AND ON THE COMPARATIVE ECONOMY 



245 



3. That the full action of lime upon the crops does not take 

 place for two or three years after its application ; 



I have endeavoured to show that, when one large dose of 

 lime has been laid upon land which had been long unlimed, it 

 is a more profitable, as well as a more natural method, to apply 

 it afterwards in successive small doses at comparatively short 

 intervals. 



This conclusion is deserving of being tested by experimental 

 trials. These will, of course, require a lengthened time for 

 their completion, and can only be undertaken by persons whose 

 tenure of the land they hold is of considerable duration. They 

 ought to be made on land limed for the first time, or to which 

 no lime has been applied during the last fifteen or twenty years, 

 and should be conducted as follows : 



1. Over the whole experimental piece of land, the large 

 dose of two or three hundred bushels of lime an acre should be 

 spread alike. 



2. The land should then be divided into six portions of not 

 less than one or two acres in extent, and to each of these por- 

 tions further applications of lime should be made in different 

 proportions at different intervals. Thus 



a To one portion a fifth of the first application 40 to 60 

 bushels every four years. 



b To another portion, a third of the first application every 

 six years. 



c To another, two-fifths every eight years. 



d To another, two-thirds at the end of twelve years. 



e To another, four-fifths at the end of sixteen years. 



The following scheme represents the field so divided : 



This series of experiments is only single, and though, when 

 arranged as above, the several trials could scarcely fail to afford 

 interesting results, yet, if made in duplicate, as I have so fre- 



