If the tenant neglected to reclaim the land the Code enacted that he must hand it over in good tilth and fixed a statutory rent.
During this period, until the plants begin to ripen, the tilth is maintained and weeds checked first by horse cultivators or horsehoes, and, as the plants increase in size, by hand labour.
Every effort should be made to prepare a good mealy tilth by suitable ploughing, harrowing and consolidation.
It tends to improve the tilth and the capillarity of the soil by binding sands together somewhat and by opening up clays.
It is this power of creating a more crumbly tilth on stiff clays that makes lime so valuable to the farmer.