_The Lime must be spread upon the ground, where no Rain can come to it, till it slake it self by the Air, and fall into a Powder; of this Powder you are to take four hundred weight to one hundred weight of any common foul Salt, which is too impure for the use of the Kitchen, where such may be had, otherwise clean Salt, (for that will be cheaper than Dung) the Salt and Lime are to be well mixed, and then moistened with such a quantity of Water, (or rather Urine where it may be had) as will bring the Lime and Salt mixed, to the Consistency of a stiff Mortar. Of this Mass Balls are to be made about the bigness of ones Fist, and laid under a Shead, or Hovel to dry; being dried, they are to be burnt in a Kiln as Lime is, so that the Balls may be red hot for an hour at least; or where no Lime-Kiln is near, they may be burnt by building a Pile in the Field, first with a Lay of Wood, then a Lay of Balls, then Wood again, and so till all the Balls are placed fit for burning. When the Balls are burnt, they are to be again placed upon a Floor under a Shead, or Hovel, where they may be exposed to the Air, but kept free from the Rain, and if you break them with a Clod-beater presently, the Air will the sooner act upon them, and cause them again to fall into a Powder; which Powder may then be carried out and spread, or rather sowed out of a Seedlet, thicker or thinner as the Land shall require. Provided this be done in the beginning of Summer about the time of Fallow, for that being many Months before the Seed is to be sowed, the fieryness of this rich Compost will be Contemperated by the Air and the Earth, and changed into a Nitrous fatness, which joining it self with the Earth, is again Magnetically attracted by the Seed when it is sown, whose growth it thereby swiftly promoted, and its Multiplication much augmented. But if any should cast this Matter upon his Land soon after it is burnt, and presently after that should sow his Seed, instead of having a greater Crop than he used to have, he would have a less, or perhaps none, that Year, but the next Year, and soon for many Years, the same Land would bring forth plentifully. Therefore it is necessary, that this Matter should lie six or seven Months spread upon a Floor, and now and then turn’d with a Shovel, as you turn Malt, that it may be Contempered, and Animated by the Air; or be cast upon the Land so long before the Seed be sown. The reason is the very same as with Dung, for none takes fresh Dung and spreads it upon his Land when he is about to sow his Seed, for if he should, his Seed would be burnt up; but the Husbandman lets his Dung lie some time to rot, as he calls it, after which he lays it on his Land, and lets it lie spread some time before he Plows it in, and all this is but to Contemper the heat of the Animal Salt contain’d in the Dung, and turn it into a Nitrous Nature. Thus much I thought good to say about this Matter in the plainest words,