HUSBANDRY. 
fubftance of much greater fpecific gravity than pure cau- 
ftic ]im?, coniiderable differences in its effects as a manure 
may likewife be produced. On all thefe accounts, there¬ 
fore, though lime may be produced from chalk, marble, 
different lime-ftones, coral, and (hells, by fubjefting them 
to fuch degrees of heat as is neceffary to expel or difen- 
gage the carbonic acid or fixed air that they contain, 
which is apparently of the lame quality, it may vary in 
its effefts when employed in agriculture. 
Lime, when newly burned, or before it becomes loaded 
or faturated with the moifture and carbonic acid, or fixed 
air, contained in the atmofphere, which, from their ftrong 
tendencies to combine or unite with it, .generally loon 
takes place, is in its moll aftive Itate, and, from the 
power which it poffeffes of breaking down and deltroying 
the texture and organization of fuch animal and vegeta¬ 
ble fubltances as come in contaft with it, is termed cau- 
Jlic or quick lime. 
Quicklime, like - falts and earths, perhaps is not itfelf 
nutritive ; but, like alkaline (alt, (timulates the vegeta¬ 
ble, and thereby accelerates its growth, applied in due 
quantity and at a certain period of vegetation. If it be 
applied in larger quantity, it kills animals in the foil, 
and alfo fmall vegetables ; and from the deftroyed and 
decayed animals and vegetables a foil is rendered fertile, 
becaule impregnated with mucilage. The fuperabundant 
lime does not prove hurtful, becaufe it becomes mild cal¬ 
careous earth, by attracting carbonic acid from the at- 
jnofphere. A moll fatisfadtory example of the eft'eft of 
lime is to be found in Derbythire, about Buxton, See. 
where, by throwing lime upon the heath, that (hrtib has 
been deftroyed, and excellent grades, particularly white 
clover, have fprung up in its room. 
When pure lime is mixed with clayey foils which do 
not poffefs too great a degree of humidity, it is likewile 
capable of rendering them lefs ftiff and tenacious, conhe- 
quently more fuitable for admitting the fmall fibrous 
roots of vegetables, not only by the evolution of heat 
and other elaftic matters, during the period of its becom¬ 
ing faturated with the moifture and fixed air, or carbonic 
acid, which they may contain, but alfo by being thereby 
molt intimately and minutely mixed with them, from the 
fine impalpable powdery (late to which it is neceffarily 
reduced. Where, in fuch foils, the fulphuric acid abounds, 
it may likewife produce good effects, by forming with it 
a kind of gypfeous compound, and, where other acids 
are prefent that are prejudicial to vegetation, by the pow¬ 
er which it poffeffes of neutraliiing them. And, where 
the lime has been burnt from the magnefian lime-ltone, 
it may probably be ferviceable when applied to clayey or 
other foils that contain the fulphuric acid, which are ufu- 
ally denominated four lands by farmers, by forming a fort 
of Epl’om fait in the ground, a fubftance which the expe¬ 
riments of Dr. Home have long lince ftiown to be highly 
favourable to vegetation when ufed in fmall quantities. 
• Lime, on expofure to the atmofphere for fome time, 
undergoes a confiderable change, being rendered mild by 
the abl'orption of carbonic acid or fixed air from it. In 
this ftate of combination it is termed, by modern che- 
inifts, carbonat of lime, or effete lime ; its power or capabi¬ 
lity of afting upon, and deftroying or breaking down, 
the texture of organized bodies, being greatly diminilhed. 
It (till, however, promotes their diifolution and decay, 
by aiding and forwarding the natural procefs of putrefac¬ 
tion, as is fufficiently proved by thofe compoft dung- 
heaps with which it has been mixed becoming much 
more quickly in the ftate to be applied to land thaa 
where no fuch ingredient had been employed ; by this 
means it therefore contributes greatly to the fupport of 
vegetation; and it has been lately obferved, that, where 
incorporated or blended with fuch comports of foil and 
manure as are in the ftate of generating nitrous acid, it 
•arrelts the acid as it forms, by which means a calcareous 
nitre is produced, and thus the exhalation and ready 
Vol.X. No. 684, 
565 
efcapeof a nutritious material is guarded againft and pre¬ 
vented. 
