

CHAPTER XIV. 



Experiments with lime. General functions performed by lime in the soil and 

 in the plant. Natural differences of composition among limes and limestones. 

 Suggestions for experiments with crushed limestone. Suggestions for experi- 

 ments with different chalks and marls. Results of experiments with quick- 

 lime applied alone to land preparing for wheat. Suggestions for experiments 

 with silicate of lime, and with burned limes which contain it. Suggestions 

 for experiments with magnesia, and with limes which contain it in consider- 

 able proportions. 



THE numerous experiments which practical men, in such 

 climates as ours, are constantly making on the use of lime in 

 agriculture, as well as the great economical importance of this 

 substance as an improver of the land, would sufficiently justify 

 me in making it a separate subject of consideration in connexion 

 with these suggestions. But there are, in reality, many points 

 in reference to the use of lime, upon which much obscurity 

 rests, and over which carefully conducted experiments may 

 throw much light. 



Those who have read the small work I have recently pub- 

 lished on the use of lime,* may have already anticipated some 

 of the experimental suggestions contained in this and the suc- 

 ceeding chapter. For the sake of those, however, into whose 

 hands that work may not come, and with the view of making 

 the present more complete, I shall advert to the several points 

 in regard to which experiments are likely at present to be 

 most interesting or most profitable. 



1. General functions performed by lime in the soil and in 



the plant. 



In performing experiments with a view to pecuniary profit, 



* The Use of Lime in Agriculture. Blackwood : 1849. 



