200 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 



" will reap good crops ; but when the putres- 

 " cible matter is all exhausted, the ground then 

 " becomes perfectly barren, and the caustic 

 " qualities of the lime are most unjustly blamed 

 " for burning the ground, and reducing it to a 

 " caput mortuum ; while it is plain, the lime has 

 " only done its office, and made the soil yield 

 *' all that it was capable of yielding. 



" When ground has been long uncultivated, 

 " producing all the time plants not succulent, 

 " but such as are very difficultly dissolved, and 

 " in a manner incapable of putrefaction, there 

 " the soil will be excessively barren, and yield 

 very scanty crops, though cultivated with the 

 " greatest care. Of this kind are those lands 

 " covered with heath, which are found to be 

 " the most barren of any, and the most difficultly 

 " brought to yield good crops In this case 

 " lime will be as serviceable as it was detri- 

 " mental in the other ; for by its septic qualities, 

 " it will continually reduce more and more of 

 the soil to a putrid state, and thus there will 

 *' be a constant succession of better and better 

 " crops, by the continual use of lime, when the 

 ** quantity first laid on has exerted all its force. 

 By a continued use of this manure, the ground 

 ** will be gradually brought nearer and nearer 

 * to the nature of garden mould, and no doubt, 



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