538 Chronicles of a Clay Farm. [December, 



that the mind outstrips the page, and one's assent to each proposi- 

 tion seems paid in advance, almost before it falls due ? Is science 

 intuitive? then why is it Modern? Why have centuries upon cen- 

 turies — sixty centuries — passed, and no Science till now ! Why 

 now? Could LiEBiG answer that? I'm afraid even his ' Quantita- 

 tive Analysis,' his grand discovery (for so it almost seems,) of the 

 ma'nc residing in those words, ' Namero, Pondere, et Mensiira,' 

 would be biiffled to resolve that problem. 



"This field for instance! thoy never thought to see it look like 

 this ; now, could they answer the question — What does it yet want ! 

 — Yes ! the instantaneous reply would be. Lime. ' Why?' inquires 

 Thory ; ' because it would sweeten it' — would be the answer. But 

 why ? Theory again asks. Practice is silent. What ! silent, after 

 sixty centuries of '■Experience !' Can nobody give us an answer — 

 the truth, and the whole truth of the operation of lime upon soils?" 

 The Chemist attempts an explanation. 



" Its effect arises from its avidity for combination ; it searches out 

 free acids, as a ferret does a rat, and instantly closes with them. 

 Sulphuric, phosphoric, silicic, nitric, humic, and last not least, the 

 < great dissolver,' Carbonic acid ; all these it makes known, by seiz- 

 ing upon them and becoming their base ; thus disintegrating as it 

 were, and reconstructing the elements of the soil, and exciting to a 

 new action the sluggards of nature wherever they are lurking. It 

 is the composer and the decomposer, for nature can not suffer either 

 process, but fertility must follow : re-composition (growth) has be- 

 gun ere cZecomposition is over ; does a latent atom of organic mat- 

 ter stand inert for one instant? it is at him, like a policeman ; ' come 

 kip movin ! ' " 



But is this all? — is this half? 



Well may the " Incoming tenant " ask ^^How faris it to the Ibne- 

 kiln?" 



CHAPTER VII. — "EARTH "-STOPPING. 



Among the various changes upon the aspect of a farm, necessitated 

 by modern practice, there is none which causes a greater degree of 

 consternation in the immediate vicinity, than the removal of the 

 Hedgerows. There is a kind of time-honored recognition and re- 

 spect accorded to these huge " mounds," four or five feet high, and 

 broad in proportion, with the running accompaniment of Jungle 



