On Liming Land. 301 



equal to if not exceeding the expence of lime, and 

 the result uncertain. I therefore ordered that the part 

 of the field which had not been previously limed, should 

 be limed as soon as possible, twice ploughed, and sown 

 with rye, and clover next spring. 



It was the opinion of the man who farms for me, as 

 well as of others who made observations, that I missed 

 it by planting corn with the lime ; that if I had sown 

 oats and clover the first spring, I would have had a 

 profitable crop, besides gaining a year in my improve- 

 ment, which was lost by the failure of the corn crop, 

 and part of the strength of the lime exhausted to no 

 purpose.* I am fully aware of the objection which some 

 have to oats as an exhausting crop, and therefore ill 

 calculated for advancing the improvement of worn out 

 lands. At the same time that I disapprove of the ab- 



^ However corn may succeed upon fresh limed land, in 

 cases where the land was in good heart previous to the ap- 

 plication of the lime ; I here give my opinion not from con- 

 jecture, but experience and observation, that in general it will 

 be found better for the land, and more profitable for the far- 

 mer, to defer either corn or wheat, until clover have first 

 intervened ; especially if the lime was of the magnesian 

 kind, and the land poor ; and then the addition of a little dung 

 will be very useful. And in this opinion I am pardy born 

 out, by that able and experienced farmer Judge Peters, Pre- 

 sident of this Society ; in a note at the bottom of page 280, 

 of this volume, he has these words, " The same fields (where 

 wheat had failed) produced clover in abundance. In their 

 next turn for wheat (and especially if assisted with a light 

 dunging) they amply retributed my former disappointment." 



