On Liming Land 283 



Its particles are too small and fine to keep asunder 

 those of the clay ; and such things as produce this ef- 

 fect are the only proper auxiliaries for clay land. Gravel, 

 sand, shells, unburnt limestone, are better than lime. 

 In clay ridged and drained, and kept dry and friable, 

 lime may be serviceable. 



I have spread lime on a clover lay, and suffered it to 

 remain on the surface, through a winter ; then plough- 

 ed ; and the lime being well incorporated b}^ heavy 

 drags or harrows, I have found it a very advantageous 

 mode. I have always preferred, in this and every other 

 mode of application, laying on the lime, and mixing it 

 thoroughly with the soil by frequent stirrings, without 

 dung. I have repeatedly observed, that fresh lime and 

 stable manure, put on together, are by no means so ef- 

 ficacious, as when the latter is applied in the season suc- 

 ceeding the liming : green manures, with fresh lime, 



found that dung, in equal quantities, put on the year of liming, 

 is very inferior in profitable effects to that applied in the year 

 succeeding the laying on the lime. In the contemporaneous 

 application with lime, part of the dung is consumed, and 

 goes to balance, or remedy, an evil : instead of wholly ope- 

 rating to effect a positive good; as it does when the lime, 

 by losing its causticity and predatory qualities, is prepared 

 to co-operate with the dung, in the salutary and beneficial 

 purposes intended by their combined application. 



The lime, when it has spent its noxious activity, operates as a 

 mild solvent. It attracts, and, elaborates the acids in the 

 dung, and the vegetable or other substances in the earth ; 

 and prepares them to enter the plant, and to become its 

 food and essential nourishment. 



R. P. 



