PERIOD rOR THE APPLICATION OF LIME. 389 



§ 14. When ought lime to be ajyplied ? 



This question may refer either to the period in the lease, in the rota- 

 tion, or of the year in which lime may most beneficially be laid upon 

 the land. We have already considered this point in so far as it refers 

 to the lease, while discussing the propriety of applying lime in large or 

 small doses. 



In regard to the period of the year and of the rotation, there are three 

 principles by which the procedure of the practical man ought chiefly to 

 be directed. 



1°. That lime takes some time to 'produce its known effects upon the 

 soil. — It ought, therefore, to be applied as long as possible before the 

 crop is sown. That is, in the early autumn, where either winter or 

 spring corn is about to be sown, — on the naked fallow where the land 

 is allowed to be at rest for a year, — or on the grass fields before break- 

 ing up, where the pasture is to be immediately succeeded by corn. 



2°. That quick-lime expel& ammonia from decomposed and fermenting 

 manure. 



When such manure, therefore, is applied to the land, as it is in all 

 our well-farmed districts, quick-lime should not be so laid upon the 

 land as to come into immediate contact with it. If both must be ap- 

 plied in the same year, they should be laid on at periods as distant from 

 each other as may be convenient, or if this necessity does not exist, the 

 lime should be spread either a year before or a year after the period in 

 the rotation at which the manure is usually applied. 



It is for this reason, as well as for the other already stated, (1°.) that 

 lime is applied to the naked fallow, to the grass before breaking up, or 

 along with the winter wheat after a green crop which has been aided 

 by fermented manure. When ploughed into the fallow, or spread upon 

 the grass, it has had time to be almost completely converted into the 

 mild si^te (that of carbonate,) before the manure is laid on. In this 

 mild state it has no sensible effect in expelling the ammonia of decom- 

 posing manure. Again, when it is applied in autumn along with, or 

 immediately before the seed, the volatile or ammoniacal part of the 

 manure has already been expended in nourishing the green crop, so that 

 loss can rarely accrue from the admixture of the two at this period ot 

 the rotation. 



The excellent elementary work of Professor Lowe, (Elements oi 

 Practical Agriculture, third edition, p. 63,) contains the following re- 

 mark : — " It is not opposed to theory that lime should be applied to the 

 soil at the same time with dung and other animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances, as is frequent in the practice of farmers." This is strictly cor- 

 rect only in regard to marls, lime-sand, &;c., or to perfectly mild lime, 

 any of which may be mixed, without loss, with manure in any state. 

 Of quick or caustic lime it is correct only when the animal or vegetable 

 matter has not yet begun to ferment. With recent animal or vegetable 

 matter, quick-lime may be mixed up along with earth into a compost, 

 not only without the risk of much loss, but with the prospect of mani- 

 fest advantage. 



3°. That quick-lime hastens or revives the decomposition of inert or- 

 ganic matter. — This fact also indicates the propriety of allowing the 



