Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-09-21
NO. 224.
Misttlla,aepns.
The Use OF Lime as 4 Fertfll1eP.

The season is approaching for the prep
aration of the soil for next years seed.
This, and the selection of the kinds best
adapted, are of sufficient importance to
occupy the mind OF the farmer. and TO o
when it is considered that inferior or una
dapted seed will produce. as rule, an In.
ferior crop. Thus to SOW wheat on soil
which contains no lime or marie either
naturally or artifieially-is sure to bring
poor return. A remarkable instance OF
this took place in Ireland after the famine.
1t is fact well known by the more intel
ligent farmers in that country that the ex-
tensiye central plain which occupies the
surface land at the foot OF the mountains
contains no lime or mari, and that dress
ings with these materials We're al stated
times applied when the culture Of wheat
was intended. The product from An aver
age year was twenty barrels per acre
Urisb), Or about sixty bushels to The Eng
lish acre. After the famine, the poverty
and want of heart to do their best by the
land compelled those who remained on
their farms, unsubdued by the famine and
peslilence. TO omit the usual application
of lime to the soil, aud the consequence
was that. instead of twenty barrels per
Irish acre, the yield was from five to seven
barrels, being reduction Of from two
thirds to three-fOurths. sss4 s4tfz3
Another instance occurred in the case
of three farmers from Suffolk, who took
tract Of land of about six hundred ncres
near Sligo, enclosed with wall as . park.
In letter from one of them after they
had been there 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 eighborhood, whilethe
soil contained not a particle Of that mate
rial, and there was none within reasonable
reach of their farms. In such cases IS this
the application of lime is required to be
renewed frequently, because either lime
or mari will sink in almost any soil. es-
pecially light, so that the process Of re-
newing the application of these materials
is very expensive.
There is, however. a drawback to this
favorable account of the effects of the ap-
plication OF lime to the soil, namely: that
it is possible to overtime that it produces
larger crops for a certain number Of years
after which the return falls away until it
becomes less than before the lime was ap-
piled. so that itappears to have exhausted
instead of enriched the soil. In account
ing for this adverse effect of what is adj
mitted on all lands to be benefit. the
chemists state that lime acts on all the Or
ganic parts of the soil, by which it is rem
dered more serviceable to the growth Of
plants. On the other hand. the proportion
of organic matters in the soil gradually di.
minshes under the prolonged action Of
the lime, and thus the soil becomes less
rich in those substances of organic origin
on which its fertility to a certain extent
extent depends. The same effect is pro-
duced on the mineral matter in the soil,
when there is distracted from it more
abundant supply in proportion with its
immediate effect per Sc. Unless, there
fore, an adequate proportion Of those mat
ters are supplied in other manures. the
soil will necessarily become exhausted to
such an extent as to counteract or neutral
ize the action of the lime. The way,
therefore, to prevent this effect. is to ma
nure largely with farm-yard manure and
thus return or repay to the soil whatever
may have been extracted too speedily or
too copiously from it.-Marh Lane Er-
press. st.s5 8 (. Ia IL