[ 123 ] 



Con, when the crops it yields are confider- 

 ed. However, land that has laid in fuch 

 a ftate for a long fuccefTion of ages, muft 

 inevitably be rich : in the north, men are 

 apt to give a fhrug at the very mention of 

 cultivating them ; for my part, I confider 

 vaft tracts of them as the richeft foil in 

 the ifland of Great Britain. " All rich 

 " foils in a ftate of nature contain oil," 

 fays an ingenious writer *. 



Next, as to hme; one tells us — " There 

 is a great attraction betwixt quick lime, 

 and all oily bodies ; it unites intimately 

 with exprefled oils -f ." Again, " Its 

 operation is to exhaufl- the earth of its 

 oils. Lime laid on ground wore out by 

 continual crops, rather hurts it than 

 improves it; becaufe it does not meet 

 oil or oleaginous bodies to a6l upon and 

 blunt it. The proper cure for this, is 

 to mix dung with the lime, fo that it 

 may have fomething to adl on t." And 

 again, '' Lime is a great dilFolver of all 

 ^' bodies, both vegetable and animal. In 



* Georgical EJfaySy p. 20. 



t Home's Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation^ 



69. 



^ Ihnl. 70. 



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