LIME. 



fiould be coWred with earth, to preferve it from the air and 

 rain. It has been obferved, that the benefit of lime is not 

 apparent in a dry fummer, and that it does not aft fully as a 

 manure, till it has been thoroughly flaked in the foil, by 

 continued rains. In Effex an excellent praftice prevails, of 

 forming a compoft of lime, turf, and ditch earth, at the 

 gate of every field, ready to be apphed as a manure when 

 vantcd. Twenty bufiiels of lime mixed with forty buHiels 

 of fand form an excellent top-dreffing for an acre of wheat, 

 if laid on early in the fpring. But lime, as full noticed, is 

 apt to fubfide beyond the depth of the common furrow ; 

 deep ploughing in this cafe is the only remedy applicable. 

 In fome midland counties a fallow is feldom made without 

 being drefled with lime, under an idea that it mellows the 

 foil, and makes it work well, while in tillage ; and fweetens 

 cr improves the quality of the herbage when laid down to 

 grafs. For this pUrpofc it is fetched eighteen or twenty 

 miles. Anitwo forts of lime are in ufe in fome diftrifts, as 

 about Derby. The Breedon lime, burnt from a very hard 

 ftone, and of fingular rtrength as manure ; and the common 

 lime, burnt from common ilones, and called Ticknall or 

 Walfal lime. The load-heaps are generally watered as they 

 are thrown down from the waggon ; and always turned over 

 to complete the falling more effeftually. If a quantity of 

 lime be fetched in autumn or early in winter, to be ufed in 

 the fpring, when team-labour is more valuable, it is thrown 

 up into a regular roof-like heap or mound, and thatched as a 

 flack ; a fmall trench being cut round the fl<irts to catch, 

 with an outlet to convey away, rain water. Thus the heap 

 is prevented from running to a mortar-hke confidence by the 

 fnows and rains of winter, and thereby rendered more ufeful 

 as manure. 



In the Rural Economy of the Midland Counties it is 

 noticed, that a turnip fallow was manured with Breedon 

 lime, in general five quarters to an acre ; part had double 

 that quantity, and part had none. The turnip crop re- 

 ceived no obvious advantage, but its effefts on the barley 

 were evident. The part not limed was the worfe crop, 

 nearly in the proportion of four to three. But the part 

 limed with ten qaarters to an acre was the beft crop. 

 Whence the common notion, that more than five quarters 

 of Breedon lime to an acre is ruinous to crops, feems to be 

 ill founded. And in the Economy of Norfolk, lime is faid 

 to be in good repute, though not in general ufe as a manure ; 

 different opinions being entertained refpefting the value of 

 it. This difference of opinion will ever remam, while gene- 

 ral conclufions are drawn from particular incidents. It is 

 ufed by many judicious farmers, even after marie, with fuc- 

 ccfs. Upon hot burning foils it is generally found of the 

 greatell efficacy, and is perhaps the moft effeftual cure of 

 fcalds or burning patches of land that has yet been difco- 

 vered ; from thefeand other circumftanceslime is there con- 

 fidered as a cold manure. The general method of applying 

 lime is to let it fall in large heaps, and to fpread it out of 

 carts upon fallowed ground either for wheat or barley. 

 The quantity fet on is about three chaldrons an acre ; the 

 price gs. or lo.v a chaldron. (Now much higher.) From 

 experiments made on turnips, barley, and wheat, it ap- 

 pears that lime does not aft as a manure until it has been 

 thoroughly flaked in the foil ; and it feems as if the rains of 

 fummer were necelfary to promote its operation. But in 

 fome parts of Yorkfhire lime is ufed invariably on every 

 fpeeies of foil ; and in mofl cafes with great fuccefs. On 

 the higher and more dry lands its utiHty is evident. At 

 Malton it is laid on the calcareous quarry foil with fuccefs. 

