230 RESULT OF AN EXPERIMENT 



5. Result of an experiment with quicklime^ applied alone to 

 land preparing for wheat. 



Notwithstanding the very great extent to which lime is used 

 by the farmers of this country, it is a curious circumstance that 

 we have few or no precise descriptions of the general or special 

 effects it has produced on particular soils or crops ; and scarcely 

 any comparative numerical details as to the weights of succes- 

 sive crops raised on limed and unlimed portions of the same 

 soil. To the scientific agriculturist few wants are more serious. 

 However anxious to form a true opinion of the mode of action 

 of a substance, he finds no data on which he can rely. He can 

 neither test the opinions of others, form a safe opinion for him- 

 self, nor reasonably recommend to the practical man how, when, 

 or where the substance ought to be applied. 



The following experiment by Mr Caird, made at Baldoon, in 

 Wigtonshire, in 1844, I prize the more, as it is the only one of 

 the kind I am able to present to my readers. 



The soil was a deep alluvial clay, uniform in quality to a 

 great depth, being what is locally called carse land, and con- 

 tained rather less than one per cent of carbonate of lime. After 

 being slaked, the lime was scattered over the surface in the 

 state of a fine powder, and was ploughed in with a light seed 

 furrow immediately before the seed was sown. The field con- 

 sisted of six acres every alternate acre of which was dressed 

 with lime, the other three being left unlimed, as appears in the 

 following table of results : 



Grain. Straw. 



Quicklime, 300 bushels, gave 43 bushels. 2 tons 5^ cwt. 



Nothing, ... 44 ... 2 ... 2^ ... 



Quicklime, 240 bushels, . 42 



Nothing, . . . 40 ... 



Quicklime, 180 bushels, . 47 



Nothing, . . . 43 ... 



There was a considerable increase of straw on each of the 

 limed acres, though it was only weighed in the first case. From 

 the three acres there was, on the whole, an increased produce 

 of only five bushels of grain, which was a mere nothing compared 



