0?i Lime, 



will go further in making mortar, or as a manure for 

 land than English lime. Were our farmers in this 

 country to discover lime of so mild a quality that this- 

 tles and grass would grow up through the sides of the 

 heaps of it; but at the same time it would require three 

 loads of this lime to produce the same effects upon 

 their land, as two loads of the lime now in use, I think 

 they would surely prefer the latter to the former. 

 Our farmers know very well that wherever they lay 

 their lime heaps, every particle of grass or other ve- 

 getables will be destroyed ; and that the spots on which 

 it lay will not bear any crop for a year or two after, un- 

 less they are careful to remove it so clean, that no more 

 shall remain on these spots, than the same proportion 

 which they spread over the rest of the field. They 

 likewise know that if they should leave their lime heaps 

 exposed to the influence of the atmosphere, to succes- 

 sive frosts and thaws, rains and snows, &c. it would in 

 time become as mild as the calcarious lime described 

 by Mr. Tennant. But then it would be useless for 

 mortar, and for land it would be like some medicines 

 of which the chief recommendation is that if they do no 

 good, they will at least do no harm ; and for that rea- 

 son they commonly cover the heaps over with sods, or 

 straw, &:c. till the land is prepared for putting it on. 

 Our farmers likewise know that poor land will not bear 

 so much lime as rich land, and that if they should by 

 mistake over4ime their land, the succeeding crops will 

 rather be hurt than benefited by it ; and in such cases 

 there is no remedy but either to give the field a dress- 

 ing with dung, or let it lay a year or two till the heat of 

 the lime is partly given out, and then it will have its 