 Its ufe to the loofe fandy foils is fully etlabhfhed. The 

 prevailing crop is wheat on fallow. It it alfo pretty gene- 



rally fet on for rape, turnips, or other crops, after fod- 

 burning, and fpread among the aflics. It is alfo fometinics 

 fet on for barley. But its cffeft on the firfl crop, except 

 of wheat or rape, is feldom perceptible. 



But the benefit of lime to grafs is a matter of difpute ; 

 it is even thought by fome to be detrimental. It feems, 

 however, to be a generally received idea, that lime laid on 

 grafs is not thrown away ; for, whenever the land is turned 

 up again, its benefit to corn will have full efFeft. Tlie 

 methods of liming are various. The worll is laying it in 

 large heaps, and fuffcring it to run to a jelly before it i; 

 fpread. Next to this, is fetting it about tlie land in fmall 

 hillocks ; for, although they are fpread before they ap- 

 proach to a ftate of mortar, yet this method is injudicious. 

 Lime falling in the open air breaks into fmall cubical maffes, 

 which being once buried in the foil, remains in it for ages, 

 without being mixed intimately with it. Lime ought tliere- 

 fore to be fpread in a flate of perfect powder. It is there- 

 fore the praftice of judicious hufbandmen to fet lime upon 

 the land in load-heaps, and fpread it over the foil out of 

 carts, as foon as it is fufficiently fallen/ Or the load-heaps 

 are turned over, not fo much to finifh the falling, as to gain 

 an opportunity of burying the granulous furface of the 

 heaps ; by which means, the fragments are at leaft lefTened, 

 if not reduced to powder. In the moor-lands the heaps are 

 interlayered and covered up with moill turf or peat-mould, 

 which bringing on a rapid fall, the whole is fet on fire, and 

 the furface kept free from granules by a covering of dry 

 aihes. The heaps, therefore, whether great or fmall, fhould 

 be covered up with foil, either of the field they are let in, or 

 that of lanes or ditches carried to them for the purpofe ; 

 and if a fpeedy fall be required, water thrown over this 

 covering. If hme be ufed on fallows for wheat, it is gene- 

 rally fpread in July, har'uwed in as fafl as it is fpread, 

 and ploughed under with a fhallow furrow, as foon as con- 

 venient. The ufual quantity is three or four chaldrons t» 

 an acre. 



And " much depends upon the mode of applying the 

 lime to the foil after calcination, according to Dr. Anderfon. 

 If it is fpread as foon as it is flaked, while yet in a powdery 

 flate, a very fmall quantity may be made to cover the whole 

 furface of the ground, and to touch an exceedmgly great 

 number of particles of earth ; but if it is fuffered to lie for 

 fome time after flaking, and to get fo much moillure as to ^ 

 make it run into clods, or cake into large lumps, it can never ~ 

 be again divided into fuch fmall parts ; and, therefore, a much 

 greater quantity is neceffary to produce the fame efFeft, than 

 it it had been applied in its powdery flate. But if the foil 

 is afterwards to be continued long in tillage (as thefe clods 

 are annually broken fmaller by the adtion of the plough and 

 harrows), the Hme mull continue to exert its influence anew 

 upon the foil for a great courfe of years : it will produce an 

 effeft nearly fimilar to that which would be experienced hy 

 annually llrewing a fmall quantity of powdered lime over 

 the furface of the foil ; but as the lime mud, in the firit 

 cafe, be paid by the farmer altogether at the beginning, 

 which only comes to be fuccefTivcly demaaded in the other 

 cafe, this deferves to be attended to, as it may become a 

 confideration of fome importance where lime is dear, and 

 money not very plentiful." 



And it is conilantly an objeft worthy of attention to re- 

 move the fhells as foon as polfible after the lime is drawn 

 from the kiln ; for it is known from experiment, that a ton 

 of lime expofed twenty-two days to the air after calcination, 

 is augmented in weight to thirty hundred weight, and fome 

 kinds of lime even to thirty-five ; which is Ijitle lefs tb«« 

 double. 



