214+listory.[Sept.

An Error in the Application of Lime.

The following inquiries, fir printed in a provincial paper, have been

preſented to us. SUS.

TI take leave by your means, to notice a uſuage in huſbandry, very pre- valent in the north of Suſſex, as quite unphiloſophical and unchemical, and which cannot, I am certain, from ſcientyfic principles, be of the vſe 18: 48 generally ſuppoſed to be, if indeed, it is of any uſe at all. And divers who have uſed it, have exprcfi:d it as their opinion, tkat it is entirely uſeleſs, and ſo from chemical principles it appears to be. Liming of ſtiff lands. As our farmers are neither philoſophers nor chemiſts, whatcver many are, who have greater opportuvities of mental improvement, I am certain ours are not. I beg leave to explain that operation to them on chemica! grounds.

Lime, is one of the natural earths: and in its pure ſtate, is by the chem» iſts, called pure or cauftic calcerous earth, By the ation;of the air and water upon it, or by whatever means it becomes combined with the car- bonic acid, or what has been called fixed air, it becomes chalk, mild, or neutralized calcareus earth. In this ſtate, it is found, in chalk pts» by burning it in kilns the carbonic acid is diſcharged and it receives itS ori- ginal ſtate of lime. This is conſidered to be what it rcally is, a cavſticy burning ſubſtance and thence; ſuppoſed to be uleful to warm and divide- cold tiff and heavy Jand, And this it would eminently eFe& if it en- tered the ground in this ſtate, but in fat it does not, It becomes quite another ſubstance by the treatment it receives. When taken from the Kkiln, it is either laid in a mals or carried into the field and laid in[maller maſſes, to be fit to be plovghed into the ground, which it cannot be, but by being reduced toa state/of pulverization, or diviſion. This:s called ſlack- ed lime, and believed Still to retain its proper nature 3; but the reverſe of this 38 produced. By the action of the air upon it, by its carbonic acid, it is re- duced into a compound of lime and carbonic acid, or chalk. It is now iime no more, nor has one quality of which lime in its pure State is poſlclled, and aſſumes all the properties ot chalk. Aud chalk has no chemical power, either to warm or to divide: Itis a compat body af almost Stony hard= neſs. But a question may occur.““ 15 it then of no real uſe; To this question, I would reply, that when it bas once lost its carbonic acid, by the means of fire, termed by the old chemists calcination, it does not, un= Jeſs by being laid a great while in a mals and expoſed to moisture, become as hard as it was before; but except this circumstance, its qualities are the ſame as chalk, in all instances,; when, therefore, laid on, and ploughed in to ground more stiff and compat than itsſelf, it in a ſmall meaſure'divides itz; but cannot warm it at all, and this diminutive uſe can never repay eitber the trouble or expence attending it. Lands, where it is really uſeful, are ſuch only where chalk would be fo--light friable ground, to which it gives more body ſoftneſs and adheſveneſs, where before diſunion, harſhneſs, and conſequently comparative barrenneſs abounded. I pretend not to prac- tical huſbandry, and only preſume to offer a philoſophical and chemical opinion, which I am diſpoſed to think might be produd&tive at leaſt of lav- zug much uſeleſs trouble. Se Ss

At Lewes market, on Sept. 7, a good ſample of new wheat fetched twenty» five pounds per load.

At Ellahnd Bank, near Halifax, there is at preſent a Jarge waſp?s neſt, ſuſpended from a ſlender twig of a beech-tree; it nearly relembles a bul- Jock!s heart in hape, and is encloled in a ſoft web or bag, of the ſame colour with the rind of the tree.

In Preſton market lately a muſhroom was ſold of the following extraor> dinary dimenſions:=in circumference three fcet two inches; thicknels of