82 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2 



and in this respect it seems to hold an intermedi- 

 ate property between lime and clay*.' Experi- 

 ments have also been made by Sir Humphry Da- 

 vy and other chemists, ii'om which it may be col- 

 lected that, although, when calcined, as lime, it 

 may become pernicious to land, if laiil on in too 

 large quantities, yet that, in its mild state, it is a 

 usetid constituent of soils. One of the most fer- 

 tile parts of Cornwall, in the neighborhood of the 

 Lizard, is a district in which the land abounds in 

 magncsian earth. It is, indeed, one of the mildest 

 absorbents with which we are acquainted, and up- 

 on ground which is infested with sorrel, its appli- 

 cation is an immediate remedy. Magnesian lime- 

 stone is usually of a pale yellow or brown color, 

 and is found in many parts of England, as well as 

 Ireland: it eflervesces when plunged in acid, though 

 it only dissolves slowly. 



Its analysis requires a process too tedious to be 

 here stated, but its existence in lime, in a pure 

 state, may be ascertained by the following test: 



Having taken out all the mineral oxide, next 

 pour into the fluid a solution of neutralized carbo- 

 nate of potassa, continuing to do so until it will 

 efferv^esce no longer, and untU both the test and 

 smell of the mixture indicate an excess of al-ka- 

 line salt. The precipitate that falls down is carbo- 

 nate of lime: it mast be collected on the filter, and 

 dried at a heat below that of redness. 



The remaining fluid must then be boiled for a 

 quarter of an hour, when the magnesia, if any ex- 

 ist, will be thrown dovvn combined with carbonic 

 acid. 



The quantity of lime to be applied to the land 

 must of course be apportioned to the quality oft he 

 former, as well as to the nature and the condition 

 of the soil: which considerations must also be in 

 a great de^'ree governed by the expense. There 

 is perhaps no country where it has been used to 

 such an extent as in the improved parts of Scot- 

 land, where it is often carried to the distance of 

 twenty to thirty miles, after having been imported 

 from distant points of the coast, and even ti-om Ire- 

 land; and although it has been laid on at prices, 

 varying in proportion to its strength, and the 

 charge of burning, from 6s. to I8s. per chaldron of 

 36bushelst, besides the cost of carriage, and in 

 quantities according to the nature of the soil, yet 

 the improvement has, in most places of its firstap- 

 plication, borne out the chargej. In Ireland, 



* Russell's Practical and Chemical Agriculture p. 37. 



t Sir J. Sinclair states the average throughout Scot- 

 land at 6d. per bushel. Code of Agric, 3rJ edit., p. 

 2.32: but excellent lime, made from chalk, can be de- 

 livered at the wharfs in London at 4f7., or, if made out 

 of limestone, in which case it is called grain-hnu .at 

 5d.; and if taken at the kilns upon the Thames and 



Mcdway, at about three shillings perchalch-on less. 



We learn, however, from a recent account of the state 

 of agriculture in the Vale of Forth, that lime is regu- 

 larly sold at Alloa, Stirling, and other places where 

 there are quarries, at 2.s. M. per computed boll, peas 

 measure. From 30 to 3fi bolls, or ]20 to 140 bushels, 

 being generally laid on a fallow; or, if dunged, from 1.5 

 to 20 tons per acre.— Prize Essays and Transactions of 

 the Highl. Soc. of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 17. 



X In Scotland it appears that 192 bushels of lime- 

 shells per Scotch acre (equal to 153 per imperial acre) 

 have been applied with succcess on light soft laud.— 



Chief Baron Foster has gone so far as 300 barrels, 

 with manifest good effect. It is in that country, 

 indeed, not uncommonly appUed at the rate of 

 400 bushels per imperial acre; and inmiense crops 

 of potatoes have been raised by its being laid upon 

 strong old leys broken up in July or August, and 

 allowed to remain *in that state until ploughed 

 airain in the sjiring. It has been laid on some of 

 the moors in Derby^iire to the amount of 1500 

 bushels§. Dr. Anderson says that 'he has him- 

 self had experience of it in all proportions, fi-om 

 100 to above 700 bushels to the acre, upon a great 

 variety of soils; and that he always_fbund its efiects 

 in promoting the fertility ol the soil to have been in 

 proportion to the quantity employed, other circum- 

 stances being alike||; yet an instance is mentioned, 

 in the Nottingham Report, of twenty chaldrons, 

 or 720 bushels, having been laid upon an .acre of 

 cold clay soil, without any benefit whatever. Ex- 

 periments have also been tried of its application on 

 heavy land, extremely retentive of moisture, to the 

 extent oi" 300, 4-50, and 550 bushels, which, after 

 eight scccessive years, showed no perceptible dif- 

 ference arising from the quantity laid onlT. and 

 similar instances arc too numerous to require men- 

 tion; but thei«e failures may, not improbably, have 

 been occasioned by the imperfect state of the 

 drainage. Lime has, however, been on so many 

 occasions used at random, without inquiry being 

 made or attention paid to the state of the land, — 

 whether it has been over-cropped and u'orn out, 

 or has been left under pasture and enriched by 

 dung, — that, wilhout regard to these particulars, 

 much money has been uselessly expended, and 

 many attempts at improvement have been render- 

 ed unsnccessfid. A system also prevails in the 

 cultivation of many estates in various parts of the 

 kingdom; under which the tenants are bound by 

 their leases to fallow ihe land at fixed periods, and 

 to dress the fallows with a certain quantity of 

 lime*; which being thus repealed when the con- 

 dhion of the ground does not always require it, it 

 necessarily follows that no beneficial result can be 

 attained. 



Such, indeed, is the variety of soils and circum- 

 stances, that no general rule can be devised for fix- 

 ing the qr.antity of lime that may be properly laid 

 upon an acre of land. The various accounts from 

 the different county surveys, and other sources of 



From 240 to 360 are however generally esteemed pro- 

 per for different degrees of clay. From that quantity 

 up to 600 bushels have been laid with good effect on 

 strong land, both arable and under good grass; but it 

 seems genernlly agreed, that from 300 to 4S0 bushels 

 are quite sufficient for the greater part of the most fer- 

 tile districts in that country; and light soils, which re- 

 quires less in the first instance, are said to have been 

 greatly benefited by a frequent repetition. — General 

 Report, vol. ii. p. 533. 



1^ Arthur Young's Essay on Manures, in the Papers 

 of the B;ith AgricullurarSociety, vol. x. p. 122; and 

 Tour in Ireland, Svo, 2d edit., vol. i. pp 6, 121, 363: 

 Tyrone Survey, p. Ill; Derby Report, vol. ii. p. 437. 



II Essa;y on Agriculture, 4th edit., vol. i. p. 521. 



H Wright's Scottish Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 154. 



* On some estates in the Weald of Kent, the tenants 

 are bound to lay 100 bushels of lime per acre, on every 

 recurrence of a fallow for wheat, which generally oc- 

 curs every five years. Kent Rep. 2d edit. p. 98 



