L I M E. 



modes of cropping afterwards adopted, or the fuperior qua- 

 lity' of one kind of lime-ftone beyond another. 



It has been remarked, that fome require that it fhould be 

 applied in fuch fmall quantities as thirty or forty bufhels to 

 the acre ; and aVer, that if more is ufed the ground will be 

 abfolutely ruined ; while others maintain, that ten times 

 that quantity may be applied with iafety. A great varia- 

 tion m:\y no doubt be produced, in this fefpec^, by a dif- 

 ference in the nature of the foil, in the ftate of culture it 



fpread. The field was paftured upon for feven or eight 

 years after that, before it was converted into tillage ; ■and 

 the heaps were by that time become fo fiat, and fo far funfc 

 into the ground, that they could hardly be difcovered. 

 Before it was p-'.oughed up, the whole of tiie field was 

 limed, and this part of it equally fo with the rell ; i:or were 

 the old heaps touched till the plough went tljrough them irr 

 tilling the field, when the lime was there turned up, with 

 only a very fmall mixture of foil. The conlequeiice was. 



is under at the time, in the quantity of calcareous matter that at every one of thefe heaps, a tuft of corn fprung up 

 with which it may have been formerly impregnated ; and with fuch luxuriance as to be entirely rotted before harvtlt ; 

 perhaps a variation may fometimes arife from other cir- and for many years afterwards, thefe tufts could be dillin- 

 cumllances that have never yet been attended to. A differ- guiihed from the other part of the field at a very great dif- 

 ence will likewife arife from the quality of the lime that is tance, like fo many buttons on a coat ; and perhaps continue 

 applied, and from the manner in which it is employed, fome fo to this day. From thefe experiments, as well as other 

 kinds of lime containing, perhaps, ten times more calcareous confiderations, there fecms to be reaion to conclude, that 

 matter than others ; and a very great difference may pro-- on foils which do not naturally abound with chalk, or other 

 ceed from the mode of applying the lime itfelf. For it is calcareous m.atter, there is lefs danger in giving too much 

 common to hear thofe who have had little experience of lime than in applying too littk, except in ihofe cafes where 

 lime as a manure, recommend very great caution, left too an over luxuriance is to be apprehended previoufly to fuch 

 great a quantity be employed, for fear of burning the limings. 



foil, as they exprefs it. This idea of burning has been It has been dated by a late agricultural writer, that iir 

 evidently adopted from what is experienced by applying the counties of Lanark and Weftmoreland, from one liun- 

 caullic lime to animals or vegetables in large quantities, as dred to five hundred bufhels of hme-lhells, after being re- 

 it often corrodes and (hrivels them up, and produces other duced to powder, are applied to the Englifh llatute acre ; 

 effeSs, which greatly refemble thofe of fire ; but it cannot and that the bulhel of lime-ltells, or calcined lime-ftone, 

 produce any fuch eifefts, unlefs there are vegetables grow- generally yields from two and a half to tliree bulhels of 

 jng upon the toil at the time. In that cafe the vegetables powdered lime ; the price of which at the kilns varies from 

 might indeed be corroded by the lime, if rain fnould fall fourpence to fixpence ; the general average over the king- 

 immediately after it was fpread when newly (laked ; but as dom being rated at fourpence halfpenny the bufhel. la 

 it lofes this liery corrofive power in a few days after it is the county of Nottingham, the ordinary quantity does not 

 fpread, nothing of that kind can be expefted to happen exceed feventy or eighty bufhels. In the counties of Cum- 

 to the foil. Accordingly, wc never hear of crops being berland in Engla::d, and Well Lothian, Fife, Perth, An- 

 bumt up with too great a quantity of lime in thofe coun- gus, Mearns, &c. m Scotland, from one hundred to one 

 ties where it has long been ufed as a common manure, al- hundred and fifty bufhels is the ufual quantity ; and this 

 though it is there often employed in much larger quantities lail may be i^ated as the general ave.-age quantity com- 

 than in other places where it is more rare. The writer has monly ufed in all the other parts of the illand. 

 himfeif had the experience of lime in all proportions, from It is afTerted to have been often heard urged as an ob- 

 one hundred to above feven hundred bufhels to the acre, ieftion to the tife of lime as a- manure, that althouTh it 

 upon a great variety of foils ; and has always found that does indeed promote the fertility of a foil in <1 higher de- 

 its effeft in promoting the fertility of the foil has been in gree at firlt, yet, in the end, it renders it much more 

 proportion to the quantity employed, other circumllances Iterile than formerly ; on which account, they fay, it ought 

 being alike. The expence, in moft cafe?, prevents farmers not to be at all employed. This, like many other objections 

 from employing this manure in greater quantities than thofe to ufeful pradices, takes its rile entirely from the avarice 

 above-mentioned ; but accidental circumllances clearly {hew, and unfkilfulnefs of thofe who complain. It is chiefly heard 

 that if it were apphed in much larger quantities, theeffeft of in thofe parts of the country where it is not common for 

 would on'y be to promot-e the luxuriance of the crop in a farmer, after once liming a poor foil, to take filteen. or fix- 

 a higher degree. A gentleman of his acquaiTitance, in whofe teen crops of oats faccellively, without any other drellino- 

 veracity he can confide, happening to be from home when or alteration of crops. It mtjft be a good manure that 

 a large field was limed, and having no occalion for the whole enables thefe loils to produce fuch a number of fucceifive 

 quantity of lime that had been brought for that purpofe, fcourging crops of any fort : but it would be a marvellous 

 and laid down in one corner of the field, his fervants, with- one indeed, if k fhould prevent thofe fields being exhaulled 

 outdriving it away, mixed what remained with the foil, by them. But is it not well known, that in all the riche:l 

 although the lime lay there about four inches thick over the 

 whole furface. The effecl was, that for many years after- 

 wards, the grain in that place was fo immoderately luxu- 

 riant, that It fell over, and rotted before it came to the 

 «ar. After many yean this luxuriance abated a little, fo as 

 to allow the grain to ripen ^ but it was there always much 

 more luxuriant thsn in any other part of the field. An 

 accidental experiment, nearly fimilar to this, fell under his 

 own obfervation. It happened that the fervants of another 



and beil improved parts of the country, lime has been long 

 employed as a manure ? Yet, fo far are thofe foils from 

 being rendered flerile by it, that it is doubtful if any art, 

 without the aflilhmce of lime, or fome calcareous matter, 

 could ever have biouglit thefe fields to their prelent degre..- 

 of fertility. Thofe, therefore, who complain of the hurtfv.l 

 effects of lime as a manure, proclaim wh;;t they ought to 

 conceal ; that they have had in their pofleiuon a trcafure, 

 which might have enriched their pul^erity, but which la 

 farmer laid, by miftake, a few heaps of lime upon a grafs their own life-time they have idly fquandered away, 

 field that he did not intend fhould be broken up at the We are, however, not only unacquainted with the mode 

 time. The millake was foon difcovered, and no more lime in which the lime operates upon th* foil, butweareeven 

 was laid down at that place ; and the few heaps (about a i.i a great meafure ignorant of the aflu.-il changes that are 

 kulhel in each) were allowed to lie negleded, without being produced upon the earth after this manure ia applied, Ii 

 Vol.. XXI. H ' A 



