LI M 



LIM 



243 



lees contain much of the food of 

 plants. But they should not be ap- 

 phed to the soil as a manure till 

 their acidity is destroyed, by mix- 

 ing and fermenting them witii large 

 proportions of alkaline substances, 

 such as marie, lime, ashes, soot, 

 &c. Even the pomace at cyder 

 mills, which has hitherto been con- 

 sidered by our farmers as good for 

 nothing, might be thus changed 

 into a good manure. It is nearly 

 the same substance as the lees of 

 cyder. Cyder lees will also pro- 

 duce brandy by distillation. 



LIME, a crumbly soft substance, 

 made by burning stones, and the 

 shells of shell fish, and slacking 

 them with water. 



Lime has been proved, by the 

 long experience of European far- 

 mers, to be one of the most effica- 

 cious manures. This may be 

 thought strange by those who know 

 it to be a mere alkali, containing 

 neither oil nor salt, which are cer- 

 tainly the principal ingredients in 

 the food of plants. Oil is an in- 

 dispensably necessary part of this 

 food. 



But, by experiments made of 

 late, it has been clearly proved 

 that plants are greatly nourished 

 by fixed air, of which it is known 

 that lime contains a large quantity. 

 It has been proved by the experi- 

 ments of Mr. Lavoisier, that one 

 third part of calcareous earths, and 

 particularly of lime-stone, consists 

 of fixed air. 



But besides affording to plants 

 this nourishment, which is known 

 to be in plants, lime acts as a ma- 

 nure, by attracting and imbibing 

 the oils and acids which are con- 



tained in the earth and atmo- 

 sphere. It not only collects these 

 ingredients of vegetable food, but 

 so alters them as to ht them to 

 enter the roots of plants. V\ith 

 the acids it forms a salt, which, by 

 mixing with the oils, becomes a sa- 

 ponaceous mucilage, wliich is the 

 true pabulum for the nourishment 

 of plants. 



These changes cannot be made 

 in the ingredients of which vege- 

 table food is composed, without a 

 considerable degree of^ fermenta- 

 tion. This fermentation breaks 

 and mellows the soil, and so in- 

 creases the pasture of plants, that 

 the roots can more freely extend 

 themselves in quest of their food. 

 Accordingly it is found that liming 

 renders a soil very soft and 

 open. 



And as lime, when it is slacked, 

 is a very soft substance, I can see 

 no reason to doubt of its containing 

 a very considerable quantity of 

 those impalpably small particles of 

 earth which enter into plants, and 

 become part of their substance. If 

 so, it must be allowed that lime is 

 tit to answer every intention of 

 manure. It either has all the in- 

 gredients of vegetable food, or pro- 

 duces and prepares them, though 

 not in the same proportion as dung, 

 which is allowed to be the most 

 valuable of all manures. 



Lime has been complained of, 

 as impoverishing the soil ; and it 

 has been often remarked, that 

 though one dressing will produce 

 several good crops, the land is less 

 fruitful for some time after, than 

 before it has been limed ; and that 

 a second dressing with lime, will 



