LIME. 



LIME. 



but never successfully. Convinced of the ill 

 effects of the lime being thus mixed, I have 

 long since abandoned the practice. There is, 

 in fact, no beneficial object to be attained by 

 this mode. The natural well-regulated fer- 

 mentation of the dung effects all that the lime 

 can do, and in a better manner ; for the lime 

 dissolves, and, to a considerable extent, decom- 

 poses the finer and richer portions of the com- 

 post ; and it certainly renders the straw and 

 other coarser portions of the manure drier and 

 more difficult to dissolve in the soil. The 

 practice, therefore, seems worse than useless. 



In the application of lime to heavy clay 

 land, I have always found that it was best, 

 used either in its simple uncombined state, or 

 after an ultimate mixture of sandy or light cal- 

 careous earths, or peat, or salt. But by no 

 means of applying it (and I have varied my 

 experiments in a variety of ways with con- 

 siderable industry) on the land, could I ever 

 produce superior effects than by applying the 

 lime in its uncombined state, as well burnt and 

 finely divided as possible ; and this I have gene- 

 rally done as a top-dressing (merely harrow- 

 ing it in with the seed), from considering that 

 by the soluble property of lime (1 Ib. of lime 

 dissolving in 480 Ibs. of water), the rain always 

 conveys it deeper into the soil. 



And yet, from an experiment recently made 

 at my suggestion by my next neighbour, Mr. 

 Foster, a very excellent farmer of Great To- 

 tham, in Essex, I am inclined to believe that 

 the lime will produce effects nearly equally 

 important when it is ploughed into the soil. 

 This trial was made in December, 1839, on a 

 field of 5 acres, whose soil is a cold, stiff, 

 deep, hungry loam, that had previously borne 

 a very poor crop of turnips, which were fed 

 off with sheep. This field has a declination 

 towards the southwest, and has always pro- 

 duced crops of a very inferior description. In 

 the middle of December, after spreading 80 

 bushels per acre of lime (made from chalk) 

 from the cart's tail, by the shovel, it was im- 

 mediately ploughed in and drilled with the 

 common red wheat The effect was excellent, 

 every one of the neighbours agreeing that the 

 land never produced such a crop before. And 

 that this was owing to the lime, was evident 

 from the inferior produce on the spots where 

 the lime had not been spread. 



The exact quantity, however, per acre, Mr. 

 Foster is unable to state, owing to his being 

 prevented in the hurry of harvest from keeping 

 it separate : he estimates it, however, at about 4 

 quarters per acre, and he is clearly of opinion 

 that this large produce (for his land) arose not 

 so much from the thickness of the crop, as 

 from the largeness of the ears. 



In the boggy, unreclaimed lands of Spring 

 Park, the effect produced by the direct use of 

 lime, at the rate cf 200 bushels per acre, is ex 

 cellenu The cost is there 4 pence per bushel, 

 and it is that made from chalk. But on the 

 light, hungry, black gravels of that farm, as 

 well in fact as upon the clays of that district 

 (and the same remarks apply in general to al- 

 most all light soils and situations), the lime is 

 never productive of such powerful effects as 

 when mixed with the earthy matters from 



ditches, ponds, old banks, or headlands. But 

 here let me earnestly impress upon the farmer 

 the necessity and the great advantage of pay- 

 ing much more than common attention to the 

 mixing of the lime with the earth. 



The lime should not only be of the best 

 and recently burnt description, but should be 

 mixed as thoroughly and as finely as possible 

 with the earth. By this means the heat gene- 

 rated in the mass by the slaking of the lime is 

 considerable, and is productive of several ad- 

 vantages : it kills more completely insects of 

 all kinds seeds of weeds, and the more stub- 

 born roots of weeds. And the mixed earths 

 are rendered considerably more friable, and 

 capable of a much more even and economical 

 distribution on the farmer's crops, than by the 

 ordinary careless way of mixing them. On 

 peat soils, and on those abounding in the 

 tough inert remains of the heath plants, lime 

 is best applied in its purest state, unmixed 

 with any other substances to weaken its effect. 

 Its action on such soils is not difficult of ex- 

 planation. It dissolves and renders soluble 

 the organic matters of the soil, and it decom 

 poses the sulphate of iron (or green vitriol) 

 which it often contains. In such lands, too, 

 we rarely find any lime: it furnishes, there- 

 fore, to them a portion of an earth whose pre- 

 sence is absolutely essential to the profitable 

 growth of all the most valuable vegetables. 

 How excellent such an addition is to these soils, 

 even when applied only at the rate of 4 bushels 

 per acre, has been proved by some extensive 

 experiments of the Scotch planter, the growth 

 of whose young woods has been very mate- 

 rially and rapidly promoted by merely placing 

 a handful of lime under each plant. Now we 

 have already seen how copiously this earth is 

 found in the ashes, not only of the fir, but in 

 those of all other timber trees. So unvaried, in- 

 deed, is the presence of the salts of lime in 

 vegetables, that they have been supposed to 

 produce a similar supporting effect to that the 

 same salts of lime yield in the bones of ani- 

 mals. And it is certainly worthy of remark 

 that the phosphate and carbonate of lime, of 

 which the bones of all animals are chiefly 

 composed, are precisely the salts of lime the 

 most universally present in vegetables. 



Lime must, therefore, be classed amongst 

 those manures which commonly serve to pro- 

 mote the permanent fertility of the land, for un- 

 less it is washed by the moisture of the atmo- 

 sphere, or the flood waters, it can only be re- 

 moved from the soil by becoming the food for 

 the cultivator's crops. In poor, peaty soils, no 

 other manure can be compared to it, either for 

 powerful effect, or for rapidity of action ; and 

 its usefulness is nearly as great on the stiffest 

 clay land. Whenever, therefore, the permanent 

 improvement of such soils shall be considered 

 with that general and that patient attention 

 which the importance of the object demands, 

 at that period the fertilizing powers of lime 

 will be still more generally appreciated, and 

 its services be far more extended than at 

 present. 



The quantity of lime applied per acre of ne- 



i cessity varies with the description of the soil; 



that which contains most organic matter will, 



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