430 On the Use of Lime. 



remaining acre as the others. I believe he did not understand me, but 

 laid on that acre the 100 loads. I directed him to remove each alternate 

 heap ; but the day following being Sunday, it rained before it could be 

 removed. The lime was set out in small heaps the same as manure. 

 I was then obliged to plough it down the same as the rest; I then sowed 

 the wheat, which came up very healthy, and I saw no difference on the 

 one acre, only a darker colour; but in July I could perceive it was 

 stronger ; when reaped, I kept the wheat produced from the acre by 

 itself, which was 39 bushels ; the remaining 4 acres produced about 36 

 bushels per acre; leaving 3 bushels more for the strong liming per acre. 

 The whole of the close was seeded down with the usual quantity of 

 seeds ; the seeds on the one acre strongly limed were much better than 

 on the remaining 4 acres. This close has been pastured ever since, and 

 to this day the difference may be seen between the one and the four 

 acres. This '^vas done on strong, clayey land. 



If only 30 or 40 horse-loads of lime are laid on an acre and harrowed 

 in, I consider it not sufficient to mix with all the soil, and it conse- 

 quently leaves a harbour for insects : but lay 60 horse-loads of lime per 

 acre, harrow and mix it with the soil, leaving none without ; and when 

 a shower of rain comes, examine the furrows, you will there find all sorts 

 of insects dead, such as worms, slugs, beetles, &c. ; if only 30 or 40 loads 

 of lime have been laid on, yoa will find very fev/ dead, indicating the 

 advantage of strong liming. 



Stiitterton Hall, 22nd January, 1842, 



IX. — On the Feeding of Stock. By the Rev. W. Thorp. 



If I mistake not, Professor Liebig points out in his work just published, 

 ' Organic Chemistry applied to Physiology and Pathology,' a discovery 

 of no less value to agriculturists than any of those in the agricultural 

 chemistry. It is respecting the necessity of warmth to animals during 

 ttie time of their fattening ; and also of a due supply being given them 

 of 7iitrogenized food. In that splendid treatise, which will be as en- 

 during as the science of medicine, he indicates that the bodies of man 

 and animals are a furnace to be supplied with fuel — that the carbon of 

 the food is the fuel which is burnt or oxydized by the oxygen of the 

 atmosphere taken into the lungs ; and the mutual action between the 

 elements of the food and the oxygen conveyed by the globules of the 

 blood to every part of the body is the source of animal heat; that 

 the amount of nourishment required by the animal body must be in 

 direct ratio to the quantity of oxygen taken into the system ; that the 

 number of respirations, or the quantity of oxygen absorbed, is smaller in 

 a state of rest than during exercise; the quantity of food must depend 

 upon exercise, and that an excess of food is incompatible with deficient 

 exercise. In order to keep up in the furnace a constant temperature, 

 we must vary the supply of fuel according to the external temperature, 

 i. e., according to the supply of oxygen. Our clothing is an equivalent 