Two forts of lime are in ufe : the Breedon lime, burnt 
from a very hard (tone, and of fingular ftrength as a ma¬ 
nure ; and the common lime, burnt from common (tones, 
and called Ticknall or Walfal lime. The load-heaps are 
generally watered as they are thrown down from the wag¬ 
gon ; and always turned over to complete the falling 
more effectually. If a quantity of lime be fetched in au¬ 
tumn or early in winter, to be ufed in the fpring, when 
team-labour is more valuable, it is thrown up into a re¬ 
gular roof-like heap or mound, and thatched as a (tack ; a 
(mail trench being cut round the (kirts to catch, with an 
outlet to convey away, rain-water. Thus the heap is pre¬ 
vented from running to a mortar-like confidence by the 
(hows and rains of winter, which would render it ufeleis 
as manure. 
A turnip-fallow was manured with Breedon lime, in ge¬ 
neral five quarters to an acre; part had double that quan¬ 
tity, and part had none. The turnip-ciop received no 
obvious advantage, but its effects on the barley were evi¬ 
dent. The part not limed was the word crop, nearly in 
the proportion of four to three ; but the part limed with 
ten quarters to an acre was the bed crop. Whence the 
common notion, that more than five quarters of Breedon 
lime to an acre is ruinous to crops, leems to be ill- 
founded. 
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 let on 
is about three chaldrons an acre ; the price 9s. or 10s. a 
chaldron. From experiments made on turnips, barley, 
and wheat, it appears that lime does not aft as a manure 
until it has been thoroughly flacked in the foil ; and it 
teems as if the rains of Cummer were neceflary to promote 
its operation. 
The benefit of lime to grafs is a matter of difpute ; it 
is even thought by fome to be detrimental. It leems 
however to be a generally-received idea, that lime laid on 
grals is not thrown away; for, whenever the land is turn¬ 
ed up again, its benefit to corn will have full eft’eft. 
Lime falling in the open air breaks into fmall cubical 
maffes, which, being once buried in the foil, remain in it 
for ages, without being mixed intimately with it. Lime 
ought therefore to be (pread in a ftate of perfeft powder. 
It is therefore the praftice of judicious hulbandmen 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 fall¬ 
ing, as to gain an opportunity of burying the granulous 
furface of the heaps ; by which means the fragments arc 
at leaft leffeneri, if not reduced to powder. 
It is evident, from the various trials that have been 
made by praftical farmers, that the more intimately and 
the more minutely lime is blended and incorporated with 
the foils on which it is applied, the more full and com¬ 
plete are the effefts which it has in fupporting the growth 
of different forts of crops. Thus it has been remarked 
by a very intelligent writer, that if a heap of lime of a 
confiderable thicknefs lhall have been ever fo long on one 
(pot, and be afterwards carried clean away from it, fothat 
none of the particles of the lime remain to be mixed with 
the foil, that ftpot will not be richer, or carry more luxu¬ 
riant crops, than the places around it; which, every one 
knows, is not the cafe with regard to dung. And again ; 
that, if lime be fpread upon the furface of the foil, and al¬ 
lowed to remain there without being ploughed in, its ef¬ 
fefts will fcarcely be perceived for feveral years, till it has 
had time gradually to fink through the (ward, and mix 
with the foil; after which its effefts begin to be per¬ 
ceived, although much lefs fenfibly than if the lame quan¬ 
tity of lime had been intimately mixed with the foil by 
means of the plough and harrow. He oblerves, that lie 
is not aftrangerto the improvements that have been made 
6 F. i R 
