744 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Pakt III. 



SoBSECT. 2. Of Lime and its Management as a Manure. 



4588. Lifne is hyfar the most important of the fossile manures ; and indeed it may be 

 asserted that no soil will ever be fit for much, that does not contain a proportion of this 

 earth, either naturally or by artificial application. Next to farm-yard dung, lime is in 

 most general use as a manure, though it is one of a quite diflPerent character; and when 

 judiciously applied and the land laid to pasture, or cultivated for white and green crops 

 alternately, with an adequate allowance of putrescent manure, its eflPects are much 

 more lasting, and, in many instances, still more beneficial than those of farm-yard dung. 

 Fossil manures, Sir H. Davy observes, must produce their effect, either by becoming 

 a constituent part of the plant, or by acting upon its more essential food, so as to render 

 it more fitted for the purposes of vegetable life. It is, perhaps, in the former of these 

 ways, that wheat and some other plants are brought to perfection after lime has been 

 applied, upon land that would not bring them to maturity by the most liberal use of dung 

 alone. This being an established fact may be considered one of the greatest importance 

 to all cultivators. 



4589. With regard to the quantity of lime that ought to he applied to different soils, it is 

 much to be regretted that Sir Humphrey Davy has not thought proper to enter fully 

 into the subject. Clays, it is well known, require a larger quantity than sands or dry 

 loams. It has been applied, accordingly, in almost every quantity from 100 to 500 

 bushels or upwards, per acre. About 160 bushels are generally considered a full dress- 

 ing for lighter soils, and 80 or 100 bushels more for heavy cohesive soils. 



4590. In the application of lime to arable land, there are some general rules commonly 

 attended to by diligent farmers, which we shall give nearly in the words of a recent 

 publication. 



1. As the efFects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admixture with the surface soil, it is essential 

 to have it in a powdery state at the time it is applied. 



2. Lime having a tendency to sink in the soil, it should be ploughed in with a shallow furrow. 



3. Lime may either be applied to grass land, or to land in preparation for green crops or summer fallow, 

 with almost equal advantage ; but, in general, the latter mode of application is to be preferred. 



4. Lime ought not to be applied a second time to moorish soils, unless mixed up as a compost, after 

 which the land should be immediately laid down to grass. 



5. Upon fresh land, the effect of lime is much superior to that of dung. The ground, likewise, more 

 especially where it is of a strong nature, is more easily wrought ; in some instances, it is said, the saving 

 of labor would be sufficient to induce a farmer to lime his land, were no greater benefit derived from the 

 application than the opportunity thereby gained of working it in a more perfect manner, (General Report 

 qf Scotland, vol ii. p. 536.) 



4591. In liming for improving hilly land, with a view to pasture, a much smaller quan- 

 tity has been found to produce permanent and highly beneficial effects, when kept as 

 much as possible near the surface, by being merely harrowed in with the seeds, after a 

 fallow or green crop, instead of being buried by the plough. As this is a matter of 

 much importance to farmers of such land, especially when lime must be brought from a 

 great distance, as was the case in the instance to which we are about to allude, the 

 successful practice of one of the most eminent farmers in Britain cannot be too generally 

 known. A few years after 1 75-4, says Dawson, * having a considerable extent of outfield 

 land in fallow, which I wished to lime previous to its being laid down to pasture, and 

 finding that I could not obtain a sufficient quantity of lime for the whole in proper time, 

 I was induced, from observing the effects of fine loam upon the surface of similar soil, 

 even when covered with bent, to try a small quantity of lime on the surface of this fallow, 

 instead of a larger quantity ploughed down in the usual manner. Accordingly in the 

 autumn, about twenty acres of it were well harrowed, and then about fifty-six Winchester 

 bushels only of unslacked lime were, after being slacked , carefully spread upon each 

 English acre, and immediately well harrowed in. As many pieces of the lime, which 

 had not been fully slacked at first, were gradually reduced to powder by the dews and 

 moisture of the earth, to mix these with the soil, the land was again well harrowed in three 

 or four days thereafter. This land was sown in the spring with oats, with white and red 

 clover and rye-grass seeds, and well harrowed, without being ploughed again. The crop 

 of oats was good ; the plants of grass sufficiently numerous and healthy; and they formed 

 a very fine pasture, which continued good until ploughed some years after for corn. 

 About twelve years afterwards, I took a lease of the hilly farm of Grubbet; many parts 

 of which, though of an earthy mould tolerably deep, were too steep and elevated to be 

 kept in tillage. As these lands had been much exhausted by cropping, and were full of 

 couch-grass, to destroy that and procure a cover of fine grass, I fallowed them, and laid 

 on the same quantity of lime per acre, then harrovt>ed, and sowed oats and grass seeds 

 in the spring exactly as in the last mentioned experiment. The oats were a full crop, 

 and the plants of grass abundant. Several of these fields have been now above thirty years 

 in pasture, and are still producing white clover, dnd other fine grasses ; no bent or fog 

 has yet appeared upon them. It deserves particular notice, that more than treble 

 the quantity of lime was laid upon fields adjoining, of a similar soil, but which being 



