21 6 Lambert's Rural Affairs of Ireland. 



applied to land deficient in vegetable and fibrous matter, will most assuredly 

 prove injurious ; without such matter, the lime will retain, for a long time, 

 its caustic properties. It is this fibrous and vegetable matter which yields 

 the carbonic acid, with which the quicklime combines and ultimately be- 

 comes mild, or carbonate of lime; and it is during the process of this com- 

 bination that the greater part of this vegetable and fibrous matter which 

 was insoluble is converted into soluble or fertile matter. Afterwards the 

 mild or carbonate of lime operates, as a manure, in a directly contrary way 

 to quicklime: quicklime, by rendering matter which was inert, nutritiye; 

 mild lime, by retarding the too rapid decomposition of those very sub- 

 stances which, in its conversion from quick to mild lime, it had decomposed. 



If, then, it should appear that some judgment is necessary in the proper 

 application of common lime to agricultural purposes, and every farmer will 

 admit that he is frequently puzzled how to apply it ; must not the difficulty 

 be infinitely greater when he has to apply lime made from magnesian lime- 

 stone, in which the affinity for carbonic acid is considerably less? Thus, in 

 the application of lime made from this stone, while any, the least part, of 

 the lime remains caustic, it attracts carbonic acid from the magnesia, con- 

 sequently the magnesia must and does continue caustic and poisonous for 

 an indefinite period ; at least until peat or some other vegetable matter is 

 applied to afford a proper supply of carbonic acid, by which alone it can be 

 rendered beneficial or fertilising. It may be considered that these observ- 

 ations, if not irrelevant, are, at least, too minute on such a subject; but, 

 as the use of lime as a manure is so general, perhaps they may not be 

 altogether out of place. The chapters, Salt as a Manure, Burning Land, 

 Fallowing, Top-dressing Grass Land, Ploughing, Rolling and Pulverising 

 Land, are short, pithy, and useful ; but, under the head " Weeds," the 

 author has unfortunately substituted Sir H. Steuart's method of extir- 

 pating rushes instead of following the dictates of his own good sense. Sir 

 Henry's scheme for banishing rushes it seems, is nothing more or less than 

 deep-trenching the whole of the ground producing rushes. " It is by deep- 

 trenching to the depth of 18 or 20 in. that the tenacious clay at bottom is 

 broken up, and the cause removed, when the subsoil is rendered porous for 

 the surface water to pass freely downwards. The bottom of the trench 

 should be carried on a hanging level, and the sandy or stony parts of the 

 soil thrown towards the bottom, which will be a sufficient drain, and ren- 

 der the land dry." 



Now, it may not be always possible to find this " hanging level " (which, 

 by the by, sounds like a Hibernicism) ; and suppose it were found, can any 

 idea be more preposterous than that trenching a pasture, say from 10 to 30 

 acres, no less than from 18 to 20 in. deep ? Judicious draining will effect 

 the same object, at a fiftieth part of the expense. Rushes may be kept under, 

 if not entirely eradicated, by mowing them either in the spring or autumn 

 in frosty weather, mornings or evenings : even flooding*, as in water- 

 meadows, will destroy them ; as rushes will not grow in either very wet or 

 very dry ground, but delight in ill-drained land with a strong retentive 

 subsoil. 



The remainder of this little volume, which relates exclusively to farming, 

 includes the most approved modes of rotatory cropping : indeed, nothing 

 useful seems to be omitted; even the " prognostics of the weather" are 

 happily introduced, with many useful and intelligent remarks. The breed- 

 ing and rearing of cattle, and the treatment most conducive to their health 

 in a wet climate such as Ireland, form no inconsiderable portion of the 

 work. An excellent plan of a sheepfold is given, which the author has 

 proved to answer well the end for which it is intended. However, there 



* The reviewer plainly means Juncus glaucus; for Juncus effusus, a 

 species prevalent in some places, loves water too well to be ever killed by 

 irrigation. — J. D, 



