384 OUGHT LIME TO BE APPLIED IN LARGE OR SMALL DOSES. 



A certain proportion of lime is indispensable in our climate to the 

 production of the greatest possible fertility. Let us suppose a soil to be 

 wholly destitute of lime — the first step of the improver would be to add 

 to this indispensable proportion. This would necessarily be a large 

 quantity, and, therefore, to land limed for the first time theory indicates 

 the inopriety of adding a large dose. 



Every year, however, a certain variable proportion of the lime is re- 

 moved from the soil by natural causes. The effect of this removal in a 

 few years becomes sensibly apparent in the diminished productiveness 

 of the land. After the lapse of five or six years, during which it has 

 been gradually mixing with the soil, the beneficial effects of the lime is 

 generally the most striking — after this they gradually lessen, till at the 

 end of a longer or shorter period, the land reverts to its original condition. 

 To keejy land in its best possible state, therefore, the natural ivaMe ought 

 from time to time to be sujyplied by the addition of smaller doses of lime 

 at shorter intervals. 



Such is obviously the most natural course of procedure, and he who 

 farms, his ovi^n estate, and has therefore no strong inducement to do oth- 

 erwise, will, on the first breaking up of new land, give it a heavy 

 liming, and whether he afterwards retain it in arable culture or lay it 

 down to grass, will at intervals of 4 to 6 years give it a new doseof one- 

 fourth to one-eighth of the original quantity. But local circumstances 

 and customs interfere in many well-farmed districts with this most na- 

 tural treatment of the soil. In the county of Roxburgh, for example, 

 on entering upon his farm, which holds on a lease of 19 or 21 years, the 

 tenant begins by liming that portion of his land which is in fallow, or. 

 in preparation for turnips, at the rate of 240 to 300 bushels of quick-lime 

 per acre. A similar liming is given to the other portions as they come 

 into fallow, so that at the end of his first rotation (4 or 5 years) the whole 

 of his land has been limed at the same rate. He now continues crop- 

 ping for three or four rotations (14 to 16 years), when if he is sure of re- 

 maining on his farm he begins to lime again with the same quantity as 

 before. If he is to quit, however, he takes the best crops he can get, 

 but incurs no further outlay in the addition of lime. His successor fol- 

 lows the same course — begins by expending perhaps dElOOO in lime, 

 and before he leaves at the end of his lease, has, by continued cropping, 

 brought back his land nearly to the same state in which he found it. 



In the district of Kyle and other parts of Ayrshire, again, lime is laid 

 on — often when preparing for the wheat crop, either by ploughing in the 

 second furrow, or by harrowing in with the seed — at the rate of 40 bush- 

 els of shells an acre, and this dose is of course repeated every 4 or 6 years, 

 according to the length of the rotation. If we consider the probable dif- 

 ference in the soil and climate, the proportion of lime added in the two 

 districts does not materiallydiffer. In Ayrshire from 8 to 10 bushels, and 

 in Roxburgh from 10 to 12 bushels, are added for each year.* In both 

 counties, however, many farms may be met with in which the treatment 

 of the land in this respect differs from that which is generally followed. 



* According to General Beatson {New System of Cultivation, 1820), upwards 100 bushels 

 an acre, at a cost of jE7. 16s., used to be applied to the clay Jandsof Sussex— on the fallow, 

 before wheat— every foui years. This was 25 bushels per acre for each year. In such 

 lands as these the saving in the article of lime alone, which would follow a judicious drain* 

 age, would be very great. 



