ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE, 
m 
LESSON III. 
LIMING LANDS (CONTINUED). 
15. We have seen that, as an ameliorator, time is not 
suitable to calcareous soils; but we are not thereby to un¬ 
derstand that it is to be employed with advantage on every 
other kind of soil. It has been remarked, on the contrary, 
that on certain soils, lime has produced no effect whatever, 
without its being possible to discover in their composition 
any explanation of the fact. 
16. We may then conclude that soils, independent of 
their composition, are more or less disposed to improve- 
ment by calcareous ameliorators. Trials should be made 
in this respect; and this means of amelioration, where it 
can be employed, should never be neglected. 
17. Lime has frequently been employed with disadvan¬ 
tage, because it was looked upon as a manure. If organic 
remains are found in the soil, in tolerable quantities, we 
may certainly obtain by means of lime alone tolerably fair 
crops, for two or three years in succession; but after this 
time we will have an exhausted soil, that will return with 
great difficulty to a productive state. By liming without 
manuring, we would give the soil a factitious activity, 
that would be followed by sterility. 
18. We ought then to consider the liming of land as a 
means of preparing the food of plants, and of putting in 
action inert principles that otherwise would have remained 
dormant and unproductive; but we must not think that 
lime itself is a principle of nourishment. Perhaps, as is 
supposed by a distinguished German author,* liming may 
also supply the roots with a quantity of carbonic acid, m 
addition to that furnished them by the humus. 
* See Von Thaer, in the “ Farmers’ Library and Monthly Journal of Agri 
culture.” 
6* 
