192 OF MANURE. 



it has been reduced to powder, if any rain should happen 

 to fall, or if by any means it receive too much moisture, 

 while it lies thin spread on the surface of the field, it will 

 partly be formed into hard insoluble cakes, and may remain 

 in that state for years, without mixing with, or being of the 

 least benefit to the soil. In the course of repeated plough- 

 ings, Mr Paterson of Castle-Huntly has observed pieces 

 of hard lime come up, as insoluble, as if they had been pieces 

 of an old building. 



Considering these circumstances, I was much pleased to 

 find, that a mode had been discovered by Mr Niel Ballin- 

 gal in Fife, which obviates these difficulties. His plan is, 

 to lay the calcined lime down on any thick head-ridge of 

 good earth, within the field where it is to be applied, and 

 the instant it is so, two men are ready to make up a com- 

 post of the lime-shells and earth ; three cart-loads of earth 

 to one cart of shells, raised to a ridge long and narrow, 

 five feet high, that rain may not enter it. The moisture in the 

 earth, slacks or reduces the lime to a powder ; it swells to 

 a considerable bulk, and then all cracks and openings are 

 closed with a spade, and a little more earth put over the 

 whole. In this way, he has had it frequently mixed up for 

 six months, and in one particular instance fifteen months, 

 before it was carted away ; and yet when carried on to the 

 land and spread, the whole mass put on the appearance 

 of white lime, flying with the wind, as if newly from the 

 kiln. This mode he means always to follow, being certain 

 of its advantage. It can be mixed as intimately with the 

 soil as if new from the kiln, and he has had crops from it 

 in this way, superior to an equal quantity of hot lime,* 



* This is an important fact, it being generally supposed that when 

 inserted in the form of hot lime, in a state of perfect powder, its effects 



