200 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 



** will reap good crops ; but when the putres- 

 *' cible matter is all exhausted, the ground then 

 ** becomes perfectly barren, and the caustic 

 ** qualities of the lime are most unjustly blamed 

 *' lor burning the ground, and reducing it to a 

 " caput mortuum \ w^hile it is plain, the lime has 

 " only done its office, and made the soil yield 

 " all that it was capable of yielding. 



*' ^Vllen ground has been long uncultivated, 

 *' producing all the time plants not succulent, 

 *' but such as are very difficultly dissolved, and 

 " in a manner incapable of putrefaction, there 

 ** the soil will be excessively barren, and peld 

 *' very scanty crops, though cultivated with the 

 ** greatest care. Of this kind are those lands 

 " covered with heath, which are found to be 

 *' the most barren of any, and the most difficultly 

 ** brought to yield good crops In this case 

 " lime will be as serviceable as it w^as detri- 

 *' mental in the other ; for by its septic qualities, 

 " it will continually reduce more and more of 

 " the soil to a imtrid state^ and thus there will 

 " be a constant succession of better and better 

 ** crops, by the continual use of lime, when the 

 *' quantity first laid on has exerted all its force. 

 " By a continued use of this manure, the ground 

 <' will be gradually brought nearer and nearer 

 ^< to the nature of garden mould, and no doubt, 



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