The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-11-15
Ghe farmer.
For the Democratic Adrocate.
Lime and Magnesia as Plant Food.

Lime and Magnesia as Plant Food
1t is as easy to understand and settle
questions in practical agriculture as on
any other subjects, If we start at the be-
ginning, and view the subject from the
proper standpoint But it is impossible
to reach definite and correct conclusions,
if we commence in the middle.
All food for plants and animals comes
from the soil and the atmosphere. For
the present purpose will treat of the food
obtained directly from the soil, and con6ne
myself to the effects Of lime and magnesia,
mechanical and chemical in the soil, in
reference to the production Of plants. All
fertile soils contain both. They are both
necessary to the growth of all plants.
The prairies of the West and the virgin
forests Of our own State, contain the ma
nures Of decaying vegetables and animals,
the ashes Of fires and the deposits of rains
and SHOWS for thousand years. They are
fertile for number of years under the
worst treatment of depletion or carrying
away the crops. Beginning with such
soils, very little knowledge Of any kind,
beyond the mechanical cultivation Of crops,
is required to succeed, for several years.
Hence the success or rather apparent sue
cess, in time past ofthose who ignore learn
ing altogether. But the plants will take
all the nutriment out, in time, and when
that which is in the soil, or all of any par
ticular kind necessary to the growth of
planis, as lime, magnesia, &C., is distracted
by plants and grains, and, tohile in The
piaats and ont Of the soil, removed from
the soil, and not restored by any means,
it will become exhausted
1t has been said by respectable writers,
that plaster, lime and magnesia exhaust
the soil. This is bad expression, and
implies an erroneous view. Nothing that
promotes fertility in the.soil can possibly
exhaust that fertility. These substances,
to say nothing Of their own manureal prop
critics, may, and do, act upon other plant
food, as in fastening the decomposition Of
vegetable substances, presenting them in
a state more readily to be seized and ap-
propriated by plants, and to enable the
plants sooner to take up all nutriment in
the soil-and the farmer, also, if he is silly
enough to sell away allthe plant food from
the soil.
The tobacco producers labored in this
way for an hundred years to destroy their
soil, by selling and shipping all its fertility
to every part of the globe. And by per-
severance they succeeded admirably for
have seen whole farms, that an hundred
years ago would have produced abundant
crops OF any cereal adapted to the climate,
that now will not produce blaek-eyed peas
sufficient to support a kildee.
No manures, at least not sufficient
quantity, were restored to replace the diff
ference between what the tobacco plant
carried on and what was annually restored
or deposited IN and on the soil by natural
causes. :.
inns IS exhaustion OF soil, and no soil
can be exhausted IN any other way. 1t is
what comes up out OF the ground, and is
carried away, on Of the SOIL and not 'c'df
goes =, ao.sn mo =, mat impoverlsnes. :.
Inc nrst lesson 70 De learned In agri,
culture, Is ina. plants eat, and must be fed
just q regularly as animals. without a 2
regular supply OIL 1000 they wltner and
uls n ana a .nsy wn, just as certainly ca,
" al 'ne loou u 'ne sou, as an OK WI,
ems. e9nsum s aii n .ne meal .uo. II the 1909
saAsn .lonl 'n ,s sou anu IRON .ne meal ta 10
. ~ .es'oi 3 .'ie pian nv, anu .ne Ok WIN
I'm "a AZ &, 'ne Mhl csl.aaniy pellsn