t is that you wish to discover whether it harmonizes with
your preconceived notions or not.

* * * * *

LOW MOOR, _1st May_, 1845.

HENRY BRIGGS, ESQ.

I duly received your pamphlet on the use of lime, for which I am
much obliged, and am delighted to perceive that you confirm the
idea (expressed in my pamphlet on the growth of wheat every year
on the same land) that the excessive use of lime is ultimately
injurious to the fertility of the soil to which it is applied.
This, coming from a gentleman of your reputation and experience,
will, I hope, induce someone capable of performing the experiment
to endeavour to ascertain with precision how much lime it is
desirable to apply to an acre to give the best results, and with
the least waste, assuming that the land contained little or none
previous to the experiment; and it would also be desirable to
ascertain whether it is better, in an economical point of view, to
apply a small quantity every year, or a larger quantity every
third or fourth. My own opinion is in favour of the former method,
except that it is difficult to get it ploughed in, particularly in
wet weather, immediately after spreading (which is essential where
you grow wheat on the same land every year) without injuring the
feet of the horses. You speak of ten days or a fortnight being
necessary to neutralize caustic lime, but our horses had their
feet injured by it six weeks after it had been spread on the land,
last year, although the weather had been wet almost the whole of
the time, say from the beginning of February to the middle of
March. You appear to think that lime will replace silica in the
wheat plant. Whose authority have you for this? It will be very
important to establish this supposition, but I fear it is too good
news to be true. On referring to your letter, I find you don't say
what I supposed you did, but that the lime liberates the soluble
silicates, potash, &c. This may be, and certainly the beneficial
effects of lime in growing wheat are not to be explained by any
other hypothesis with which I am acquainted. I am this year trying
some experiments to ascertain (if I can) the cause of clover-
sickness, and I hope to be in a position to say whether your
supposition that lime, gypsum, &c. will prevent it, is correct. My
experiments so far are opposed to this theory, but it is not very
safe or philosophical to draw conclusions from one or two
experiments only. I doubt the possibility of mak