes up 
 for, besides all that which, in spite of the sheet 
 of lead which covered the top of the vessel 
 in which the willow grew, it might have re- 
 ceived in the waterings, and from other for- 
 tuitous circumstances. Boyle has repeated 
 and confirmed this experiment in all its 
 parts. 
 
 Lampadius, in diflierent isolated compart- 
 ments, some filled with aluraine, others with 
 silex, others with [carbonate of) lime, all 
 pure, has made plants to grow, of which the 
 burning has yielded to analysis like results ; 
 and which, consequently, contained earths 
 which were not in the soils which bore them. 
 
 Saussure, in establishing that plants do not 
 take in the soil more than a twentieth of their 
 
n 
 
 aubstancoi id extract of mould and in carbonic 
 acid, has necessaril)' established, by the same 
 means, that almost the whole amount of fixed 
 principles do not proceed from the soil. 
 
 Braconnot has analyzed lichens, which 
 contained more than half their weight of oxa- 
 late of lime — and he has observed others co- 
 vered with crusts of carbonate of hme when 
 there was none of this earth in the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 Shrader, in burning plants grown in sub- 
 stances which did not contain any earthy 
 principle, has found in their ashes, earths 
 and salts which were neither in the seeds 
 sown, nor in the pulverized matters in which 
 the plants grew. 
 
 Lastly — the analyses of Saussure, though 
 showing more of the carbonate of lime in the 
 ashes of plants which grew on calcareous 
 soils than on soils not calcareous, yet, never- 
 theless, they have formed more than a sixth 
 of the ashes from vegetables on silicioiis 
 soils — and Einhoff has found 65 per cent, 
 of lime in the ashes of pines grown on sili- 
 cious soil.* The labors of science then 
 confirm what we have above established, that 
 plants, or the soil, form salts and earths.f 
 
 * It is presumed, from the context, that Ihcse sili- 
 cious soils were not the least calcareous. — (Ed. F. R.) 
 
 t Van Helmont's experiment, cited first in the list 
 above, [\ke M. Puvis' reasoning in general, furnishes 
 ample proof that most of the volatile parts of vegeta- 
 bles, and the greater part of their bulk, are drawn 
 from the atmosphere — and they are equally defective 
 in proving that earths and other fixed prmciples arc 
 thence derived, or are formed by the power of vegeta- 
 ble life. Distilled water is not entirely free from 
 earthy matter, and if it had been used lor watering 
 the willow, it would in five years have "iven some 
 considerable part of the five pounds of solid matter in 
 the ashes. But as we are not told that it was either 
 distilled or rain water, it may be inferred that the 
 couiparatively impure water of a fountain or stream, 
 was used for watering the plant, and which would 
 more than suffice in so long a time to convey the 
 whole increase of earthy and saline matter. The ex- 
 periments of Lampadiua and Shrader are liable to the 
 same objection — and the former to this in addition — 
 that his earths were deemed absolutely pure, when, 
 in all probability, they were not so- -and that a very 
 •light admixture of other kinds with each, would fur- 
 nish the minute quantity that a small plant could take 
 up during its short and feeble existence under the cir- 
 cumstances stated. The results staled of the experi- 
 ments of Braconnot, Saussure, and EinhofT, may be, 
 and probably are, entirely correct — but they are fully 
 explained by the doctrine of neutral soils, and need no 
 support from, and give none to, our author's doctrine 
 of tlie formation of hme by vegetable power. 
 
 But though deeming M. Puvis allogether wrong 
 in this, his main and most labored position, and that 
 the proofs cited above, as well as some others in the 
 preceding section, are of no worth, still these pages 
 which present his theory, contain what is of more va- 
 lue. He places in a strong pointof view the important 
 truth that the atmosphere is the great treasury of na- 
 ture, from which nature doubles and tribles the amount 
 of all the small portions "iven lo the earth by the in- 
 dustry of man. The author's scale of actual products 
 
 38. The fertilizing effect of fallow, or 
 ploughing, of moving and working tb« soilsi 
 prove still more that all these circumstances 
 determine the formation of fertilizing princi- 
 ples, and probably of saline principles, in all 
 tile parts of the soil which receive the atmo- 
 spheric influences. 
 
