Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-08-27
The Use of Lime as Fertilizer,

The season is fast approaching for the
preparation of the soil for next years seed.
This and the selection Of the kinds best
adapted are of sufficient importance to occu-
by the mind of the farmer, and to q greater
extent than is occasionally given, when il is
considered that inferior or unadapted seed
will produce, as rule, an inferior crop.
Thus, to SOW wheat on soil which contains
no lime or marl--either naturally or artifc-
ially-is sure to bring poor return. A re-
markable instance of this took place in Ire
land after the famine. 1t is q fact well
known by the more intelligent farmers in the
country that the extensive central plain which
occupies the surface land at the foot of the
mountains contains no lime or mari, and that
dressings with these materials were at stated
times applied when the Culture of wheat was
intended. The product from an average
year was twenty barrels per acre, (Irish), or
about sixty bushels to the English acre.
After the famine the poverty and want of
heart to do their best by the land compelled
those who remained on their farms, uusub-
dued by the famine and pestileuce, to omit
the usual application Of lime to the soil, and
the consequence was that, instead of twenty
barrels per Irish acre, the yield was from
five to seven barrels, being a reduction Of
from two.thirds to three fourths. Another
instance occurred in the case of three farm
ers from Suffolk, who took a tract of
land of about 600 acres near Sligo, inclosed
with wall as a park. In letter from one Of
them after they had been there a few years,
he stated that they were about to abandon
their hOrlings, as the land would not grow
wheat for want of lime, of which there was
none to be obtained in the neighborhood,
while the soil contained not particle of that
material, and there was none within reason.
able reach of their farms. In such cases as
this the application of lime required to be
renewed frequently, because either lime or
mari will sink in almost any soil, especially
light, so that the process of renewing the ap-
plication of these materials is very expensive.
There is, however, a drawback to this
favorable account of the effects of the appli-
cation of lime to the soil-namely, that it is
possible to overtime; that it produces larger
crops for certain number of years, after
which the return falls away, until it becomes
less than before the lime was applied, SO
that it appears to have exhausted instead of
cnrching the soil. Iu accounting for this ad-
verse effect Of what is admitted on all hands
to be benefit, the chemists state that lime
acts on all the organic parts of the soil, by
which it is rendered more servceable to the
growth Of plants On the other hand, the
proportion of organic matter in the soil grad
ualy diminishes under the prolonged action of
the lime, and thus tina soil becomes less rich
in those substances of organic origin on
which its fertility to certain extent de-
ponds. The same effect is produced on the
mineral matter in the soil, when there is alb
stracted from it more abundant supply in
proportion with its immediate effect per Sc.
Unless, therefore, au adequate proportion of
those matters are supplied in other manures,
the soil will necessarily become exhausted
to such an extent as to counteract or neu-
tralize the action of the lime. The way,
therefore, to prevent this effect is to manure
largely with farm yard manure and saline
substances. and thus return or repay to the
soil whatever may have been extracted too
speedily or too copiously from it.
Mark Lane Express.