In agriculture lime assists in pulverizing the soil, by acting chemically upon the silicates therein, dissolving out a portion of the silica and liberat ing potash and soda. It is for this cause that lime tells so well on poor granitic soils. From 100 to 600 bushels to the acre are used; wet, stiff lands, and those destitute of calcareous matter, requir ing most. Lime corrects injurious substances in the soil, as sulphate of iron, etc. For this pur pose a heavy dose is required. Lime breaks up or pulverizes stiff clays, improving their texture. For this purpose a heavy dose of quicklime is most effective. It decomposes inert vegetable matter, as peat, roots, etc. The dose for this pur pose may be less than above; thirty to 100 bushels will be enough, if lime has been previously employed; hut on peat lands, well drained, much more is necessary. Lime is found in large quan tities as an ingredient in leguminous plants, pota toes, and other roots; hence it may be added as a special manure to such plants, three or four bushels being placed in the manure used for them. It hastens the decay of stable manure and putrescent substances and may he sprinkled over them when plowed into the soil, but not allowed to be added for any length of time to heaps of manure, for it drives off any ammonia already formed, and ultimately reduces the action of the dung. One bushel to three or four loads will he enough. A first liming for improvement of bar ren lands may be heavy ; but if afterward a dose of twenty bushels to the acre be added every four or five years, it will save a very heavy addition for some time. Quicklime would be the best to add as an amendment, but it is difficult to handle, from its causticity and must never be added to wet soils, lest it convert them into a hard mortar. On the whole, therefore, water-slacked lime is the most useful. Air-slacked lime is used as a top dressing to meadows, the other being too caustic; it is also employed to kill and annoy insects, which it does without injury to the plant. It is
also added, in doses of a half to one peck, to the roots of fruit-trees, worked into the soil. The best kind of lime for the former is that obtained from burned shells, the common limestone usually con taining magnesia, which, in a caustic state, is injurious to vegetation, from the slowness with which it becomes mild, so that it injures the roots of plants long after the lime has become quite mild. The older limestones, and especially those of a bright white, crystalline appearance, form the best lime. Lime is used in composts to pul verize inert vegetable matter, which it does very effectually, converting it in part into humate of ter, dead weight. It is recorded that pounds average has been sheared, as a first dr from a lot of thirty yearling, wether , and which at fourteen months old averaged 140 pounds live weight. The Lincolns of the begin ning of the century were large, coarse animals, with long, ragged, oily fleeces, the flesh of which • however, was considered excellent. The sheep were' inclined to make fat inside. Improve- ments in this breed of sheep have increased their value, both in flesh and wool. This improve ment resulted through the use of Leicester rams, careful selection, and as careful feeding, and now it is celebrated for its Ring, lustrous and worsted wool, and in England has a separate class at the fairs. Like the Romney Marsh sheep they do well on rich alhivial soils and drained marshes, requiring plenty of rich succulent food and careful attention. These sheep have been introduced into the United States, West, and into lime; the action• of the lime is similar to potash or soda, and termed by chemists catalytic, or pre disposing. Lime-water and a cream of lime, made by mixing lime with water to the consist ence of cream, are much used as a steep for seeds, and to wash the bark of trees, etc. to preserve them from insects; it is also supposed to preserve timber.