Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-04-13
L HE I'll Err AID.
The Use of Lime as a Fertilizer.


The season is 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 occupy the mind OF the
farmer, and to greater extent than
is occasionally given, when it is con-
sidered that inferior or unadapted
seed viii produce, as rule, an infer
Tor crop. Thus to sow wheat on a
soil which contains no lime or MARI
either naturally or artiticially-is sure
to bring a poor return. A remarka-
bic instance of this took place in Ire
land after the famine. 1t is fact
we'll known by the more intelligent
farmers in that country that the ex-
tensive central plain which occupies
the surface land at the foot of the
mountains contains no lime or mari,
and that dressing with these mater
ials were at stated times applied when
the culture Of wheat was intended
The product from an average year
| was 20 barrels per acre CIrish), or
about go bushels to an English acre.
After the famine, the poverty and
want of heart to do their best by the
the land compelled those who remain
| ed on their farms, unsubdned by the
famine and pestilence. to omit the
usual application of lime to the soil,
| and the consequence was that, instead
Of wenty 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 a case of three farmers
from Suffolk, who took tract of
land of about six hundred acres near
Sligo, enclosed with a 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 holdings, 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 reasonable reach of their
farms. In such cases as this the APP
plication of lime is required to be
renewed, frequently, because either
lime or mari will sink in almost any
soil, especially light, so that the pro-
cess or renewing the application OF
these materials is very expensive
There is, however, drawback to
this favorable account of the effects OF
the application of lime to the soil,
namely that it is possible to over
lime that it produces large 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 enriched
the soil. In accounting for this adj
verse effect of what is admitted on
all hands to be a benefit, the chemists
state that lime acts on all the organic
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 diminishes 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 de-
ponds. The same effect is produced
on the mineral matter in the soil,
when there is distracted from it a
more abundant supply in proportion
with its immediate effect per Sc. Tn
less, therefore, an adequate proper
ton of those matters are supplied in
other manures, the soil will mecessa-
rily become exhausted to such an ex-
tent as TO counterfeit or neutraliZe the
action of the lime. The way, there
fore, to prevent this effect, is to ma
nure largely with barn-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.