inues to attract moisture from the air
or earth, which it deprives I suppose of carbonic acid, and then suffers it
to exhale again, as is seen on the plastered walls of new houses. On this
account it must be advantageous when mixed with dry or sandy soils, as it
attracts moisture from the air above or the earth beneath, and this
moisture is then absorbed by the lymphatics of the roots of vegetables.
Thirdly, by mixing lime with clays it is believed to make them less
cohesive, and thus to admit of their being more easily penetrated by
vegetable fibres. A mixture of lime with clays destroys their
superabundancy of acid, if such exists, and by uniting with it converts it
into gypsum or alabaster. And lastly, fresh lime destroys worms, snails,
and other insects, with which it happens to come in contact.

Yet do not all these chemical properties seem to account for the great uses
of lime in almost all soils and situations, as it contributes so much to
the melioration of the crops, as well as to their increase in quantity.
Wheat from land well limed is believed by farmers, millers, and bakers, to
be, as they suppose, thinner skinned; that is, it turns out more and better
flour; which I suppose is owing to its containing more starch and less
mucilage. In respect to grass-ground I am informed, that if a spadeful of
lime be thrown on a tussock, which horses or cattle have refused to touch
for years, they will for many succeeding seasons eat it quite close to the
ground.

One property of lime is not perhaps yet well understood, I mean its
producing so much heat, when it is mixed with water; which may be owing to
the elementary fluid of heat consolidated in the lime. It is the steam
occasioned by this heat, when water is sprinkled upon lime, if the water be
not in too great quantity or too cold, which breaks the lime into such fine
powder as almost to become fluid, which cannot be effected perhaps by any
other means, and which I suppose must give great preference to lime in
agriculture, and to the solutions of calcareous earth in water, over chalk
or powdered limestone, when spread upon the land.

4. It was formerly believed that waters replete with calcareous earth, such
as incrust the inside of tea-kettles, or are laid to petrify moss, were
liable to produce or to increase the stone in the bladder. This mistaken
idea has lately been exploded by the improved chemistry, as no calcareous
earth, or a very minute quantity, was found