194 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



crops is sufficient for that purpose. Such crops may be 

 raised by large quantities of dung ; but where calcareous 

 substances are applied, it is proved, by long experience, that 

 a less quantity of animal and vegetable manure will answer 

 the purpose. This is making the farm-yard dung go farther, 

 with more powerful and more permanent efiects ; and from 

 the weightier crops thus raised, the quantity of manure on a 

 farm will be most materially augmented. Indeed, upon land 

 in a proper state for calcareous application, (as old ley,) lime 

 is much superior to dung. Its effects continue for a longer 

 period, while the crops produced are of a superior quality, 

 and less susceptible of injury from the excesses of drought 

 and moisture. The ground likewise, more especially if it 

 be of a strong nature, is much more easily WTOught ; and, in 

 some instances, the saviyig of labor alone 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. 



7. Kules for the management of hime. 1. It is necessary 

 to ascertain the quality of the soil to which lime is proposed 

 to be applied ; and whether it has formerly been limed ; and 

 to what extent. In general it may be observed, that strong 

 loams and stubborn clays require a full dose to bring them 

 into action, as such soils are capable of absorbing a great 

 quantity of calcareous matter. Lighter soils, however, re- 

 quire less lime to stimulate them ; and may be injured by 

 administering a quantity of lime recently calcined, that would 

 prove moderately beneficial to those of a heavy nature. 2. 

 As the efiects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admix- 

 ture with the surface soils, it is expedient to have it in a 

 powdered state before it is applied, and the drier and the 

 more perfectly powdered the better. 3. Lime having a ten- 

 dency to sink in the soil, it cannot be ploughed in with too 

 shallow a furrow, or kept too near the surface. 4. Lime 

 ought not to be applied a second time to weak or poor soils, 

 unless mixed with a compost ; after which the land should 

 be immediately laid down to grass. "^ 



The following, on the ' Stimulation of Soils,' was written 

 by the Hon. John Welles, of Boston, and published in the 

 New England Farmer, vol. xi. p. 217. 



'From a frequent perusal of the benefits derived from lime 

 in its application to soil in Europe, I have been induced for 



* Encyclopedia of Agriculture. 



