88 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



through imperfect fermentation or owing to the want of cal- 

 careous matter, often remains dormant in the land until roused 

 by moderate quantities of quicklime, which, if applied at distant 

 periods, will efi'ectually operate to bring it into activity. It 

 should, however, be turned into the ground some weeks before 

 the dung, in order that it may become thoroughly slaked by 

 mixture with the soil, or otherwise it would have the effect of 

 abstracting some of its nutriment. Such soils, after the appli- 

 cation of lime, produce much heavier crops with a much smaller 

 proportion of dung than if no lime had been used, because the 

 operation of the latter, acting upon the dung, renders every 

 portion of it useful. 



Clay land shows an evident disposition to combine with 

 lime, and it bears the repetition of this species of amelioration 

 better than lighter soils. When applied to heavy tillage land, 

 either for the purpose of reducing its cohesive properties, or 

 of supplying an additional quantity of calcareous matter, small 

 dressings of lime will have but little effect; and if sand or calca- 

 reous earths are to be employed, it is recommended, by a prac- 

 tical farmer of known experience, as more economical to apply 

 them separately than as a compost. It powerfully assists all 

 adhesive soils; and v/hen laid hot from the kiln upon deep 

 clay, it has been known to occasion a very large increase in 

 the former crops. It has also been often observed, in fallow- 

 ing clayey soils, ' that, in wet weather, when a dose of lime 

 lias been just given, the land continues more friable, and is 

 less apt to bind up on the recurrence of drought, than where 

 it has been neglected. The grain growing on the well-limed 

 ground preserves its healthy appearance in wet seasons, while 

 that growing on land that has not been limed is yellow and 

 sickly.' 



Upon sandy soils, which seldom abound much in vegetable 

 matter, Ihne has a mechanical operation, which, by combining 

 with the finer particles of the soil, gives consistence to the 

 stnple of the land, and, attracting the moisture from the atmo- 

 sphere, it imparts it so gradually as to^ less liable to be hurt 

 by drought in those parching seaso^ by which crops are 

 injured. It is therefore said to be cooling to hot land ; but if 

 it be not also mixed with some portion of clay, with whicli it 

 may combine, it then is apt to unite itself with the sand, with 

 which it composes a kind of mortar, the effect of which has 

 been already described, and which cannot be dissolved without 

 much difficulty, and the plough often brings hard lumps to the 



