I20 A TREATISE ON THE CONNECTION OF 



By an over-use of lime in many parts of Great Britain,, 

 the soil at this day requires a mode of treatment dire6tty 

 opposite to that practice. Some substance or substances 

 ought to be applied to the soil, which would change the 

 calcareous matter therein from its present state, or separate 

 it from the insoluble combinations it has formed with the 

 vegetable substances contained in the soil. This valuable 

 improvement may be accomplished by a due application 

 of acids, alkalis, and certain neutral salts, as before di~ 

 rected> 



The effects produced on organic bodies by lime, clearly 

 point out, that lime should never be mixed with dung, 

 or with any substances which of themselves, or by the 

 application of saline matters, would easily become putrid 

 and rotten. Lime not only puts a stop to the putrefactive 

 process, but disengages and throws ofi^ in a gassious state, 

 a certain portion of the component parts of such sub- 

 stances ; whilst, with those which remain, it forms inso- 

 luble corrvpounds that are incapable of promoting vege- 

 tation, until they are again decomposed and brought into 

 action by other substances. In making of composts, rich 

 surface mould is,, of all substances, that which is most 



proper 



