Vermont Telegraph

Agricultural.

From the New England Farmer.

LIME--Rufin on Calcareous-Manures.

Mr. Colman--Sir--I have perused with very great interest your weekly reports of the agricultural meetings during the session of the legislature; and as most of the gentlemen that have spoken upon the subject of agriculture are practical farmers, their experience is of great value to the farming interest generally. They pursue some different courses, and have different views in the cultivation of their corn and other crops, but upon the whole it will have a good effect, and excite to inquiry and investigation many farmers, and stimulate them to step aside from the old beaten track they and their fathers have pursued, and imitate the courses pointed out at your meetings.

Upon the use of lime, there seems to be much difference of opinion. In my own vicinity, within four years past, there has been much money expended in the purchase of lime for agricultural purposes, at from 2 50 to 3 per cask for Thomaston lime; it has been applied in various ways, and as far as my knowledge extends, no one can tell whether he has derived any advantage from it or not. They have not been careful to make and note experiments, but in true Yankee style, guess it is good as a manure. Some farmers have applied it to their growing wheat, and have raised good crops, which was mostly attributed to the lime: others have grown equally as large without it. Dr. Jackson, I believe, thinks it of great importance in agriculture. Dr. Dana says: a bushel of ashes is equal to a cask of lime. B. V. French, Esq, in his remarks upon the cultivation of wheat, at the eighth agricultural meeting, stated that he used 150 bushels lime per acre; his own experience was unfavorable to it, and some others had not derived much if any advantage from its use. So also the Berkshire marls have not proved so beneficial as was anticipated, from the great amount of carbonate of lime they contain.

I have lately had the perusal of a work on the calcareous manures of Virginia, by E. Ruffin, Esq., who after many years' experience, and with the most careful, accurate and numerous experiments, has proved, I think beyond all question, their great value in agriculture; and as the shell marls of Virginia, the Berkshire marls and the lime from the State of Maine, are almost the same thing, that is, the carbonate of lime, I can conceive of no possible reason why lime and marl may not be as useful and as profitably employed in Massachusetts as in Europe or Virginia, or New Jersey. But I think every farmer who purposes to use lime or marl, should procure Ruffin's Essay on Calcareous Manures, and carefully peruse and study the work, which will enable him to apply his labor & means more understandingly.

There is, without doubt, many soils upon which lime would be of but little or no use, but if any reliance is to be placed upon chemistry, it must be of much use upon soils containing oxide of iron and sulphur, as the lime will combine with the sulphate of the iron, and form the sulphate of lime, or gypsum. It may be equally useful upon acid soils, or such as grow sorrel and pine luxuriantly.

B.

March 30th, 1840.

We shall venture no opinion in this place on the subject of lime, referred to in the above letter of our esteemed correspondent; but we perfectly accord with him in the estimation in which he holds Mr. Ruffin's work on calcareous manures. It is an essay of much merit, showing great intelligence and carefulness of observation. Whatever conclusions on the subject of the work the intelligent reader may form, he cannot fail to entertain very high respect for the tact and talent of the author.—Mr. Ruffin's book on calcareous manures and his Farmers' Register, published monthly, and edited with distinguished ability and knowledge, and eminent fairness of mind, ought to be possessed and read by every inquisitive farmer in the country.

H. C.