QUI 



been obiorved by the writer of a late work, tliaf in parts 

 which have been long inclofed without arable cultivation, 

 hedges, of feemiiigly great age, are met with, which are 

 many times crook_-d, ragged, and irregular, as though they 

 had been, in th- lirll inftanae, formed and laid out from the 

 wild underwood of fuch places. While in otiier cafes, low 

 plants of the various coppice kinds rife and grow on dikes 

 or mounds but little railed above the furface of the land, 

 feemingly as though they had formerly been collected froiji 

 brulh-woods and replanted on fuch banks, in fonicwhat the 

 fame manner as is Itdl praftifcd on higher Ijanks ni particular 

 dillrifts towards the welt, and in South Wales. But taking 

 the country at large, the method ot raifing quick-hedges by 

 letting grown plants taken from fuch (itnations, has long 

 ceafed to exiil and prevail as a general pradtice ; young plants 

 of white-thorn, or other forts, fet out in the bank and ditch 

 mode vvitli a low protedling dead fence on the iide contrary 

 to the ditch at lirft, is the plan commonly had rccourfe to, 

 fuch plants being firft raifed in fmall groiuids for the purpofe 

 in regular rows, and not taken, as formerly, from ' brulh- 

 woods and wafte commons. 



QviCK-Lime, in Rural Economy, fuch lime as is in the 

 caulHc or moft aftive itate, and which poffefles the greateft; 

 power of operating upon different fubilanccs with which it 

 may come in contatf . It is quite the oppofite in its qualities 

 and properties, to that which has fallen down into a powdery 

 ttate, in confequence of being laturated with water and car- 

 bonic acid gas, or hxed air, or which is flaked and become 

 effete. Its powers, when applied upon land in this condi- 

 tion, have already been noticed in fpeaking of lime. See 

 Lime. 



But it pofTeffes qualities and properties in the way of a 

 cement, the utility of which for building, for various do- 

 meflic purpofes, properly belong to this place. According 

 to Dr. Anderfon, lime is in the bell and moll fit flate for 

 this ufe when the mofl perfeftly caullic, or in the mofl: 

 eryllaUizing condition. It is remarked, that the powder 

 of lime, when reduced by means of water into a thin or 

 fluid fort of pafte-like form, and then fuffered to become dry, 

 concretes into a coherent mafs, which fixes to ftones and other 

 rough bodies in a very firm manner, and in this way becomes 

 a proper cement for building any fort of walls. And that, 

 after this pafty material has once become firmly dry, it is 

 quite indiffoluble in water, and incapable of ever being 

 foftened again by the moillure of the atmofphere or other 

 fimilar caufes. Hence it excels many other forts of 

 cements. 



When compofed for the purpofe of building walls, &c. 

 it is ufually denominated mortar ; but when formed as an ap- 

 plication in the way of a fmooth coating upon any plain 

 furface without intermixture with ilony matters, it is com- 

 monly here termed pla'ijler. 



When made from the lime of the purer fort of lime-ftone, 

 it is found to be more foft and crumbly, and to acquire a lefs 

 degree of hardnefs, and to be broken with much lefs force, 

 than where the lime-ftone from which it is made contains a 

 large proportion of fand, in which cafe it becomes much 

 more hard, firm, and durable. 



It has, however, been difcovered that the pureft lime may 

 be rendered a firm cement by adding a proper proportion 

 of clean hard fand to it ; hence the pradlice of blending fand 

 with lime, when intended for mortar, has become fo univer- 

 fal. This is fully lliewn to have been very early the cafe, 

 by the oldeft lime-built walls which are now to be met 

 with. 



It neverthelefs ftill remains a defideratum to afcertain the 

 due proportion of fand which is necelfary, as both writers 



Q U I 



and praftical mafons greatly difagree in opinion on thij 

 matter, as w ell in their diredlions about the modi' of mixing 

 tlie materials, as of applying the cement ; forae of the more 

 modern, efpecially, afcribing extraordinary etTedls to a fmall 

 variation in thefe particulars, wliile others deny that thcfe 

 circumllances have any fenfible elfeifl on the durability and 

 firmnefs of the cement. 



It is conceived that thefe different and contradictory opi- 

 nions arife from an imperfeft knowledge of the nature of 

 quick-lnne, and the variations it may admit of ; for thefe 

 variations are fi) very great, as to render it impoflible to afford 

 any general rules that can poflibly apply in all cafes. It is, 

 therefore, conceived to behove thofe who are defirous of ac- 

 quiring any coufilleiit and fatisfadf ory knowledge on thishead, 

 to endeavour to afcertain, in the firil place, the circumllances 

 which render calcareous lubltances at all capable of becoming 

 a cement, and then to trace the feveral changes that may be 

 produced upon it by other extraneous caufes. 



Having explained the circumllances which caufc the dif- 

 ferences in lime-llone, and pointed out the different con- 

 ilituent principles of it, as well as various other peculiarities ; 

 it is flated that lime, which has in any way abforbed its 

 full quantity of air from the atmofphere and become mild, , 

 is altogether unfit for becoming a cement, and that, of courfe, 

 it is evident, that a great change may be produced upon the 

 quality of any lime, by having allowed lefs or more of it to be 

 in this ilate before it is worked up into mortar. And further, 

 that if a large quantity of water be put to frefh flaked 

 quick-lime, and beat up with it into a thin fort of pafle, 

 the water dillolves a fmall portion of the lime, which as it 

 gradually abforbs its air, is converted into cry Hals ; between 

 the particles of which cryllals, that part of the lime which 

 was not diilolved, and the other extraneous matters which may 

 have been mixed with it, are entangled, fo as to form a firm 

 coherent mafs of the whole. And that the pally fubftance 

 formed in this manner, is the well-known article mortar ; and 

 this heterogeneous, imperfeftly femi-cryftallized mafs, con- 

 ilitutes the common cement employed in building ordinary 

 walls or other ereftions. Thefe circumdances, therefore, 

 being known, it is thought that it will not be difficult 

 to comprehend what are the particulars that are neceffary 

 to form the moll perfedl cement of this nature. That 

 fince lime becomes a cement only in confequence of a cer- 

 tain degree of cryftalhzation taking place in the whole 

 mafs, it is fufiiciently obvious that the firmnefs and perfec- 

 tion of that cement muft depend upon the perfection of the 

 cryflals ; and the hardnefs of the matters that are entangled 

 among them ; for if the cryflals are ever fo perfedt and hard 

 of themfelves, if they be feparated from one another by 

 any brittle incoherent medium, it is evident that the whole 

 mafs mull remain in fome degree brittle and incoherent. 

 That as water can only diflolve a very fmall proportion 

 of lime, even when in its moll perfeft faline or cauftic 

 ftate, or wliile it remains deprived of its carbonic acid gas, 

 and as happens in other fimilar cafes, no more of the lime 

 can be reduced to a cryflallinc mafs than has been aftually 

 diffolved in the water ; it happens of courfe, that if mortar 

 be made of pure lime and water alone, a very fmall propor- 

 tion only can be diffolved by that fmall quantity of water 

 that is added to it : and as this fmall proportion alone can 

 afterwards be cryftallized, all the remaining undidolved 

 particles of the lime will be entangled anaong the few cryf- 

 tals that are formed. And as the undiffolved lime in this 

 mafs will in time' abforb its air, and be converted into mild 

 calcareous earth without having had a fufficiency of water to 

 allow it to cryilallize, it mult concrete into a friable mafa 

 exadly refembling chalk ; it follows, that this kind of mor- 

 tar. 



