OJN MANURES. 91 



from repeated observations, that lime and other calcareous 

 manures produce a much greater proportional improvement 

 upon poor soils than on such as are richer: and that lime 

 alone upon a poor soil will, in many cases, produce a much 

 oreator and more lastmg' degree of fertility than dung alone.' 

 That, hosvever, does not throw any doubt on the assertion, 

 that it acts with as great proportionate power upon land that 

 is naturally poor, as upon that which is more fully impreg- 

 nated with those substances wdiich tend to promote a luxuriant 

 vegetation; but we believe that the experience of farmers will 

 prove that its application to poor land, and especially to that 

 which has been previously limed, if it does not eventually 

 tend to its complete exhaustion, will at least never be found to 

 repay the expense. 



The employment of lime seems to be of the greatest service 

 in the breaking up of fresh and coarse land, on which it acts 

 more powerfully than on soil which has been long in cultiva- 

 tion, and indeed the most striking, improvements have been 

 effected by its means on moorlands and mountain; but it 

 should be given for the first time abundantly. Such is the 

 usual effect of lime upon arable : upon grass-land it is laid in 

 smaller quantities ; and in this top-dressing, perhaps the pre- 

 ferable mode is to apply it in a compost with earth ; except 

 when the soil consists of clay. When thus spread upon the 

 surface, its action upon the sward is productive of the most 

 palpable improvement, and continues perceptible during a 

 long period. No other manure will create so rapid a change; 

 for it is such an excellent corrector of acidity, that it tends to 

 produce the sweetest herbage where only the most unpalatable 

 pasture was formerly to be found. This, indeed, is so appa- 

 rent, that if a handful of lime be thrown upon a tuft of rank, 

 Four grass, which has in former years been invariably refused 

 by cattle, they will aft^rw^ards eat it close down. Now, ani- 

 mal dung, when dropped upon coarse benty sward, produces 

 little or no improvement until limed ; it then, however, not 

 only augments the crops, but the finer grasses contmue in 

 possession of the soil, tnd the land is thus doubly benefited; 

 for the dung dropped by the stock on which it is pastured, is 

 both increased iii quantity, and improved in quality,* Farmers 



*Tn Derbyshire the farmers hitve found that, by spreading lime in con- 

 siderable qiiamities upon the surface of their heathy moors, after a few- 

 times the heath disappears, and the whole surface becomes covered wrth a 

 fine pile of grass, consisting of white clover and the other valuable sorts of 

 pasture-grasses. 



