300 ' On Liming Land. 
very strong mortar for building, but is not used for 
plaistering, being granulated and not very white. I sup- 
pose it to be similar to that described by Dr. Darwin, 
which he supposes to have been primitive lime, broken 
down by the action of water and petrified a second 
time, which he thinks is the strongest lime. 
The following summer was very dry, which together 
with the heat of the lime, I supposed to be the cause 
why the corn became stunted and produced almost 
nothing. In the spring of 1809, the land was ploughed 
and sowed with oats and clover, the other part of the 
field which was now in rye, was likewise sowed with 
clover at the same time, and as soon as the clover be- 
gan to appear above ground, the whole field was sowed 
with plaister. 
At harvest the oats wasa very good crop, the rye was 
tall and well eared, but rather thin; perhaps it was 
owing to this circumstance, that the clover among the 
rye looked better, and more plentiful than that among 
the oats. I had not seen it, untii Wednesday the 4th 
instant, when I found that part of the field which had 
been limed, closely covered with fine clover, whereas 
on that part which was not limed, almost the whole of 
it had perished last winter, and what plants remained 
were weak and sickly, and abundance of wood-grass 
beginning to appear, with which the field used to be 
almost covered while it lay acommon; whereas not one 
plant of it is to be seen on that part which was limed. 
From this I concluded, that if the system of improving 
with clover and plaister without lime, should succeed in 
the end, it must be by a number of repetitions of the 
same process, which would require time and labour 
