e, there would be less injury, and possibly some advantage."

"The Squire," said the Deacon, "got one advantage. He had not much
trouble in drawing the manure about the land. There was not much of it
left."

Lime does not always decompose organic matter. In certain conditions, it
will _preserve_ vegetable substances. We do not want to mix lime with
manure in order to preserve it; and if our object is to increase
fermentation, we must be careful to mix sufficient soil with the manure
to keep it moist enough to retain the liberated ammonia.

Many farmers who use lime for the first time on wheat, are apt to feel a
little discouraged in the spring. I have frequently seen limed wheat in
the spring look worse than where no lime was used. But wait a little,
and you will see a change for the better, and at harvest, the lime will
generally give a good account of itself.

There is one thing about lime which, if generally true, is an important
matter to our wheat-growers. Lime is believed to hasten the maturity of
the crop. "It is true of nearly all our cultivated crops," says the late
Professor Johnston, "but especially of those of wheat, that their full
growth is attained more speedily when the land is limed, and that they
are ready for the harvest from ten to fourteen days earlier. This is the
case even with buckwheat, which becomes sooner ripe, though it yields no
larger a return when lime is applied to the land on which it is grown."

In districts where the midge affects the wheat, it is exceedingly
important to get a variety of wheat that ripens early; and if lime will
favor early maturity, without checking the growth, it will be of great
value.

A correspondent in Delaware writes: "I have used lime as a manure in
various ways. For low land, the best way is, to sow it broadcast while
the vegetation is in a green state, at the rate of 40 or 50 bushels to
the acre; but if I can not use it before the frost kills the vegetation,
I wait until the land is plowed in the spring, when I spread it on the
plowed ground in about the same quantity as before. Last year, I tried
it both ways, and the result was, my crop was increased at least
fourfold in each instance, but that used on the vegetation was best. The
soil is a low, black sand."

A farmer writes from New Jersey, that he has used over 6,000 bushels of
lime on his farm, and also considerable guano and phosphates, but
considers that the lime has paid the best. His farm