ON MANURES. 1£)1 



application of a dressing- of lime. If it is to be broken up from 

 grass which lias lain long in pasture, and without having been 

 previously limed, and that he can afford the expense, let him 

 lay on a round quantity at once ; for if it be intended as a 

 permanent alterative — a corrective and amendment of the pro- 

 perties of the soil, — it should get a full dose, and any thing- 

 sJjort of that will be found little better than money thrown 

 away. But if it is to be applied to ground that has been under 

 tillage, and upon which lime lias been previously laid, it can 

 tlien only be used with advantage after a series of years 

 have elapsed, and in small quantities ; upon land also which 

 has been kept under a proper rotation of husbandry, and has 

 been regularly manured with stable-dung, bones, rape-dust, 

 or other nutritious substances, upon which it may exert itself, 

 as it will merely give increased effect to the riches which 

 may have been thus added to the soil by superior manage- 

 ment. In such cases, however, it may be usefully employed 

 after every second or third dunging ; for v^'hether it be owing 

 to an imperfect fermentation, or to whatever cause, it is 

 certain that a portion of all the dung which is laid upon 

 ground remains nearly in a dormant state until forced into 

 activity by the application of some alkaline or calcareous 

 'matter. 



On all land it decomposes nutritive matter, which may be 

 supposed to lie otherwise in an inert or apparently insoluble 

 state: it is advantageous on sands, because, so long as it 

 remains well mixed with the soil, it attracts moisture from the 

 air, which prevents them from burning; and if applied to 

 clays, or other deep soils on which no calcareous manure has 

 been previously laid, it renders them less cohesive, and more 

 easily penetrable by vegetable fibres. On calcareous soils it 

 necessarily has but little effect, because it there already forms 

 a part of the matter of which they are composed ; but when 

 laid on grass-land as a top-dressing, it has greatly improved 

 every species of soil, and has promoted the growth of the finer 

 grasses; thus adding to the luxuriance of the herbage, and 

 augmenting the productive powers of the soil when afterwards 

 ploughed for grain.* As lime, however, — notwithstanding 



* Calcareous soils have also been found to possess the advantage of guard- 

 ing the sheep which graze upon them from the rot ; and there can be no 

 doubt that the application of lime, if accompanied by proper drainage, will 

 materially assist in producing' properties of corresponding efficacy. It is 

 likewise known to be a great preventive, when laid upon pasture-land, of 

 that destructive disease, the foot-rot. 



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