On Liming Land. 301 
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equal to if not exceeding the expence of lime, and 
the result uncertain. I therefore ordered that the part 
of the field which had not been previously limed, should — 
be limed as soon as possible, twice ploughed, and sown 
with rye, and clover next spring. 
It was the opinion of the man who farms for me, as 
well as of others who made observations, that I missed 
it by planting corn with the lime; that if I had sown 
oats and clover the first spring, I would have hada 
profitable crop, besides gaining a year in my improve- 
ment, which was lost by the failure of the corn crop, 
and part of the strength of the lime exhausted to no 
purpose.* I am fully aware of the objection which some 
have to oats as an exhausting crop, and therefore ill 
calculated for advancing the improvement of worn out 
lands. At the same time that I disapprove of the ab- 
* However corn may,succeed upon fresh limed land, in 
cases where the land was in good heart previous to the ap- 
plication of the lime; I here give my opinion not from con- 
jecture, but experience and observation, that in general jit will 
be found better for the land, and more profitable for the far- 
mer, to defer either corn or wheat, until clover have first 
intervened ; especially if the lime was of the magnesian 
kind, and the land poor ; and then the addition ofa little dung 
will be very useful. And in this opinion I am partly born 
out, by that able and experienced farmer Judge Peters, Pre- 
sident of this Society ; in a note at the bottom of page 280, 
nf this volume, he has these words, ‘“‘ The same fields (where 
wheat had failed) produced clover in abundance. In their 
next turn for wheat (and especially if assisted with a light 
dungiag) they amply retributed my former disappointment.” 
