ON MANURES. g7 



the operation of lime as a manure would lead to a chemical 

 discussion, which could only prove uninteresting- to the gene- 

 rality of our readers; we shall therefore confine ourselves to 

 the following observations : — There can be doubt that it is a 

 most powerful stimulant when applied to deep loams and 

 heavy clays, which contain mould of a nature so sour as to 

 appear to unfit them for the purposes of vegetation ; or to land 

 which has been previously either more or less manured with 

 animal or vegetable substances, without any addition of lime 

 or other calcareous matter, in which case it often produces 

 effects far more fertilizing than the application of dung, for its 

 active powers render every particle of the putrescent manure 

 useful ; but if the latter be not afterwards repeated at no great 

 distance of time, the soil will, in the course of a few years, 

 become considerably exhausted. In all arable land, however 

 impoverished it may be, either by nature or bad management, 

 there yet always exists some portion of mould, and, on this, a 

 first dressing of lime occasions a sensible unprovement of the 

 soil, which soon becomes apparent in the increased product of 

 the crops. A second dressing will also be attended with some 

 apparently good effect ; but unless that, and every succeeding- 

 repetition, be accompanied with ample additions of farm-yard 

 manure, or other putrescent matter, to supply the loss thus 

 occasioned by the exhaustion of the vegetative power, every 

 future crop will be diminished. The land is then necessarily 

 thrown out of cultivation, and left for a series of years to re- 

 cover itself under pasture, which, in the course of time, may 

 be effected according- to its former condition : but in the in- 

 terim it is rendered nearly fruitless. It is thus that many 

 thousands of acres in every part of the kingdom have been 

 run to a state of almost total infertility ; and it is even said, 

 that the too great use of lime, though apparently judiciously 

 employed by some of the first farmers in the Lothians, has 

 been lately found very detrimental to their crops. 



Marsh lands, however, which have been drained, will 

 generally support a rotated and abundant application of lime, 

 because they usually contain a large proportion of matter upon 

 Avhich the stimulating powers of lime are peculiarly adapted 

 to act; and it will be found much better suited to the purpose 

 than dung. On all rich, deep, dry, and loamy soils it may 

 also be applied with effect; for although they contain within 

 themselves the component parts of the best soils, yet they are 

 frequently found to be sluggish and inert; and dung-, whether 



