AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 



be preferred to those abundant dressings of lime usually 

 given at one time, which cause an action on the soil 

 more powerful and violent than is conducive to, or com- 

 patible with a continued state of fertility. 



In short, lime should be considered in a chemical 

 and medicinal point of view, when so applied, aUng 

 as an alterative, corrector, and a decompounder ; a disen- 

 gager of certain parts of the animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances contained in soils, and as a retainer and a combi- 

 ner with others.; and is not to be regarded by the prac- 

 tical farmer as a substance fit for the immediate food 

 and nourishment of vegetables, like dung, or decayed 

 vegetable or animal matters. For, although calcareous 

 matter, or lime, forms a component part of vegetable and 

 animal bodies, still the quantity that can be obtained from 

 the annual produce of most crops, from an acre of 

 ground, will not exceed eighty pounds weight. This facT: 

 has been well ascertained, and if proper attention be 

 paid to it, in regulating the conduit of the agriculturist, 

 in the future application of lime, it will prove more sa- 

 tisfaftory than all the chemical reasonings adduced in this 

 Treatise. 



By 