 But salts are also formed in plants. The 
 nitrate of potash, which takes the place of su- 
 gar in the beet — the oxalate of pottish, so 
 abundant in sorrel — the carbonate of potash 
 in fern, in the tops of potatoes, and in almost 
 all vegetables in the first period of their life 
 — the sulphate of potash in tobacco — the ni- 
 trate of potash in turnsole and in pellilory 
 — prove, without reply, tliat vegetation forms 
 salts, as it forms the proper juices of plants, 
 since the soil contains the one kind no more 
 than the other. But can we say where plants 
 take the elements necessary for all these 
 formations t They can take them only in the 
 soil by means of their roots, or in the atmo- 
 sphere — in the soil, which would itself take 
 them in the atmosphere, in proportion to the 
 consumption of plants — or directly in the at- 
 mosphere by means of their leaves, which 
 would there gather these elements. And if 
 the analyses of the soils, and of the atmo- 
 sphere, show almost none of these elements, 
 it will be necessary to conclude from it that 
 the substances which analysis has found there, 
 are themselves, or would furnish if decom- 
 posed, the elements of the saline substances, 
 although science may not yet have taught us 
 the means of reaching that end. 
 
 39. The formation of lime, like that of 
 the saline principles necessary to plants, is an 
 operation which employs all tho forces of ve- 
 getation — and these forces, directed to this 
 formation, have no energy left to give a great 
 developement to plants : but when the vege- 
 table finds the calcareous principles already 
 formed in the soil, it makes use of them, and 
 preserves all its forces to increase its own 
 vigor and size. 
 
 It would then result, from all that has 
 been said, that lime modifies the texture of 
 the soil — makes it more friable — invigorates 
 it — renders it more permeable — gives it the 
 power to better resist moisture as well as dry- 
 ness — that it produces in the soil the humate 
 of lime which encloses a powerful means of 
 fertility — that lime increases much the energy 
 of the soil and of plants to draw from the atmo- 
 sphere the volatile substances of which plants 
 
 from different grades of soil is also interesting. It 
 sustains the position assumed in the Essay on Calca- 
 reous Manures, that the worst soils are limed (or made 
 calcareous) to most profit — and that alimentary ma- 
 nures, when needed, are most productive on the best 
 soils, — [Ed. Far. Reg. 
 
33 
 
 are composed, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, 
 nnd azote — that the limed soil in furnishing 
 to plants the lime which they need, relieves 
 the soil and plants from employmg their 
 powers to produce it — and finally, that lime 
 promotes the formation of fixed substances, 
 earthy or saline, necessary to vegetables. 
 All this whole of reciprocal action and reac- 
 tion of lime, on the soil, plants, and atmo 
 sphere, explains in a plausible manner its fer- 
 tilizing properties. We would, consequently, 
 have nearly arrived at the resolving of an im- 
 portant agricultural problem, upon which were 
 accumulated all these doubts. 
 
 The amount of lime taken up by vegetation. 
 
 40. The ashes of plants from calcareous 
 soils, or those which have been made so by 
 manures, contain 30 per cent, of the carbon- 
 ate and phosphate of lime, which, by taking 
 off" the crop, is lost to the soil. But the pro- 
 duct of limed land of middle quality, is during 
 the two years of the course of crops, about 
 20,0001bs. of dry products to the hectare, 
 which contain a little less than a hectolitre of 
 lime in the calcareous compounds of the 
 ashes. The vegetation has then used half a 
 hectolitre a year. But we have shown that 
 there was necessary, on an average, three 
 hectolitres per hectare each year. Vegeta- 
 tion then does not take up, in nature, but a 
 sixth of the lime which is given profitably 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 compounds, perhaps even the 
 saline compounds, of which we have seen 
 that lime so powerfully favors the formation. 
 Another portion, also, without doubt, remains 
 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, hmed heavily, or 
 without composts coming between, succes- 
 sive grain crops have been made without rest, 
 without alternations of grass crops, or without 
 giving to the soil alimentary manures in suit- 
 able proportion. It is also what has happen- 
 ed when magnesia, mixed with lime, has car- 
 ried to the soil its exhausting stimulus. But 
 when lime has been used in moderation — 
 when, without overburdening the land with 
 exhausting crops, they have been alternated 
 with green crops — and when manure has 
 
 been given in proportion to the products taken 
 oft'— the prudent cultivator then sees continue 
 the new fecundity which the lime has brought, 
 without the soil showing any sign of exhaus- 
 tion. 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 coun- 
 try by calcareous agents.* 
 
