Farming of Herefordshire. 



439 



also of opinion, that lime, often repeated, will render no service 

 to an exhausted field although it is very frequently applied — an 

 opinion in which every one must agree who has paid the slightest 

 attention to the practical application of lime for agricultural 

 purposes. Before leaving the subject, a few words will be added 

 on the general rationale of the application of lime as a fertilizer. 

 Of the abuse of lime, and the compulsory clauses not unfre- 

 quently introduced by landlords or their agents into agreements 

 with tenants, it is w^ell observed by Mr. Knight — " Thus the 

 landlord who binds his tenant to a large consumption of lime, 

 without stipulating for the use of other manures, resembles the 

 man who lets his horse to hire under a positive injunction, that 

 the rider shall use whip and spurs, but takes no precaution to 

 insure the equally-essential requisite of an abundant supply of corn 

 and hay, without which the exertions of whip and spur must be 

 utterly unavailing." Prior to entering on the general subject of 

 liming, the following extract may be read with interest, as it 

 presents some features worthy of notice ; the writer proceeds to 

 observe — 



" In whatever way lime is applied, the succeeding crop 

 or crops receive more benefit from a hot than a cold summer. 

 Wheats on fallows, limed during the spring or summer previous 

 to their sowing, seldom appear better than on unlimed lands 

 under similar husbandry, until the weather becomes hot in 

 May or June. 



" Grain of all sorts on limed lands is later in getting ripe than 

 on those where no lime has been used. When large quantities 

 are applied this effect is particularly discernible. Hence I infer, 

 that lime has a tendency to make the land cool, perhaps by ex- 

 citing or attracting more moisture ; and I never recollect (pro- 

 ceeds the writer) to have seen a crop suffer from a dry hot 

 summer when the land had been previously well limed." 



In the absence of full information as to the exact character of 

 the soil on which these observations were made, it would be vain 

 to reason upon all the phases of the previously-recited positions. 

 It is, however, by no means difficult to understand that crops 

 will be generally found more productive in a hot than in a cold 

 season. The assertion that liming land retards the ripening of 

 cereal crops is certainly contrary to all the writer's experience, 

 whether as regards Herefordshire or any other part of the United 

 Kingdom, if an exception is made for excessively poor and worn- 

 out soils ; on a comparison with such, it may happen that the 

 crops on the limed land will be found to ripen somewhat later 

 owing to the crops on the impoverished land seeding pre- 

 maturely. 



The great cause of liming proving beneficial to land arises 



