264 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDIiY. 



the following, which sets forth more clearly than any thing that I 

 have hitherto met, one of the chief reasons why lime often pro- 

 duces an action that justifies the high estimation in which practi- 

 cal farmers hbld its application on heavy clays or wet hill lands : — 



" I well remember the former condition of your hill-side 

 '' at Edgewood, which, as you mention, has been restored from 

 " great poverty, and mainly by lime alone. The present beauty 

 " of that slope is but another evidence of the truth of an asser- 

 " tlon that has passed into a maxim in agriculture, namely : ' Lime 

 " has reclaimed more waste land than all other applications put 

 " together.' 



" The pasture, which once, no doubt, was comparatively pro- 

 '' ductive, probably came to be mossy and worthless by a slow 

 " change in its chemical constitution, analogous to what occurs 

 '' in the formation of hardpan in ochrous soils, in the setting of 

 " hydraulic cement, and, generally, in the process of rock making 

 " that has gone on in all ages, and still proceeds, whereby sand 

 " and gravels are changed to freestone, and conglomerate clays are 

 " indurated into slates, and shell-mud is cemented into limestone." 



'' If I rightly remember, the slope has some springs upon it, 

 *' and a drain or two has been made to assist them to a speedy 

 *' outflow. This oozing of water which, perhaps, made the 

 *' ground mossy when covered by the original forest, was not 

 " enough, I suppose, to prevent good pasturage coming in so soon 

 " as the wood was cleared ofF, for the decay of the leaf-mould 

 " would have left the surface-soil porous and readily able to free 

 " itself from excess of water. The springs, however, have al- 

 " ways tended to stagnation, and when the soil, through oxida- 

 " tion of its mould and much cattle treading, became more com- 

 " pact, the free flow of water was checked, and the stopping of 

 " the springs reacted powerfully upon the soil to increase the 

 "evil. 



" If I should venture a surmise as to the nature of the indura- 

 " tion, it would be that oxide of iron and the acids resulting from 

 " a peaty decomposition of vegetable matter — humates, ulmates, 



