«4 



FAR MERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



The mode of cultivation pursued was this. 

 The land was fallowed without taking any corn 

 crop, and the lime was applied in a pertectly effete 

 state during the lollowing spring, at the rate of 220 

 bushels per imperial acre. The crop was oats: 

 but little benefit was discovered from the lime until 

 the ibllowing year, when the soil began to li^r- 

 ment, whicii showed that the lime was then in ac- 

 tion. It was then sown with flax, the crop of 

 which, both in flax and seed, was excellent. This 

 was fiillovved by peas, which returned a great bulk 

 of haulm, but not nuich grain: tiieclay part of the 

 land was now, however, quite loose and i\-ee, while 

 the peat seemed more compact and firm. The 

 field was then sown with red wheat, whicli turned 

 out a very fine crop; and although it was not 

 dunged until theninthyear, whenitwas thorough- 

 ly summer fallowed, the other crops continued 

 good until it was laid down at the end of twelve 

 years to pasture. Since that time, it has been -a 

 few years under corn; and though the produce of 

 these crops cannot by any exertion be made to 

 equal those preceding, yet the soil has been evi- 

 dendy much improved in every respect, when com- 

 pared with its original state previous to the lime 

 being applied. 



No. 2. — This field, of nearly the same thin clay 

 as the former, had been ill-treated by the preceding 

 tenant, and was in a very exhausted state, though 

 it is not stated that it had been previously limed. 

 After being summer fallowed, it was laid down to 

 pasture during several years; after which lime was 

 applied to the sward during the winter months, 

 and in the February following it was sown with 

 oats. The crop was only middling, and in the 

 six subsequent years it did not appear that much 

 benefit was gained by the application. In the 

 eighth year, however, the lime acted vigorously; 

 a small part of the field, which had been left un- 

 limed, being at least 50 per cent, inferior in crop, 

 though the management was in every respect si- 

 milar. It may, perhaps, be difficult to account lor 

 this cessation of action in the liine during this long 

 period, though instances of a like nature are not 

 unfrequent upon inferior soils; but it appears, from 

 the statement of the cultivation, that a deeper 

 ploughing had been given in the preceding season, 

 by which no doubt, the lime was brought to the 

 surface; and having, besides, been assisted by a co- 

 pious application of dung, there can be little ques- 

 tion that the difference between the crops was oc- 

 casioned by the stimulus which was thus applied 

 to the manure. 



No. 3. — A real moorish soil, incumbent upon a 

 close bottom which had been over-cropped, after 

 lime, by a former tenant. This field wassummer- 

 lallowed, and limed with effete lime at the rate of 

 160 bushels per imperial acre. Oats were then 

 Gown; but the crop was poor, and after-attempts 

 were not more successful. The stalk of the plant 

 generally singed and decayed, after the strength of 

 the seed-pickle was gone. 



No. 4. — Of a similar soil, but rather superior in 

 quality to the former — was fallowed out of grass, 

 and the lime was applied hot from the kiln; but 

 the eflects were the same as those mentioned in 

 the preceding instance. The oat-crop looked 

 brisk at first, but decayed daily; and though dung 

 was tried with a second fallow, and appeared to 

 operate in a light degree, it yet did not repay the 

 cost incurred. These two trials, which appear to 



have been very fairly made, clearly prove that 

 land which is either poor in itself, or which has 

 been worn out by the previous use of lime, will 

 not pay the expense of a farther application. 



No. 5. — The soil of this field was a soft loam 

 upon a wet bottom, which^ though it did not ap- 

 pear to have been limed, yet was in a very ex- 

 hausted state. It was, therefore, summer-fallowed 

 after a crop of wheat, and quick- lime was laid 

 ui)on it at the rate of nearly 200 bushels per impe- 

 rial acre. This operated immediately; and at the 

 expiration of sixteen years, during which time the 

 land has been only three years in grass, its effects 

 liad not then ceased. 



No. 6. — Was a strong loam, incurnbent on clay 

 which had consecutively carried five crops of grain 

 afier being ploughed fi'om old grass. This field 

 was dunged, as well as summer-fallowed; quick- 

 lime was also laid on at the same rate as on the 

 preceding, in the month of August, after which 

 six ploughings were given. This, in less than a 

 month, occasioned a fermentation of the soil, 

 'something similar to what is produced by yest 

 upon unbaked bread.' In one respect, the im- 

 provement made upon this field by the lime was 

 conspicuous: barley could with difficulty be raised 

 upon it previous to its application, but afterwards 

 fine crops of that grain were produced, and the 

 ground was tilled with much greater facility than 

 formerly, which is itself a sure token of ameliora- 

 tion in "the soil. 



No. 7. — Consisted of a heavy deep loam; some 

 of it a strong, tenacious, red clay, but almost 

 wholly incumbent upon a close bottom. It was 

 ploughed from old grass, and sown with oats; was 

 summer-fallowed in the ensuing yoar, and dressed 

 with lime, which was mostly applied hot from the 

 kiln, beinij drawn from the cart in regular-sized 

 heaps of 5 pecks each, or thereabouts, and spread 

 the moment it was slaked by r lin or atmospheri- 

 cal moisture. About two-thirds of the field re- 

 ceived 240 bushels per imperial acre, the remain- 

 der from about 280 to 340 bushels per acre. The 

 whole answered well, and the entire operation ap- 

 peared to be in direct proportion to the quantity ap- 

 plied; nor was there any distinction discernible 

 in the effect of that which was laid on hot, though, 

 as the season was remarkably wet, some of it was 

 nearly in the state of mortar, and that there ap- 

 peared an evident inferiority on some ridges on 

 which quicklime had been spread in a windy day, 

 which probably occasioned some of it to be carried 

 off. 



No. 8. — Was also chiefly loam, though of dif- 

 ferent qualities, and mostly incumbent upon a close 

 bottom. This field, which consisted of 50 acres, 

 had been cropped from time immemorial, and was 

 so tired of carr3-ing wheat, that it seemed scarce- 

 y worth ploughing. It was therefore laid down 

 to grass by the in-coming tenant, and remained 

 in that state during five years, when it was again 

 broken up. Only 30 acres were limed, and this 

 was laid upon the sward at the rate of nearly 160 

 bushels per imperial acre: but some of it was laid 

 on three years before ploughing, some two years, 

 and the remainder only a few days before the 

 plough entered — part of it hot, and the remainder 

 effete. No experiment could therefiire have been 

 better calculated to ascertain the difilsrent effects 

 of lime upon the soil; yet throughout the whole 

 field, even in the first year, they were nearly tlie 



