214 Manurw/j Grass Lands. 



Lime is now extensively used in the preparation or purifying 

 of gas. After being used at gas-works it appears to be highly 

 impregnated with sulphur, and requires judgment and caution in 

 employing it as a manure. In the first place, it should be broken 

 down to the fineness of sand. A small lump of gas-lime will 

 destroy any of the trefoil or clover variety of plants. On grass 

 land two tons to the aci'e is a safer application than a greater 

 quantity ; * it should be put on the land in December ; and 

 to assure uniformity and equal covering on a given sur- 

 face, it is best to sow it with the hand. Some years ago 

 I saw a piece, 20 acres, of newly-seeded land totally ruined 

 by an application of gas-lime of 3 tons to the acre. No grass- 

 seeds could look more healthy than on the piece in Cjuestion, 

 both luxuriant and thick in plant. The owner, and also occu- 

 pier, had read some very favourable account of gas-lime, and, not 

 being himself a practical man, determined to try its effect ; the 

 grass-seeds were all destroyed, and the land was ploughed up 

 for a white crop. 



Gas-lime at some places is given away, and 1 have never 

 known more than os. per ton paid for it. I have used it to some 

 extent, and have seen its application tried in several counties, 

 with various success : but tfie failures have been from either 

 putting too much on the land, or allowing it to be unevenly 

 spread. 



Putrescent manures, or manures raised about a farmstead, are 

 perhajjs the most common top-dressing for grass intended for 

 hay, and for the improvement of pasture also. In many places, 

 however, farm-yard manure is solely employed in tillage, for 

 wheat, barley, or green crops. Guano is now used for grass, 

 and of course the farmer employs less farm-yard manure in that 

 way than formerly. I have used farm-yard manure in compost 

 with soil, as well as garbage and night-soil from towns. Compost 

 made up in this Avay produces an almost instantaneous change on 

 poor old grass. Its effect, however, is neither so permanent, nor 

 is it so easy of application as bones or lime, and certainly it is a 

 more costly manure, under general circumstances, than either. 

 But on grazing farms, such as those of the Craven district of York- 

 shire, where few green crops are raised, and stall-feeding practised 

 to a very limited extent, the farm-made manure is disposed of 

 to help the grass lands, being the only means of em])loying it. 

 There must be some uncertainty about any statement of the 

 quantity, or, more properly, the weight of manure required as 



* I have found a much less quantity than two tons per acre act as a perfect 

 poisou to pasture-laud, all kinds of stock refusing for several years afterwards to 

 touch the grass where it had beeu applied. — H. S. Thomi'son. 



