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THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



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loams there is a substantial body for the lime to operate upon, 

 containing abundance of rich substances ; and considerable 

 quantity will be required, to pervade and give due acti- 

 vity to the whole : but as the soil is lighter, the quantity 

 must be less, and the after-management, with regard to the 

 crops, extremely cautious. In liming a single field, an atten- 

 tion to the quantity will often be found necessary ; the soil of 

 the higher parts being for the most part more light and free, 

 and that of the lower more deep and compact, where the 

 ground is unequal. On some soils, particularly where the 

 bottom is chalk, limestone, or marl, lime will be pernicious, 

 especially if the soil be thin. Lime is found to produce the 

 best effects upon fallows, when laid on early in the season, 

 and well incorporated with the soil. By the assistance of 

 lime, whole districts, formerly useless, have been made to 

 produce not only good crops of Turnips, but also valuable 

 crops of Corn and broad Clover. Its greater value, however, 

 seems to be upon light soils for those crops; insomuch, that 

 where lime is the principal manure, they seldom sow Turnips, 

 Clovers, Pease, or Beans, except upon lands that have been 

 previously limed. Instances of this are often met with on the 

 up-lauds ; where if any of the broad-leaved crops are sown 

 where a part has been limed, and a part not, the parts where the 

 lime has been laid will produce a valuable return ; while that 

 which has been dunged only, will hardly repay the expense of 

 seed and labour. Farmers differ in their methods of using 

 lime upon Turnip lands : some lay it on only before the last 

 ploughing, and plough it in withoistt harrowing ; they also lay it 

 in heaps, hot from the kiln, without being slaked. But the 

 sooner it is laid upon the land, and the more ploughings and 

 harrowings it receives before the seed is sown, the better it 

 will be incorporated with the soil, and the more certain and 

 valuable will be its effects. Upon Clover-ley, for Oats, is per- 

 haps the worst way in which lime can be used. It is generally 

 laid on in the autumn, and ploughed down in the spring; and 

 the returns are inadequate to the expense. Lime is used as 

 a top-dressing, in spring, upon Grass, or Wheat, and other 

 grain. Upon the latter it is dangerous, unless the lime be 

 made into a compost with dung or earth : in this form it will 

 not only be safe, but profitable. Upon the former it is no 

 better, except upon coarse meadows, abounding with rushes 

 and weeds, which it destroys. Upon light soils, if several 

 white crops be taken in succession after liming, the land will 

 be worn out. A white and a green crop should be taken 

 alternately. Upon clay lands, a summer fallow is sometimes 

 indispensable ; in that case the lime should be laid on in July 

 or August, and completely harrowed in before ploughing: 

 two or three ploughings at least are required to incorporate 

 it well with the soil, and a suitable harrowing with each. 

 Marl, has been long celebrated as a manure. Barren sands, 

 and poor heaths, have been rendered productive by marl, 

 but at a great expense : indeed there is reason to believe that 

 the greatest part of the southern district of Lancashire has 

 been reclaimed by it ; but it will not produce its full effects 

 upon the soil, till it is incorporated with it by several plough- 

 ings, and dung, or other oily manure, mixed with it. Mr. 

 Coke, of Holkam, in Norfolk, who has marled many hundred 

 acres, always spreads the marl on the new ley, that is, on the 

 seeds, after the barley harvest, from eighty to one hundred 

 loads an acre ; and on these dry soils it does little injury to 

 the grasses. By this mode, the marl is on the ground at least 

 three years before the plough enters ; which is far. better, and 

 more durable, than ploughing it directly. In open fields, 

 marling seldom answers the expense ; for this is only a begin- 

 ning of improvement : by going on directly with a course of 

 ploughing, which cannot well be avoided in shiftable fields, 



the marl is often buried and lost before it mixes properly 

 with the soil, especially if turned in too deep in the first earth, 

 of which great care should betaken. Marling, therefore, can 

 only or chiefly answer on inclosed land, that can be managed 

 as the occupier pleases. In that case, it should be laid down 

 with Clover, Ray-grass, and Trefoil, the spring twelve-months 

 before laying on the marl, and remain at least six months after, 

 that it may have time to sink into the flag before it is ploughed 

 up ; and then there will be little danger of losing it, as it will 

 be in some measure incorporated with the soil. No pains 

 should be spared to break all the lumps, and to get it fine by 

 repeated harrowings and rollings, and to have the stones 

 picked and carried away, that the grass may get through, for 

 stock to be grazing upon it ; which is the great and finishing 

 improvement. After the land has been got fine, and laid six 

 or eight months longer ; in February, or the beginning of 

 March, break it up, and sow it with Pease; then fallow for 

 Turnips, giving it four or five earths, with harrowings, &c. 

 After feeding off the Turnips upon the land, sow Barley, and 

 lay it down again with Clover, Trefoil, and Ray-grass. Let it 

 l^.y two summers; after which, by either folding or dunging 

 it, if not too poor a sand, there will be a good chance for a 

 crop of Wheat; after which, fallow again for Turnips and Bar- 

 ley, or Rapeseed and Oats, and so on ; always bearing in mind, 

 that taking two following crops of corn, without a fallow, 

 or summer grazing, will soon bring newly improved land to its 

 former impoverished state. Crag, is a sort of shell marl, 

 being chiefly shells whole, or in a decaying state, mixed with 

 calcareous earth; which probably is nothing but the shells 

 perfectly decayed. For Turnips, the benefit has been found 

 equal to that of dung, in Suffolk ; yet the greatest effect was 

 on a moory bottom. The Sandlings, a tract of land in that 

 county, nearWoodbridge, seem to be upon a foundation of this 

 red shell marl or crag; the use of which is, however, discon- 

 tinued, except for taking in walk land, as they call it, for sheep. 

 Upon old improved lands they never lay it singly, but mix it 

 with dung, earth, or ouze ; thinking that it makes light lands 

 blow more. Mr. Young, in his Eastern Tour, says, that crag 

 is dry, and not in the least soapy ; that it does not effervesce in 

 acids, and does not fall in water; that notwithstanding this, all 

 the effects, and even more, produced in Norfolk by sixty, eighty, 

 or one hundred loads of marl, are gained in Suffolk by ten or 

 twelve of crag; and that it lasts even longer : which they have 

 discovered from an idea, probably unfounded, that land once 

 cragged will not bear a repetition of it, except in a compost 

 with dung; and accordingly, in many cases, it has lasted, 

 with such additions, fifty, sixty, and even one hundred years. 

 The nature of the poor sands in that county is quite changed 

 with it; and they gain an adhesion, which they retain for 

 ever. Crag is a great fertilizer, as appears from the sudden 

 increase of the crops after its application. Shells and Sea 

 Sand, are used to great advantage in several parts of England, 

 especially in Devonshire; where they are at the expense of 

 fetching the sand and shells, on horses' backs, twelve or four- 

 teen miles. The land on which they lay this manure, is a 

 strong loam, inclining to clay. Where the land lies near the 

 sea, so that either sand, shells, corals, wrack or sea-weeds, 

 can be obtained at an easy expense, they are by far the best 

 kinds of manure, because they enrich the land for several 

 years ; for as their salts are closely locked up, they are com- 

 municated by degrees to the land, as the heat and cold causes 

 the various bodies to pulverize, and fall into small parts: so that 

 where sands, and smaller kinds of sea-weeds, are used, if they 

 are laid on land in proper quantities, it will enrich it for six 

 or seven years; but shells, corals, and other hard bodies, will 

 continue many years longer. All shells are principally cal- 