 42. The unhealthiness 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 
 surface which it previously overflowed, and 
 the summer'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 ex- 
 tensive margins bare, to be acted on by the 
 sun and air. In rainy years, fevers on the 
 borders of ponds are rare. 
 
 Epidemic diseases most often arise on the 
 borders of marshes laid dry — in the neigh- 
 borhood of mud thrown out of ditches or pits 
 — and in the course of bringing new land into 
 cultivation, where the ploughed soil is for the 
 first time exposed to the summer's sun. In 
 the interior of Rome, the vineyards, the gar- 
 dens 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 efflu- 
 via. It is then from the soil, and not from the 
 waters at its surface, that insalubrious emana- 
 
 * There was no position in the Essay on Calcareous 
 Manures which its author assumed wiih so much hesi- 
 tation as the agency of those manures in removing 
 causes of disease. Tliat hesitation did not arise from 
 doubt of the truth of the position — but because of its 
 very high importance and its entire novelty — its be- 
 ing then sustained but by few known facts furnishing 
 direct evidence, and by no known authority whatever 
 of earher writers. It is therefore the more gratifying 
 to find in tile work now presented, that about the same 
 time, another and far remote investigator of the same 
 subject, by a different course of reasoning, and by dif- 
 ferent proofs, had arrived at precisely the same con- 
 clusion — and that he maintains, even more generally 
 than the former work, the important and sure effects 
 of calcareous manures in rendering a country more 
 healthy. [Tb.J 
 
34 
 
 tions proceed. Waters placed on the sur- 
 face, always in motion, agitated by every 
 wind, are not altered in quality, and do not 
 become unhealthy ; but whenever they are 
 contained in some place without power to re- 
 ceive exterior influences, or to have motion, 
 they are altered in their odor, taste, and con- 
 sequently 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 remains in or on the mould, and 
 the exhalations from the ground become un- 
 healthy. Thus are all drained marshes, of 
 which the surface only is dry, while the water 
 still penetrates the subsoil — thus, all the mar- 
 gins of rivers which have been covered by re- 
 cent inundations of summer, are unhealthy ; 
 thus also, (for a great and unhappy example,) 
 the argilo-silicious plateaux, whenever the 
 closeness of the subsoil does not let the wa- 
 ter 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 al- 
 most 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 un- 
 healthy. 
 
 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. AVhen tho 
 waters which hold carbonate of lime in solu- 
 tion in carbonic acid* run over the surface, 
 they give health to the meadows, in changing 
 the nature and quantity of the products. 
 
 Linnxus thought that the unhealthiness of 
 most countries depended on the nature of the 
 water, and was owing to the argillaceous par- 
 ticles which they contain ; now these argilla- 
 ceous particles are always precipitated by the 
 calcareous compounds. For this reason, the 
 waters which stand upon, or run over marl 
 or calcareous rock, are almost always limpid 
 and clear, because the argillaceous particles 
 have been precipitated by the effect of the 
 solution in the water of the calcareous princi- 
 
 * As in limestone water, lime with the greatest 
 proportion with which it can combine of carhonic acid, 
 (forming super-carbonate of lime,) is soluble in water. 
 The excess of acid is lost by heat, by exposure to air, 
 &c., and then the lime is in form of carbonate — and 
 l>elng insoluble in water, falls separate to the bottom. 
 ITr.J 
 
 pie, which ia itself diaeolved 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 mak- 
 ing 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 an- 
 nihilates all bad odors, arrests putrefaction, 
 and in short, has subjected tho plague of 
 Egypt to the skill and courage of Parisot. 
 The white wash of lime upon infected build- 
 ings, upon the walls and mangers of sta- 
 bles, is regarded as serving to destroy the 
 contagious miasmata of epidemic and epi- 
 zootic diseases. 
 
