by those unacquainted with chemistry is, that the land has become too full of lime; but a moment's consideration of the very small fraction of the soil which even the largest application of lime forms, will serve to shew that this cannot be the cause. Ten tons of lime per acre amounts to only one per cent of the soil, and as a considerable part of the lime is carried off by drainage in the course of years, it is obvious that even very large and frequently repeated doses are not likely to produce any great accumulation of that substance. In point of fact, analyses of overlimed soils have proved that the lime does not exceed the ordinary quantity found in fertile land. The explanation of the phenomenon is probably to be found in the rapid decomposition of organic matter by the lime, and its escape as carbonic acid, by which the soil is left in that curious porous condition so well known in practice. The cure for overliming is found to be the employment of such means as consolidate the soil, such as eating off with sheep, rolling, or laying down to permanent pasture. The immediate effect of lime on the vegetation of the land to which it is applied is very striking. It immediately destroys all sorts of moss, makes a tender herbage spring up, and eradicates a number of weeds. It improves the quantity and quality of most crops, and causes them to arrive more rapidly at maturity. The extent to which it produces these effects is dependent on the form in which it is applied. When the lime is used hot, that is, immediately after it has been slaked, they are produced most rapidly and effectually; but if it has been so long exposed to the air as to absorb much of the carbonic acid it lost in burning, and has got into what is commonly called the mild state, it operates more slowly; and when it is applied as chalk, marl, or pounded limestone, its action is still more tardy. Various circumstances, which must depend upon very different considerations, must necessarily influence the farmer in the selection of one or other of these different forms of lime; but on the whole, it will be found that the greatest advantages are on the side of the well-burned and freshly slaked lime. The consideration of all the minutiae to be attended to, however, would carry us far beyond the limits of this work, and trench to some extent on the subject of practical agriculture.