t8oo. AnEffayonLime. 3§cy 



vert to thofe fa£i:s that were daily occurring to contradicl it. 

 I am now, however, convinced, that lime, and all calcareous 

 manure, produce a much more immediate improvement upon 

 what are termed lleril^ foils, than upon fuch as are richer ; 

 and that lime alone, upon fuch foils, will produce a greater, 

 as well as more lading degree of fertility, than even the belt 

 dung." 



This affertion of our autlior, is not quite in unifon.with the 

 other parts of his work ;• where, after a very learned difquifi- 

 tion upon the qualities of lime, and its formation in the bowels 

 of the earth, he concludes in a manner that does not warrant 

 the idea of its optrating in the way he mentions -, and I can 

 with truth afTert, that I have never found it to repay the ex- 

 pence, when laid upon wore-out lands, and fuch efpecially as 

 had been previoufly limed. 



My own experience enables me to recommend the ufe ot 

 iime, in the following manner : Let the farmer confider well 

 the ftate of his ground, and its management previous to put- 

 ting on a dreffing of lime. If it has been ploughed out of grafs, 

 either having lain long in meadow or paflure, a heavy dreffing, 

 of from 250 to 300 boils per acre, put on a good Summer-fal- 

 low, will be of very great benefit, as, upon fuch foils, it will 

 meet with abundance of vegetable matter, upon which it will 

 a£t in fuch a manner as to increafe its fertility. It may alfo 

 be ufed with advantnge, every eight or ten years, upon land 

 that is kept under the plough ; provided it is well manured 

 with ftable-dung, bones, or rape-dufl, efpecially if fuch lands 

 are under a proper rotation, fuch as, i. Turnips ; 2. Barley, 

 •with grafs-feeds -, 3. Pafturing with ilieep j 4. Wheat. Where 

 it is u(ed in this manner, I would recommend it to be laid 011 

 in the early pare of Winter ; in that way, it will become per- 

 fectly effete before the turnips are fown ; a matter of niorci 

 importatice than is generally imagined. 



It will alto be highly beneficial upon ftrong and wet foils, 

 where a fuitable rotation of crops is followed. The rotation 

 I would recommend is, wheat or barley after fallow, broad 

 clover, white clover and grafs feeds ; pailuring M-ich fheep as 

 piuch as poiRble -, afterwards wheat. This is at prefent the 

 praclice of the belt farmers. 1 am, 



Gentlemen, 



Your obedient fervant, 



A Yorkshire Farmer. 



FOI 



