SOIL. 



tility, and the greater or lefs proportion of acidity and of 

 argillaceous and calcareous matter they contain. Thofe 

 loams which are contiguous to the banks of rivers, or the 

 fea-coall, are generally admitted, as has been feen, to be fo 

 fertile, as to require little additional aid from manure ; but 

 for the more heavy and adhefive kinds, a compoft of effete 

 lime and dung, or lime in combination with pulverized or 

 ground bones and blood, or other animal recrements, and 

 Inch terrene fubftances as contain large quantities of fand, 

 may be beneficially applied in fuch quantities as the tenacity 

 or poverty of the land may require. Where the argilkceoua 

 principle abounds, lime alone may be fpread on the foil, in 

 order to counteraft the acidity prevalent in fuch foils ; in 

 the contrary cafe, or where there is an abundance of fand, 

 gravelly, or chalky particles duly mixed with the loams, 

 well rotted dung, vegetable manures of different kinds, and 

 the mud or depofition procured from ftagnant waters, may 

 be fpread to the greatell advantage ; and in cafe the loam 

 be too friable or light, a quantity of clayey loam may be car- 

 ried on the land, fufficient to impart a proper degree of 

 cohefion or tenacity. 



In the county of Oxford they find lime ufeful on the 

 yellow loams which are wet and iland in need of draining. 

 They are rarely foils of much natural fertility ; but lime 

 makes them very produftive in oats, and prepares them for 

 future wheat crops ; when employed in the quantity of from 

 twenty to thirty quarters ^cr acre. It anfwers greatly, like- 

 wife, on the red loamy fand lands in the proportion of from 

 fifteen to twenty-five quarters on the acre. 



In Suflex, wherever the land or foil tends to a reddifh 

 loam, or inclines to be fandy, they have recourfe to marie, 

 which is of a foapy nature, with great fuccefs. They em- 

 ploy it in the quantity of from ten to twenty waggon-loads 

 on the acre, which is from eight hundred to fixteen hundred 

 bulhels ; applying it in the autumnal or winter feafons. 



Where a foil deficient in calcareous matter contains much 

 foluble vegetable manure, as is the cafe in fome foils of this 

 kind, the apphcation of quicklime to them fliould always, 

 according to the writer of the work on Agricultural Chemif- 

 try, be avoided, as it either tends to decompofe the foluble 

 matters by uniting to their carbon and oxygen, fo as to be- 

 come mild lime, or it combines with the foluble matters 

 themfelves, and forms compounds having lefs attraftion for 

 water than the pure vegetable fubftance. And the cafe is 

 the fame in regard to mod animal manures, when in fuch 

 foils ; but the operation of the lime is different in different 

 cafes, and depends upon the nature of the animal matter. 

 With oily matters lime forms a kind of infoluble foap, and 

 then gradually decompofcs them by feparating from them 

 oxygen and carbon. It combines likcwife with the animal 

 acids, and probably, it is faid, affills their dccompofition 

 by abflraAing carbonaceous matter from them combined 

 with oxygen ; and confequently it mud render them lefs 

 nutritive. It tends alfo to diminifh the nutritive powers of 

 albumen from the fame caufes ; and always deftroys, to a 

 certain extent, the efficacy of animal manures, either by 

 combining with certain of their elements, or by giving them 

 new arrangements. Lime (hould, of conrfc, never be ap- 

 plied with animal manures to foils, unlefs they are too rich, 

 or for the purpofc of preventing noxious effluvia. It is 

 injurious when applied in mixture with any common dung 

 to foils, and tends to render the extraftive matter of the 

 dung infoluble. But lime is conltantly efficacious in all 

 thofe cafes in which fermentation is ufeful to produce nutri- 

 ment from vegetable fubilances in foils. 



All the foils of this nature are capable of affording alraoft 

 Vol.. XXXIII. 



all forts of crops, both thofe of the grain and root kind, k 

 well as thofe of the pulfe, hemp, and flax fort, as may be 

 feen under thefe different kinds of crops. 



The modes of cropping in fome diftriAs follow, in fome 

 meafuie, the qualities of the loams, whether they be ftrong, 

 fertile, impalpable, fandy, or of any other kinds or defcrip- 

 tions. The medium fertile loams are probably, however, 

 on the whole, the moft fuited to every fort of farming 

 purpofe. 



3. Chalky Soils. — All thefe are foils, which are found to 

 occupy very extenfive trafts in many of the fouthern dif- 

 tridts of the kingdom, as well as in fome of the more 

 northern ; and, like thofe which have been already noticed, 

 differ very materially both from the diverfity of the calcare- 

 ous material which they contain, its proportion, and the 

 other matters that are intermixed and blended with it, ai 

 well as the thicknefs of the earthy bed on which it reds, 

 and the nature of the inferior ftratuin on which the whole 

 is depofited. It has been dated by an ufeful praftical wri- 

 ter, that matter of the calcareous kind is contained in many 

 different dony fubdances, befides that of chalk, as marble, 

 limedone, coral, and (hells of different kinds ; and in date* 

 of union with other materials, fuch as fand, the different 

 fimple earthy bodies, in different proportions, and in fome 

 indances with iron and magnefia. Its capability or power 

 of imbibing and retaining moidure is confiderable, though 

 not fo great as that of clay. It birrns to lime by proper 

 degrees of heat, and abforbs carbonic acid gas or fixed air 

 in different proportions from the atmofphere, and returns 

 again to the date of chalk or effete calcareous matter. It 

 is found of very different degrees of hardnefs and friability, 

 as well as of different dates of finenefs or pulverization, in 

 different foils of the clafs to which it belongs. It varies 

 alfo greatly in its effefts in refpeft to vegetation ; from the 

 different matters that may happen to be combined with it 

 in its primitive or original ifate. And it is further dated, 

 that it has long been known to the pradlical farmer, that 

 fome forts of lime or calcareous matter may be employed 

 in large proportions ; while others cannot be ufed, except 

 in very imall quantities, without doing very confiderable in- 

 jury to the foil with which they are incorporated. But 

 that the long unexplored caufe of this diverfity of effeft in 

 different limes, or calcareous matters, frems lately to have 

 been placed in a more clear and fatisfattory point of view, 

 by the experimental attempts of an ingenious philofophcr, 

 Mr. Tennant, who has found by repeated experiments, that 

 that fort of lime which is the mod friendly to vegetation, 

 confids entirely of calcareous earth, and quickly abforbs a 

 large portion of carbonic acid gas or fixed air from the 

 atmofphere ; while that which is injurious and unfriendly to 

 the growth of plants, contains only throe parts of pure cal- 

 careous earth, the other two confiding of magnefia ; and 

 that it abforbs comparatively but an extremely fmall portion 

 of carbonic acid gas or fixed air from the furrounding at- 

 mofphere. It was alfo found, that this kind of mixture of 

 calcareous matter was very (low i.i acquiring the power of 

 fupporting vegetation, even after it had been converted into 

 lime, and remained for a confiderable length of time in the 

 date of mortar. And that the limedone in which there 

 is a mixture of magnefia, is much harder, and diffolveo con- 

 fidtrably more flowly in acids, than that which is purely 

 calcareous. It is likewiie fuppofed, that the cryllallized 

 drutture commonly obfcrved in the magnelian limedone in- 

 dicates, that it has not been formed by the accidental con- 

 junftion of the two eaiths, but conll:' utcd by their shemi- 

 cal union. The difficulty with which it is dilfolved by 

 M m meant 



