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Lime. The use of lime in agriculture antedates the Christian era. In modern times it has been an indispensable adjunct to potassic, phosphatic, and nitrogenous manures in restoring and maintaining the fertility of immense areas of soil derived from sandstone, granite, mica schist and certain shales and slates. Even limestone soils sometimes become so lacking in lime near the surface that they stand in great need of its application.
Without the use of lime, the wonderful transformation of Limousin in France, the sandy regions of Germany, and particularly the reclamation of the sour peat (Hoch-moor) soils of northern Germany would have been difficult or impossible. Its great value has also long been known in Scotland.
It is now recognized that lime is greatly lacking in parts of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and in many of the southern and western states.
The chief function of lime is to correct the chemical reaction of acid soils.
The necessity of lime as a direct plant-food for the higher orders of plants has been indisputedly demonstrated and its physiological role is of the greatest significance.
Lime is of indirect service in various ways: (1) It aids in transforming the nitrogen of organic matter and ammonium salts into nitric acid, which, in combination with potash, soda, lime, and magnesia, furnishes most plants the major portion of their nitrogen. (2) It serves as an indirect food by transforming or setting free other soil ingredients which plants require. (3) It appears probable that liming favors symbiosis and the consequent assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen in the case of clovers, alfalfa and certain other legumes, while it may have an opposite effect upon others, among which may be mentioned serradella and certain lupines. (4) Lime attacks certain more or less inert combinations of potash and of phosphoric acid which exist in soils, thereby rendering their manurial constituents more readily assimilable. (5) Noxious iron compounds in soils are so acted upon by lime as to overcome their poisonous tendency. (6)- The presence in soils of carbonate of lime and of silicates highly charged with lime prevents the formation of "sour humus and toxic aluminum compounds, and hence injury to a large class of agricultural plants. (7) Liming makes clays more friable and sandy soils more compact, thus improving the texture of each. By the flocculation of the small particles of the former, water passes into them more readily and the danger of serious washing is thus diminished. (8) Soluble phosphates are less liable to be lost or changed into unassimilable forms in soils containing lime. (9) Lime lessens the danger of the destruction of nitrates, especially in soils which are in bad physical condition.
Large quantities of lime should not be employed on sandy soils in a single application, although there is less danger in using ground limestone than in the employment of either burned or slaked lime.
The repeated use of highly magnesian lime is fraught with possible danger, although if applied only occasionally in the place of ordinary lime the magnesia may sometimes prove highly beneficial.
The use of lime, whether in wood-ashes, burned lime, slaked lime, ground limestone, or combined with organic acids, increases the tendency to alkalinity of the soil, and hence makes it more favorable to the development of at least the common potato-scab, provided the fungus, which is the direct cause of the disease, is already in the soil or is introduced into it on the "seed" tubers.
The "root-rot" of tobacco, chlorosis of pineapples and the "dry spot" of oats may be promoted by excessive liming.
The disease which develops upon turnips and upon certain other plants, known as "club-foot," or "club- root" and "finger-and-toe," is lessened to a marked degree by large applications of lime. For this purpose burned and slaked lime are the most efficient forms to apply.
Slaked lime is usually applied to land, for ordinary purposes, at rates ranging from half a ton to two and a half tons to the acre, and at intervals of four to six years. Slaked lime usually contains 65 to 70 per cent of lime and magnesia; burned lime before slaking contains 90 to 98 per cent of lime and magnesia, whereas ground limestone and high grade marl contain from 48 to 52 per cent. The quantities of each of these forms to employ should be varied in accordance with their analysis, bearing in mind, however, that it is usually safer on light soils to make the applications of burned and slaked lime relatively smaller than those of ground limestone and marl. On all light, sandy, and gravelly loams which are likely to become dry, ground limestone or marl should always be used if possible, but for flocculating heavy clay soils, burned or slaked lime is usually more quickly effective.
Lime should be thoroughly worked into the surface soil after plowing. Slaked lime can be applied with much greater safety on sandy soils if it is first composted with vegetable matter. Its beneficial effects in connection with composting have long been known. If lime is mixed with layers of loam, weeds, muck, coarse stable manure and other vegetable and animal matter, it forms in a few months, if kept moist, an excellent material for the use of gardeners. If worked over a few times, at intervals, the fermentation is materially hastened. The introduction of a little common salt or of muriate of potash facilitates the process by virtue of the formation of carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash. In order to prevent the loss of ammonia, compost heaps should be kept covered with a layer of moist earth.
