ON MANURES. 93 



successful, or the reverse, it is not improbable that, iii the view 

 they take of the subject, each may be in the right. It will 

 therefore probably be found, that in all cases where the land 

 is constitutionally disposed to receive benefit from a calcareous 

 dressing-, that is to say, when it has not been previously limed, 

 or when it has been long laid down and refreshed by grass, or 

 enriched by the application of dung, it is of little importance 

 whether the operation take place when the lime is quick or 

 effete. Upon waste lands, however, its causticity has an 

 evident and necessary effect; for the undecayed vegetables, 

 which abound in all soils in a state of nature, should be 

 speedily decomposed, and it should therefore be spread hot 

 from the kiln. In point of economy, too, there can be no 

 doubt but that it is most thriftily used when laid upon the 

 land in the latter state : for the labour is less ; and a smaller 

 quantity will serve the immediate purpose. It is, however, 

 obvious that the choice of circumstances and season is not 

 always in the farmer's power; and that necessity often obliges 

 him to lay it on when completely effete. It has been said, 

 indeed, upon high authority, that caustic lime exhausts the 

 land ; but repeated trials have shown that its ultimate effects 

 are equally beneficial in the one state or the other, though 

 there is a more immediate advantage in the employment of 

 quicklime by the destruction of weeds. A common method 

 is to leave it spread during some months upon clover or sain- 

 foin, not intended to be broken up until the following year, — a 

 plan which is advisable with regard to marl, which partakes 

 of some of the qualities of lime, -and is the better if allowed to 

 remain during a season exposed to the atmosphere; but the 

 stimulating properties of quicklime will be thereby lost, as it 

 will be converted into mere chalk. Opinions are also much 

 divided respecting its effects when laid upon pasture land 

 which is intended to be kept in grass. There is indeed no 

 question that, in either state, if applied in moderate quantities 

 to a dry soil, or to land that has been completely drained, such 

 a top-dressing will have the most beneficial effect upon the 

 herbage ; but it must be admitted, that when laid on quick, it 

 requires more circumspection in its application, and should not 

 be employed in the same quantity as when effete. 



We learn, from the General Report of Scotland, that there, 

 'in the best cultivated counties, lime is now most generally 

 laid on finely pulverized land, while under a fallow, or imme- 

 diately after being sown with turnips. In the latter case, the 



