ON THE CULTURE 



Fuel is often burnt in stoves without effect, 

 by the improper construction of the fire-places e : 

 it is a common thing for stove-fires to return back 

 when the wind is in certain points ; but the means 

 of preventing this are very easy. Smoke is a fluid, 

 and acts on the same principles as water ; but 

 their disproportion of gravity, (considered with 



e Mr. Joseph Thompson, gardener to the Right Hon. Lord 

 John Cavendish, at Billing, in Northamptonshire, has obligingly 

 favoured me with the following important account of a method 

 of burning lime in stove fire-places. — It will, I trust, prove 

 a valuable piece of information, more especially to persons 

 situate in a lime-stone or chalk country, and where coal 

 abounds. When lime is of a fattening quality, the acquisition 

 will be still greater, not only by way of contributing to improve 

 the quarters in kitchen-gardens, but also by its being possessed 

 of powers capable of destroying snails, slugs, &c. with which 

 most old kitchen-garden grounds abound. 



" Agreeably to my promise, I now send you herewith an 

 account of our method of burning lime in the stove fire-places, 

 together with a plan of the kiln sketched out with a pen, which 

 I have endeavoured to explain by references. 



" The size of the kiln should vary according to the quantity 

 of lime required, and the heat that may be needful for Pine- 

 stoves or forcing-houses, &c. — Ours here is somewhat larger 

 than the dimensions given, and by working only at nights and 

 mornings, will burn four bushels of lime per day. This takes 

 J hundred of coals, which, with us, costs Is. But as Lord 

 John Cavendish does a great deal of building here, and as the 

 workmen consider the lime thus burnt greatly preferable to any 

 we can get, (when we buy our lime it is brought five miles, and 

 costs 3s. 6d. per quarter,) I have frequently had occasion to burn 

 lime in a hot season when fire-heat has not been required in our 

 forcing-houses. 