 Lime destroys the plants of humid and 
 marshy soils, and makes those suitable to 
 better soils spring up : tlien its effect is 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 plough- 
 ed, ought to change the nature of its emana- 
 tions 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 affini- 
 ties, ought also to be modified, and take the 
 character of those of the upper bed. The 
 hmed soil then, it would seem, ought to be 
 made healthy. 
 
 But what we maintain here by induction, 
 by reasoning, is fortunately a fact of exten- 
 sive experience. Among all the countries 
 in which lime has carried and established fer- 
 tility, there is not cited, that I know of, a sin- 
 gle one where intermittent fevers prevail — 
 while they have never disappeared in a coun- 
 try even where an active culture draws good 
 products from the impermeable argilo-sili- 
 cious soil. 
 
 44. To extend the great benefit of healthi- 
 ness to the whole of a country, it is no doubt 
 necessary that the whole country should re- 
 ceive the health-giving agent. However, on 
 every farm, in proportion as liming is extend- 
 ed over its surface, the chances of disease 
 will be seen to diminish — and the healthiness 
 of the country will keep pace with the pro- 
 gress of its fertility. 
 
 Result of the use of improving manures on 
 ike soil of France in general. 
 Three-fourths of the whole territory of 
 France, to be rendered fruitful, have need 
 
 ^ 
 
25 
 
 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 agri- 
 cultural products, by this operation, would be 
 increased one-half or more, or one-fifth of 
 the total amount. But agriculture, in en- 
 riching itself will increase its power, its ca- 
 pital, and its population ; and will naturally 
 carry its exuberant forces, its energy and ac- 
 tivity to operate on the greater part of the 
 7,000,000 of hectares of land now [^enfriche] 
 untiUed, waste, and without product. By 
 bringing these lands into cultivation and fer- 
 tilizing them by liming, or by paring and burn- 
 ing the surface, they would be made to yield 
 at least one-sixth of the total product. The 
 gross product of the French soil, then increas- 
 ed by a third or more, might also give employ- 
 ment and sustenance to a population one-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 population, 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 64,000,000 of hec- 
 tares, our population, increased to 44,000,000, 
 would have for each, one hectare and a quar- 
 ter, and would 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 neigh- 
 bors consume in their food at least a fourth 
 or fifth of meat, while only one-fifleenth 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 increase of one- 
 third, our population would still have a large 
 surplus product which would not exist in 
 England, with an equal increase of popula- 
 tion and equal increase of products of agri- 
 culture. 
 
 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 
 hectare nearly supports two inhabitants. And 
 yet they have more than a sixth of their soil 
 
 in woods, marshes, or unproductive lands : 
 they have, besides, another sixth, and of their 
 best ground, in crops of commerce, which 
 consume a great part of their manure, and 
 which are exported 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 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 North] belongs to the class of soils not 
 calcareous, to the argilo-siliciousplateaux,and 
 makes use of lime, marl, or ashes of all kinds. 
 
 47. After this great result of increased pro- 
 ductiveness, that upon health, although appli- 
 ed to the least extents of surface, would be 
 most precious. Upon one-sixth of our coun- 
 try the population is sickly, subject to intermit- 
 tent and often fatal fevers, and the deaths ex- 
 ceed in number the births. Well ! upon this 
 soil without marshes, calcareous manures 
 would bring a growing population, more nu- 
 merous 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 accord- 
 ed by the Supreme Author to man, in con- 
 demning him to till the earth. Three-fourths 
 of our soil, seem not to produce, except by 
 force of pain and labor, the vegetables abso- 
 lutely necessary for man. On all sides, and 
 often beneath this surface so little favored, 
 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 for ages — and to 
 cause the entire soil to be covered by a popu- 
 lation 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 complete 
 the benefit, insalubrity, which afflicts the in- 
 fertile soil, disappears ; the new population 
 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. 
 
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