244 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XII. 



ly lost. It ought to be spread, at least, a year 

 before the land be broken up ; and if it shall lie 

 on the surface two years it will be so much the 

 better, as it will have full time to sink into the 

 sward, and mix with the soil, and, by encreasing 

 the quantity of herbage, it will produce a great- 

 er quantity of manure, when the land comes to 

 be ploughed. In this way, too, the ground 

 will lose its stiffness, and be more easily broken 

 and pulverized for succeeding crops. 



When a turnip crop is intended, the lime is 

 spread upon the land immediately before the 

 drills are formed for sowing. When applied to 

 fallow, or to stubble ground, it is laid on after 

 the seed furrow is given, and harrowed down 

 with the seed. Lime has a tendency to sink, 

 and if it get below the reach of the plough, it 

 cannot be recovered, and the ground derives no 

 further benefit from it. To prevent this, when 

 lime is spread on the surface, it should be tilled 

 in with a thin furrow ; and the following year, 

 or whenever the ground is opened again, the 

 plough should go deeper, in order to throw up 

 the lime, and keep it near the surface. ' 



If lime, as a manure, act in the manner above 

 supposed, then it follows that it can be of little 

 or no service to iand quite exhausted by over- 

 cropping. Having no vegetable substance re- 

 maining in the soil to act upon, it can produce 

 no food for the plants. Nothing but the appli- 

 cation of dung will recover land in this state. 

 But land, though naturally poor and unproduc- 

 tive, if it contains any considerable quantity of 

 vegetable substance in or upon it, such as short 

 heath, rushes, coarse benty grass, and the like, 