The influence of lime on plant growth is often astounding. Lettuce, spinach, beets, onions, musk- melons, asparagus, clovers, timothy, Kentucky blue- grass and certain poppies are almost failures on very acid soils until lime is applied. Watermelons, lupines, serradela, cranberries, rhododendrons, azaleas and other plants might be cited, some of which are known to be indifferent, injured, or even ruined by heavy applications of lime. Their natural home is on a sour soil. The Early Richmond and Black Tartarian cherries are both helped by liming. The Delaware grape seems to be helped by liming in a greater degree than the Concord. The Blackcap raspberry does not respond to liming on a very acid soil whereas the Cuthbert, a red variety, responds favorably to the treatment. The quince is more in need of lime on an acid soil than the apple, pear, or peach. The American linden and American elm are helped by lime on acid soils whereas the white birch may show utter indifference to it. The success of the beech on the limestone soils of Europe indicates its natural home. Chestnut trees are said not to thrive well on limestone soils, and the heavy liming of certain spruces and pines is often injurious, although it is reported from France that the light liming of certain soils which were presumably exceedingly acid has sometimes been found helpful. Gooseberries and currants are often helped by liming on soils where liming is detrimental, or of little or no aid, to the strawberry.
The state of Rhode Island owes its fame as the home of the Rhode Island bent to the fact that this grass can persist on very acid soils whereas many other grasses fail. On such soils there is but little likelihood that the common poppy will ever become a pernicious weed as it has in many of the wheat-fields of Europe. Such soils are, however, the natural home of the common sorrel. Among the cereals, Indian corn and rye are best adapted to acid soils, and these are followed in turn by oats, wheat, and barley.
The following table compiled from the results obtained at the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station shows, numerically, some of the striking contrasts between different kinds of plants as concerns their response to liming.
Name of plant Very acid soil Moderately acid soil
Unlimed Limed Unlimed Limed
Flowering plants
Galega officinalis,Goat’s Rue………………………………Height, inches 10.0 39.0 22.0 50.0
Salvia splendens, Scarlet Sage……………………………Height, inches 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0
Silene orientalis, Catchfly……………………………………Height inches 30.0 25.0 30.0 24.0
Lathyrus odoratus, Sweet Pea………………………….Number of blooms 780.0 3,433.0 2,777.0 3,591.0
Trees.
Elm,American……………………… Average gain in diameter in four years 2.1 2.6 2.6 3.0
Peach, Early Crawford…Average gain in diameter in four years 2.7 3.1 3.0 2.8
Plum,Burbank,Japanese…Average gain in diameter in four years 1.1 1.6 1.6 1.9
Spruce, Norway……………………Average gain in diameter in four years 1.5 1.1 1.7 1.4
Small fruits
Blackberry, Snyder…………………………………………………………………Pounds of fruit 30.2 52.1 30.2 17.5
Currant, Prolific……………………………………………………………………Pounds of fruit 1.3 5.2 2.5 8.5
Cranberry, American Bell…………………………………………………Pounds of fruit 1.7 0.3 1.5 0.3
Raspberry Blackcap…………………………………………………………………Pounds of fruit 5.1 3.2 7.0 2.9
Raspberry, Cuthbert…………………………………………………………….Pounds of fruit 6.0 12.8 7.0 8.8
Vegetables
Asparagus…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…Pounds 0.0 9.2 2.1 14.3
Beet, Eclipse Table………………………………………………………………………………………Pounds 0.2 164.2 70.1 196.0
Lettuce, Butterhead………………………………………………………………………………………Pounds 0.02 44.4 5.3 50.8
Cantaloupe, Netter Gem……………………………………………………………………… Pounds 0.0 88.8 30.8 116.0
Watermelon, Phinney………………………………………………………………………………………Pounds 223.8 166.3 364.1 230.5
Onion, Large Red Wethersfield……………………………………………………………Pounds 0.3 41.5 24.0 44.3
It is of interest to note the poorer result with Silene orientalis where the soil was made more nearly neutral or alkaline, and the almost fatal effect of liming on the cranberry vines. This result should be compared with that with the sweet peas and beans. H. J. Wheeler.
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