E^TECTS OF LIME UPON TiiE LAND AND CROPS. 391 



I. EFFECTS OF LIME UPON THE LAND. 



Pure lime, like the marls, produces both a mechanical and a chemi- 

 cal effect upon the soil. The former is constant with all varieties of 

 tolerably pure lime, and is easily understood. It opens and renders freer 

 such sods as are stiff" and clayey, while it increases the porosity of such 

 as are already light and sandy. To the former its mechanical action is 

 almost always favourable, to the latter not unfrequently the reverse. 



From its chemical action ihe benefits which follow the use of lime 

 are cliiefly derived. These benefits are principally the following: — 



1°. It mcreases the fertility of all soils in which lime does not already 

 abound, and especially adds to the productiveness of such as are moist 

 or contain much inert vegetable matter. 



2°. It enables the same soils to produce crops of a superior quality 

 also. Land which, unlimed, will produce only a scanty crop, (3 or 4 

 fold,) of rye, by the addition of lime alone, will yield a 6 or 7 fold re 

 turn of wheat. From some clays, also, apparently, unfit to grow corn 

 it brings up luxuriant crops. 



3°. It increases the effect of a given application of manure; calls 

 into action that which, having been previously added, appears to lie 

 dormant ; and though, as we have already seeu, (p. 386,) manure must 

 be plentifully laid ujjon the land, after it has been well-limed, yet the 

 same degree of productiveness can still be maintained at a less cost of 

 manure than where no lime has been applied. 



4°. As a necessary result of these important changes, the money 

 value and annual return of the land is increased, so that tracts of coun- 

 try which had let with difficulty for 5s. an acre, have in many locali- 

 ties been rendered worth 30s. or 40s. by the application of lime alone, 

 (Sir J. Sinclair.) 



II. EFFECTS OF LIME ON THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL. 



1°. Il alters the natural produce of the land, by killing some kinds 

 of plants and favouring the growth of others, the seeds of which had 

 before lain dormant. Thus it destroys the plants which are natural to 

 siliceous soils and to moist and marshy places. From the corn-field it 

 extirpates the corn-marigold, (chrysanthemum segetum, [Bonninghau- 

 sen,]) while, if added in excess, it encourages the red poppy, the yel- 

 low cow-wheat, {melartipyrum pratense,) and the yellow rattle, {rhinan- 

 Ihus crista galli,) and when it has sunk, favours the growth of the trou- 

 blesome and dee ()- rooted coltsfoot. 



Similar effects are ])roduced upon the natural grasses. It kills heath, 

 moss, and sour and benty* (agrostis) grasses, and brings up a sweet 

 and lender herbage, mixed with white and red clovers, more greedily 

 eaten and more nourishing to the cattle. Indeed, all fodder, whether 

 natural or artificial, is said to be sounder and more nourishing when 

 grown upon land to which lime has been abundantly applied. On 

 benty grass the richest animal manure often produces little improvement 

 until a dressing of lime has been laid on. 



* In Lic](Jisdale, on tlie Scottish border, is a large tract of land in what is there called 

 Jhing bent, not worth more than 3s. an acre. If surface-drained and limed at a ccst oi 

 £2 to j53 an acre, thi.s becomes worth 123. an acre for sheep pasture. An intelligent and 

 experienced border farmer assures me that such land would never fvrget 40 lo 60 busheU 

 of lime per acre. 



