392 LIME IMPROVES THE QUALITY OF THE CROP. 



It is partly in consequence of the change which it thus produces in 

 the nature of the herbage, that the application of quick-lime to old grass- 

 lands, some time before breaking up, is found to he so useful a practice. 

 The coarse grasses being destroyed, tough grass land is opened and 

 softened, and is afterwards more easily worked, while, when turned 

 over by the ])lough, the sod sooner decays and enriches the soil. It is 

 another advantage of this practice, however, that the lime has time* to 

 diffuse itself through the soil, and to induce some of those chemical 

 changes by which the succeeding crops of corn are so greatly benefitted. 



2°. It improves the quality of almost every cultivated crop. Thus, 

 upon limed land, 



a. The grain of the corn crops has a thinner skin, is heavier, and 

 yields more flour, while this flour is said also to be richer in gluten. 

 On the other hand, these crops, after lime, run less to straw, and are 

 more seldom laid, [n wet seasons, (in Ayrshire,) wheat preserves its 

 healthy appearance, while on unlimed land, of equal quality, it is yel- 

 low and sickly. A'more marked improvement is said also to Tbe pro- 

 duced both in the quantity and in the quality of the spring-sown than of 

 the winter-sown crops, (Puvis.) 



h. Potatoes grown upon all soils are more agreeable to the taste and 

 more mealy after li-me has been applied, and this is especially the case 

 on heavy and wet lands, which lie still undrained. 



c. Turnips are often improved both in quantity and in quality when 

 it is laid on in preparing the ground for the seed. It is most efficient, 

 and causes the greatest saving of farm-yard manure where it is applied 

 in the compost form, and where the land is already rich in organic mat- 

 ter of various kinds. 



(I. Peas are grown more pleasant to the taste, and are said to be 

 more easily boiled soft. Both beans and peas also yield more grain. 



e. Rape, after a half-Wmmg and manuring, gives extraordinary crops, 

 and the same is the case with the colsa, the seed of which is largely 

 raised in France for the oil which it yields. 



/. On flax alone it is said to be injurious, diminishing the strength of 

 the fibre of the stem. Hence, in Belgium, flax is not grown on limed 

 land till seven years after the lime has been applied. 



3°. It hastens the maturity of the crop. — It is true of nearly all our 

 cultivated crops, but especially of those of corn, that their full growth 

 is attained more speedily when the land is limed, and that they are 

 ready for the harvest from 10 to 14 days earlier. This is the (;aseeven 

 with buck-wheat, which becomes sooner ripe, though it yields no larger 

 a return, when lime is applied to the land on which it is grown. 



4°. The liming of the land is the harbinger of health as well as of 



abundance. It salubrifies no less than it enriches the well cultivated 



district. I have already drawn your attention (p. 310) to this as one 



of the incidental results which follow the skilful introduction of the 



drain over large tracts of country. Where the use of lime and of th(^ 



drain go together, it is difficult to say how much of the increased 



heahhiness of the district is due to the one improvement, and how much 



* A comparatively long period is sometimes permitted to elapse before the grass land is 

 broken up after liming. Thus at Nelhcrby, " hnie or compost is always applied to the 

 thifd year's ))asture, which is renovated by it, and in two or three years breaks up admi- 

 rably for oats." 



