806 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



ways that wheat and some other plants are brought to perfection, after lime has been 

 applied, upon land that would not bring them to maturity by the most liberal use of dung 

 alone. This being an established fact may be considered one of the greatest importance 

 to all cultivators. 



4971. IVith regard to the quantity of lime that ought to be applied to different soils, it is 

 much to be regretted that Sir Humphry Davy has not thought proper to enter fully 

 into the subject. Clays, it is well known, require a larger quantity than sands or dry 

 loams. It has been applied accordingly in almost every quantity from 100 to 500 

 bushels or upwards per acre. About 160 bushels are generally considered a full dress- 

 ing for lighter soils, and 80 or 100 bushels more for heavy cohesive soils. One of the 

 greatest advantages arising from the use of lime on gravelly or sandy soils, is its power 

 of absorbing moisture from the air, which is in the highest degree useful to the crops in 

 dry summers. 



4972. In the application of lime to arable land, there are some general rules commonly 

 attended to by diligent farmers, which we shall give nearly in the words of a recent 

 publication. 



1. As the effects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admixture with the surface soil, it is essential 

 to have it in a powdery state at the time it is applied. 



2. Lime having a tendency to sink in the soil, it should be ploughed in with a shallow furrow. 



3. Lime may either be applied to grass land, or to land in preparation for green crops or summer fallow, 

 with almost equal advantage ; but, in general, the latter mode of application is to be preferred. 



4. Lime ought not to be applied a second time to moory soils, unless mixed up as a compost, after which 

 the land should be immediately laid down to grass. 



5. Upon fresh land, the effect of lime is much superior to that of dung. The ground, likewise, more 

 especially where it is of a strong nature, is more easily wrought ; in some instances, it is said, the saving 

 of labour would be sufficient to induce a farmer to lime his land, were no greater benefit derived from the 

 application than the opportunity thereby gained of working it in a more perfect manner. {General Report 

 of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 5o6.) 



4973. In liming for improving hilly land, ivith a view to pasture, a much smaller quan- 

 tity has been found to produce permanent and highly beneficial effects, when kept as 

 much as possible near the surface, by being merely harrowed in with the seeds, after a 

 fallow or green crop, instead of being buried by the plough. 



4974. The successful practice of one of the most emineiit farmers in Britain cannot be too generally 

 known in a matter of so great importance to farmers of such land, especially when lime must be brought from 

 a great distance, as was the case in the instance to which we are about to allude. " A few years after ]7i54," 

 says Dawson, " having a considerable extent of outfield land in fallow, which I wished to lime previously 

 to its being laid down to pasture, and finding that I could not obtain a sufficient quantity of lime for the 

 whole in proper time, I was induced, from observing the effects of fine loam upon the surface of similar 

 soil, even when covered with bent, to try a small quantity of lime on the surface of this fallow, instead 

 of a larger quantity ploughed down in the usual manner. Accordingly, in the autumn, about twenty 

 acres of it were well harrowed, and then about fifty-six Winchester bushels only of unslacked lime were, 

 after being slacked, carefully spread upon each English acre, and immediately well harrowed in. As 

 many pieces of the lime, which had not been fully slacked at first, were gradually reduced to powder by 

 the dews and moisture of the earth, to mix these with the soil, the land was again well harrowed in three 

 or four days thereafter. This land was sown in the spring with oats, with white and red clover find rye- 

 grass seeds, and well harrowed, without being ploughed again. The crop of oats was good ; the plants 

 of grass sufficiently numerous and healthy ; and they formed a very fine pasture, which continued good 

 until ploughed some years after for corn. About twelve years afterwards, I took a lease of the hilly farm 

 of Grubbet ; many parts of which, though of an earthy mould tolerably deep, were too steep and elevated 

 to be kept in tillage. As these lands had been much exhausted by cropping, and were full of couch-grass, 

 to destroy that and procure a cover of fine grass, I fallowed them, and laid on the same quantity of lime 

 per acre, then harrowed, and sowed oats and grass seeds in the spring exactly as in the last-mentioned 

 experiment. The oats were a full crop, and the plants of grass abundant. Several of these fields have 

 beeif now above thirty years in pasture, and are still producing white clover, and other fine grasses ; no 

 bent or fog has yet appeared upon them. It deserves particular notice, that more than treble the quantity 

 of lime was laid upon fields adjoining, of a similar soil, but which being fitter for occasional tillage, upon 

 them the lime was ploughed in. These fields were also sown with oats and grass seeds. The latter throve 

 well, and gave a fine pasture the first year ; but afterwards the bent spread so fast, that, in three years, 

 there was more of it than of the finer grasses." 



4975. The conclusions which Dawson draws from his extensive practice in the use of 

 lime and dung, deserve the attention of all cultivators of similar land. 



1. That animal dung dropped upon coarse benty pastures, produces little or no improvement upon 

 them; and that, even when sheep or cattle are confined to a small space, as in the case of folding, their 

 dung ceases to produce any beneficial effect, after a few years, whether the land is continued in pasture, 

 or brought under the plough. 



2. That even when land of this description is well fallowed and dunged, but not limed, though the dung 

 augments the produce of the subsequent crop of grain, and of grass also for two or three years, that there- 

 after its effects are no longer discernible either upon the one or the other. 



3. That when this land is limed, if the lime is kept upon the surface of the soil, or well mixed with it, 

 and then laid down to pasture, the finer grasses continue in possession of the soil, even in elevated and 

 exposed situations, for a great many years, to the exclusion of bent and moss. In the case of Grubbet 

 hills, it was observed, that more than thirty years have now elapsed. Besides this, the dung of the ani- 

 mals pastured upon such land adds every year to the luxuriance, improves the quality of the pasture, and 

 augments the productive powers of the soil when afterwards ploughed for grain ; thus producing, upon a 

 benty outfield soil, efffects similar to what are experienced when rich infield lands have been long in 

 pasture, and thereby more and more enriched. 



4 That when a large quantity of lime is laid on such land, and ploughed down deep, the same efffects 

 will not be produced, whether in respect to the permanent fineness of the pasture, its gradual ameliora- 

 tion by the dung of the animals pastured on it, or its fertility when afterwards in tillage. On the con- 

 trary, unless the surface is fully mixed with lime, the coarse grasses will in a few years regain possession 

 of the soil, and the dung thereafter deposited by cattle will not enrich the land for subsequent tillage. 



Lastly. It also appears from what has been stated, that the four.shift husbandry is only proper for very 

 rich land, or in situations where there is a full command of dung. That by far the greatest part of the 

 land of this country requires to be continued in grass two, three, four, or more years, according to its 



