16 



Lime an a Manure. 



Vol. III. 



black Hiountnin moss, iiitermingiRd with a little wiry 

 grass: the otlect whs instantaneous, for it convortBd 

 the moss into vogntablc maniirp, and tin? snrfarc of 

 the land subsided considerably from tlio adjoin ui;; parts. 

 At the present day, the spot is covered with white 

 clover, and the prasses native to a calcareous soil, and 

 is observable to an inch, miles distant. 



Ijime as a Dressing for Wlicat* 



2nd. A field of 15 acres, part of the farm 

 of Fredomen, was fallowed and well cleared ' 

 in the summer of 1824. Upon one half of it| 

 was carried all the dung which had been 

 made upon the farm the precedincf winter; 

 the other half was limed at the rate of 35 

 barrels per acre, without any other dressing 

 whatever. The land had been exhausted by 

 constant cropping, and had borne oats the 

 year before, and this was an experiment to 

 ascertain the value of lime, when compared 

 with dung, as a dressing for wheat. The 

 whole field was sown the same day with seed 

 from the same parcel, the management being 

 precisely the same for one as for the other. 

 The superiority in appearance of the limed 

 crop was most clearly perceivable for miles 

 distant, from the first to the last, and to the 

 exactitude of an inch. At harvest, the wheat 

 on the dunged part was three feet in height, 

 on the limed part six feet; the dunged part 

 yielded 23 bushels per acre, the limed part 

 34 bushels, and sold for 25 cents per bushel 

 more than the dunged wheat. The appear- 

 ance of the land after harvest was remarka- 

 bly different ; the dunged part was so full of 

 grass and herbage of all sorts that it had, at 

 a little distance, the appearance of a mea- 

 dow; the limed part was clean as a fallow, 

 and it retained this distinction in the two suc- 

 ceeding crops. 



3rd. Possession of the Grange Farm was 

 taken on the 1st day of May, 1825. This 

 farm had been proverbial for bad management 

 for half an age; many of the fields had been 

 cropped with wheat, and then oats, five years 

 in succession, without manure of any kind, 

 until the crops, to use the words of an old 

 farmer on the adjoining estate, " were as fine 

 as the hair on iny head." 



A fi(^ld that had thus been cropped, was 

 taken for an experiment, and after it had been 

 well cleaned, was spread with lime, 35 bar- 

 rels per acre, and sown with wheat at Mi- 

 chaelmas. The crop was thin until May, 

 1826, but of a deep green color, and particu- 

 larly strong and viirorous; it then began to 

 tiller and spread, so that at harvest it was 

 nearly fcft in height, and the admiration of 

 the whoie country round; hundreds of per- 

 sons came lo view it, declaring, that with a 

 whole year's iJiHow and dung, the land could 

 never have yielded .'iny Ihintr in comparison 

 Tvith this crop, Clovei* and ""ye grass were 

 «pwa on tb^ whmi if) iha spring, and on this 



day, the 20th of January, 1827, the field has 

 the appearance of the finest water meadow. 



These experiments, conducted for the par- 

 pose of ascertaining the real value of lime as 

 a dressing for wheat, in the absence of all 

 •others, have so completely convinced the peo^ 

 pie of the country of its superiority, that the 

 sale of that article at the Brecon Forest lime 

 works has been 45,000 barrels of 30 gallons 

 each, this seasoru 



liime as a Dressing for Potatoes* 



4th. For potatoes, lime is peculiarly bene- 

 ficial, as it is destructive to worms, slugs, and' 

 insects; the crop comes to maturity earlier,, 

 and is clean and free from scab or cankers. 

 A piece of land on Brecon Forest was broken' 

 up by trenching, to the depth of the staple of'' 

 the soil, in the winter of 1824, and a thiekl- 

 coat of lime was spread upon it and turned^ 

 in, about two inches deep: it was permitted' 

 thus to lie until March, when potatoes were' 

 planted, in the following manner. A trench"' 

 was dug at one end of the piece without dis- 

 turbing the sod that had been turned dowrr,- 

 and the sets, with one eye each, only, were 

 placed in it, 14 inches apart; they were Ihen" 

 covered with dung, and the trench was fiHed'-* 

 by the earth, thrown from the digging of 'a-' 

 second trench, 22 inches distant; sets were' 

 then pltinted in the second trench, covered" 

 with dung, and filled with earth from the dig- 

 ging of a third trench, and so the work pro- 

 gressed, the labor being little more than the^ 

 mere digging over the land. The surface 

 was left perfectly level and smooth, and al?'^i 

 the labor required, from that time until taking- 

 up the crop, was, to keep the land free from 

 weeds by flat hoeing; few weeds grow on' 

 a heavily limed snrfaee. No earthing or" 

 moulding up the rows, was permitted, but at' 

 the time of taking up the crop, the produce _ 

 was at the rate of 780 bushels per acre: the 

 potatoes were uniformly large, and remarka- 

 bly clean and free from canker; many of' 

 them weighed 20 ounces each ; four pounds 

 in weight were often taken up from under one' 

 root; and from a very large potato, which 

 was planted singly, but had received no extra 

 labor, in earthing or moulding up, &c., 24 

 bulbs were taken, which w-eighed 14 pounds: 

 most of the crop was sold for planting, and 

 they obtained the name of " the Forester." 



The same land was planted again the next 

 year, after the same manner, but without any 

 addition of lime; and although the crops 

 throughout the country generally, were dried 

 up by the heat and drought, these grew away 

 as though they had enjoyed a shower every 

 night, the lime having the power of attract- 

 ing the dews : and tlie circumstance of not 

 being moulded up, was peculiarly beneficial 



