MANURES. 37 



may work well for years, but it is nevertheless faulty and 

 improvident. Lime only is added directly to the soil, hut 

 clover draws from the air and moisture whatever food it 

 can attract from them. There remain to be added potash, 

 soda, the phosphates and silicates, which the soil will soon 

 cease to furnish sufficient for the wants of the wheat and 

 clover removed, or stertility must inevitably follow. 



The best method, is to add in some form, tliefull amount of 

 all (lie male-rials, abstracted by the annual crop. When this 

 is done, the large dressing of lime will retain the accumulating 

 fertility, far beyond what the soil would be capable of were 

 it not for its agency; and it is in this that the great profit of 

 farming consists. 



Large crops only are profitable. The k market value of many 

 indifferent ones will hardly meet the expense of cultivation, 

 and it is only the excess beyond this which is profit. It is 

 evident that if 15 bushels per acre of wheat, be an average 

 crop, and it requires 12 bushels to pay all expenses of produc- 

 tion, 3 bushels is the amount of profit. But if by the use of 

 lime and ordinary manures, the product can be raised to 30 

 bushels per acre, the profit would be near the value of 12 or 

 15 bushels, after paying for the manures. Thus the advan- 

 tage from good management may be five times that of neglect. 

 This example is given as illustrating a principle and not as 

 an exact measure of the difference between limed and unlimed 

 land. 



Application of lime. It may be carried on to the ground 

 immediately after burning and placed in small heaps. There 

 it may be left to slack by rains and the air, or it is better to 

 reduce it at once with water if accessible, and then spread 

 it preparatory to plowing. A good practice is to place it in 

 large piles and cover it thickly with earth, which gradually 

 reduces it to powder. It may then be carried where it is 

 wanted and spread from the cart. It is still better, when 

 small quantities only are wanted to add it to the compost after 

 it has been thoroughly air-slacked, avoiding fermentation as 

 far as practicable after it has been added, as its avidity for 

 carbon expels the ammonia, which is the most valuable of 

 the volatile ingredients of the muck heap. A thick coating 

 of earth over the whole, will arrest and retain much of the 

 gas that would otherwise escape. 



Fresh burnt lime does not act on the crops during the first 

 year, and it may be prepared for action as well by mixing it 



