On Liming Land. 283 
Its particles are too small and fine to keep asunder 
those of the clay ; and such things as produce this ef- 
fect are the only proper auxiliaries for clay land. Gravel, 
sand, shells, unburnt limestone, are better than lime. 
In clay ridged and drained, and kept dry and friable, 
lime may be serviceable. 
I have spread lime on a clover lay, and suffered it to 
remain on the surface, througha winter ; then plough- 
ed; and the lime being well incorporated by heavy 
drags or harrows, I have found it a very advantageous 
mode. I have always preferred, in this and every other 
mode of application, laying on the lime, and mixing it 
thoroughly with the soil by frequent stirrings, without 
dung.’ I have repeatedly observed, that fresh lime and 
stable manure, put on together, are by no mcans so ef- 
ficacious, as when the latter is applied in the season suc- 
ceeding the liming: green manures, with fresh lime, 
found that dung, in equal quantities, put on the year of liming, 
is very inferior in profitable effects to that applied in the year 
succeeding the laying on the lime. In the contemporaneous 
application with lime, part of the dung is consumed, and 
goes to balance, or remedy, an evi/: instead of wholly ope- 
rating to effect a positive good; as it does when the lime, 
by losing its causticity and predatory qualities, is prepared. 
to co-operate with the dung, in the salutary and beneficial 
purposes intended by their combined application. 
The lime, when it has spent its noxious activity, operates as a 
mild solvent. It attracts, and, elaborates the acids in the 
dung, and the vegetable or other substances in the earth ; 
and prepares them to enter the plant, and to become its 
food and essential nourishment. 
R. P, 
