34 



may, with manure or lime, be turned into an excellent top- 

 dressing for grass land. To lay on ploughed land, it 

 should be burnt, but slowly, or very few ashes will be 

 obtained. Ashes, incorporated with a strong soil, do much 

 good ; they create separation, and thus make it work better, 

 and enable the fibrous roots to search more into the soil, to 

 gain nourishment. Lime has the same effect, but I con- 

 ceive lime to be a stimulant only, and not a manure. 

 Lime gives solidity to light land, the means of retaining 

 moisture, and in some degree prevents the rays of 

 the sun from penetrating so deep into the soil, and drying 

 up the roots. Lime also encourages the growth of clover; 

 but it does not do the good that is equal to the expense, 

 when applied to land that has, for a length of time, had 

 it periodically laid on. It is the common practice in this 

 county to lime and dung the land for turnips, nearly at 

 the same time, just before sowing. 1 think, to put on 

 materials that must cause such different effects, cannot be 

 quite right, and therefore I think it would be better not to 

 put on the lime till the next spring, before sowing barley 

 and seeds. I have heard of lime being laid on a stubble, 

 or clover ley, and when slaked, ploughed in ; thus depo- 

 siting it at the bottom of a furrow, where it can do but 

 little, if any, good ; and it naturally will get lower. It should 

 be laid on the land after it is ploughed, and, by harrowing, 

 well incorporated with the soil. Very little benefit is derived 

 from laying on a small quantity of lime ; it requires twenty 

 or five and twenty quarters per acre, to do a very essential 

 good. Marl is a mine of manure for those who are so fortu- 

 nate as to have it as a sub-soil, but the desire of possessing 

 it is lessened because it generally lies under an inferior 

 surface soil ; this applies more decidedly to chalk. If 

 land is free from twitch and other noxious weeds, there is 

 no necessity for a great quantity of manure to produce a 

 good crop of wheat. If twitch has got possession of the 

 land, it will impoverish more than a crop of grain. In 

 most arable fields, or closes, there are different kinds of 

 soil ; and thus some parts want more manure than others. 

 In laying manure on, this ought to be attended to ; in 

 hollow parts of a field, there is sure to be crop enough, 

 without manure, from the drainage from the higher parts. 



