80 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



productiveness of the land. A still less quantity would be of 

 essential service. Nor is the expense of this application so 

 great as some imagine, for almost every farm contains a quan- 

 tity of waste peat meadow, and clay is almost always near at 

 hand. It may be removed and prepared at a season of the 

 year when there is but little else to do. The expense, therefore, 

 need not deter any one from its use. 



But there is another substance equally accessible, which acts 

 both as an ameliorator and a fertilizer of the soil. It is, perhaps, 

 one of the cheapest and most profitable top dressings. It is 

 the rich loam which accumulates in the holes by the road side, 

 and wherever the wash gathers from hills. Every one has 

 observed the effect of the loam thrown out upon the grass in 

 ploughing. The grass along the edges soon becomes greener 

 in spring, and grows with greater luxuriance. The wash by 

 the road side would have a far more powerful effect. For this 

 contains, besides the putrescent animal matters from the road, 

 a quantity of sand, which rich soils wanting closeness and con- 

 sistency, require on the surface. Spread upon such soils when 

 covered with grass, it is very efficacious, and makes the vege- 

 tation as vigorous as the most stimulating manure. Very many 

 experiments have clearly shown that the effect of sand on such 

 soils is better than any manure could be. 



Among the mineral manures, lime is often used as a top 

 dressing. We have seen this employed with good effect. We 

 are inclined to think that this effect arises not from any direct 

 nutriment furnished by it to the grass, but from its influence on 

 the substances in the soil. It hastens the decomposition of 

 vegetable matters in the earth. In this way it renews exhaust- 

 ed soils. It increases the temperature. Hence its great benefit 

 on low, wet lands. It causes a rapid decay of all peat substan- 

 ces. Hence its great use in the compost heap. It destroys the 

 mosses and coarse herbage which work in among the grasses, 

 and indicate the want of lime in the soil. It produces from 

 them a fine vegetable mould. Hence its utility on lands which 

 are " run out." 



If what has been said be true, it appears that lime can never 

 supply the place of other manures. There are properties 



