103 



land reverts to its original condition. To keep 

 land in its best possible state, therefore, the natural 

 waste ought from time to time to be supplied by the 

 addition of smaller doses of lime at shorter intervals. 



" The most injurious effect of an over-liming, 

 whether it be laid on at one or at successive pe- 

 riods, is the exhaustion by which it is succeeded. 

 'An over-dose of shell-marl,' says Lord Karnes, 

 ' laid perhaps an inch thick, produces for a time 

 large crops, but at last renders the soil capable 

 of bearing neither corn nor grass, of which 

 there are many examples in Scotland.' The 

 same is true of lime in any form. The increased 

 fertility continues as long as there remains an 

 adequate supply of organic (animal and vege- 

 table) matter in the soil, but as that disappears 

 the crops every year diminish both in quantity 

 and in quality. 



" From the possession of this exhausting pro- 

 perty has arisen the almost universally diffused 

 proverb, that lime enriches the fathers but impo- 

 verishes the sons. The fault, however, is not in 

 the lime, but in the improvident fathers, who in 

 this case, as in so many others, exhaust and in- 

 considerately squander the inheritance of their 

 sons. If care be taken to keep up the supply 

 of organic matter in the soil — by copious addi- 

 tions of manure or otherwise — lime may be added 

 freely and a system of high farming kept up, 

 by which both the present holder of the land, 

 and his successor, will be equally benefited. 



"The opinion expressed by some of the highest 

 authorities among practical men, that too much 

 lime cannot be added, provided the soil abound 

 sufficiently in vegetable matter, may perhaps be 

 rather over-stated ; but it undoubtedly embodies 

 the result of long-continued general observation, 

 that the exhausting effect of lime may be post- 

 poned indefinitely by a liberal management of 

 the land." 



As to the manner of application, we extract 

 the following : 



" In regard to the period of the year and of 

 the rotation, there are three principles by which 

 the procedure of the practical man ought chiefly 

 to be directed. 



"That lime takes some time to produce its known 

 effects upon the soil. — It ought, therefore, to be 

 applied as long as possible before the crop is 

 sown. That is, in the early autumn, where 

 either winter or spring corn is about to be sown, — 

 on the naked fallow where the land is allowed 

 to be at rest for a year, — or on the grass fields 

 before breaking up, where the pasture is to be 

 immediately succeeded by corn. 



"That quick-lime expels ammonia from decom- 

 posed and fermenting manure. 



" When such manure, therefore, is applied to 

 the land as it is in all our well-farmed districts, 

 quick-lime should not be so laid upon the land 



as to come into immediate contact with it. If 

 both must be applied in the same year, they 

 should be laid on at periods as distant from each 

 other as may be convenient, or if this necessity 

 does not exist, the lime should be spread either 

 a year before or a year after the period in the 

 rotation at which the manure is usually applied. 



"It is for this reason, as well as for the other 

 already stated, that lime is applied to the naked 

 fallow, to the grass before breaking up, or along 

 with the winter wheat after a green crop which 

 has been aided by fermented manure. "When 

 ploughed into the fallow, or spread upon the 

 grass, it has had time to be almost completely 

 converted into the mild state, (that of carbonate,) 

 before the manure is laid on. In this mild state 

 it has no sensible effect in expelling the ammonia 

 of decomposing manure. Again, when it is ap- 

 plied in autumn along with, or immediately be- 

 fore the seed, the volatile or ammoniacal part of 

 the manure has already been expended in nour- 

 ishing the green crop, so that loss can rarely 

 accrue from the admixture of the two at this 

 period of the rotation. 



" The excellent elementary work of Professor 

 Lowe contains the following remark : 1 It is not 

 opposed to theory that lime should be applied 

 to the soil at the same time with dung and other 

 I animal and vegetable substances, as is frequent 

 in the practice of farmers.' This is strictly cor- 

 rect only in regard to marls, lime-sand, &c., or to 

 perfectly mild lime, any of which may be mixed, 

 without loss, with manure in any state. Of 

 quick or caustic lime it is correct only when the 

 animal or vegetable matter has not yet begun 

 to ferment. With recent animal or vegetable 

 matter quick-lime may be mixed up along with 

 earth into a compost, not only without the risk 

 of much loss, but with the prospect of manifest 

 advantage. 



"That quick-lime hastens or revives the decompo- 

 sition of inert organic matter. — This fact also in- 

 dicates the propriety of allowing the lime as 

 much time as possible to operate before a crop 

 is taken from land in which organic matter al- 

 ready abounds. Or where fermenting manure 

 is added, it advises the farmer to wait till spon- 

 taneous decomposition becomes languid, when 

 the addition of lime will bring it again into ac- 

 tion and thus maintain a more equable fertility." 



As to the effects of lime upon the productions of 

 the soil, we make the following extracts : 



tl Jt improves the quality of almost every culti- 

 vated crop. 



"Thus, upon limed land, 



"The grain of the corn crops has a thinner 

 skin, is heavier, and yields more flour, while 

 this flour is said also to be richer in gluten. On 

 the other hand, these crops, after lime, run less 

 to straw, and are more seldom laid. In wet 

 seasons (in Ayrshire) wheat preserves its healthy 



