244 ON OVER-LIMED LAND, 



3. Ploughing shallow and as seldom as possible, or paring with 

 the breast plough, by which the under soil remains undisturbed. 



4. Use of the clod-crusher or the peg-roller to press it down ; 

 treading with horses, or even with men, who, in some parts of 

 England, tread it down for one shilling and sixpence an acre. 



By the use of such means as these, by employing drilled 

 manures, and by carefully avoiding any stirring of the surface 

 which can be avoided, the evils of over-liming may be overcome. 



Of course, the reader will understand that the employment 

 of methods which, like the above, are available everywhere, 

 does not exclude the admirable method of claying, by which 

 the fen farmers know so well how to cure the kind of evil I 

 have been speaking of. Anything which, in the form of clay 

 or compost, can be laid on the surface to add to its solidity, 

 will produce the mechanical effect which is desired ; but such 

 applications are not within the easy reach of the farmer in all 

 the localities where the evil is observed. 



5. Experiments on the comparative economy of large and 

 small doses of lime. 



In the application of lime to land even of the same kind, and 

 intended to be cropped in a similar way, a diversity of practice 

 prevails in different districts and countries. Some apply large 

 doses at long intervals, others smaller doses more frequently 

 repeated. Local circumstances such as the tenure of land, 

 and the distance from which lime has to be brought very fre- 

 quently determine local practice in this respect. But where 

 circumstances admit of either practice, it is a matter of some 

 moment to inquire which of the two is the more economical. 

 In my other published works, I have discussed this question ;* 

 and having shown, 



1. That a certain percentage of lime is, in our climate, ne- 

 cessary to the maximum fertility of the land ; 



2. That, to keep up this necessary percentage, supposing it 

 already to exist, practical experience has shown, that an addi- 

 tion at the rate of about ten bushels a-year is required by each 

 imperial acre ; 



* Lectures, 2d edition, p. 679; and Use of Lime in Agriculture, p. 94, et seq. 



