The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-04-01

Moreover, there is not a plant or any
part of plant that does not contain
more or less of lime; this is not surpris-
ing, when it is considered that as ami
mails feed upon plants, and the bones of
animals contain more than so per cent
Ill round numbers, of lime, vegetables
must necessarily contain lime; and if
the soil is deficient in it, of course the
plants do not thrive, and cannot, how
ever much of the other needed elements
of plant food the soil may contain. For
if one is deficient, the plants cannot make
use of the others. The lime also must
be soluble, and it is only soluble practi-
cally in a caustic or fresh state, and is
bombed state. For instance, if small
quantity of fresh lime be put in barrel
Of soft rain water, the lime is dissolved,
and the water becomes hard but if a
large piece of marble, which is carbonate
OF lime, be put into the water, the lime
is not dissolved, and the water remains
soft and pure.
Second, lime is not only plant food
OF itself, but it has strong decompos-
ing action upon fresh organic matter in
the soil, and quickly reduces it to con-
dition in which it is available as food for
plants moreover, it aids greatly in what
we call the notification of organic mat
ter; that is, the development of nitric
acid from the heterogeneous organic mat
ter, and the formation of nitrates in the
soil, which can be taken up by plants.
This is the way in which it is supposed
to act as stimulant; but wrongly so. 1t
is rather an exhaustive agent in the soil,
because it rapidly makes soluble and
available organic matter, which would
otherwise remain longer in the soil, and
only become available slowly. Lime is
therefore most valuable addition to a
richly MANFRED soil, or to land that is rich
in vegetable matter, as newly reclaimed
and drained swamps. But caution must
be used to feed such soil well, as-to
use familiar simile-its powers of di-
gestion are very strong indeed, and it
calls for more food in proportion.
Third, lime also eXerts a chemical ac-
ton upon the mineral particles of the
soil, dissolving their silicious surfaces
which hold potash and phosphoric acid,
and freeing these invaluable substances
so that they can be appropriated by the
roots of the crops. This is not an eX
haustive process, because it is eXerted
and, as long any soil remains, this pro-
cess can go on without danger of exhaus-
ton.
Lime is, therefore, useful upon any
soil in which it does not already exist in
in a soluble condition. 1t is more useful
perhaps upon stiff clay soils, because it
loosens and opens them, and makes them
porous and gives admission to the air,
than upon sandy soils. 1t is most useful
upon the feldspathic and micaceous clay
soils, or sandy loans, because these
minerals contain from 10 to Is per cent.
of potash, insoluble without the help of
lime. 1t should also, therefore, be used
in the finest possible state of division,
which is secured by air-slaking, and be
most intimately diffused in the soil, that
its action may be as effective as possible.
Lime is commonly used, where it is a
regular part of the farm manures, as the
fifth course of the usual rotation, when
the out stubble is plowed down for
wheat, the land being MANFRED at the
same time; and when the usual seeding
to clover and grass is done. Thus every
five years the land receives lime, the
quantity being 40 bushels of freshly
burned lime from the kiln. This lime is
drawn upon the field after it is plowed
and manure has been plowed in, with lap
, burrows, and not flat ones, so that the
manure is not buried, but evenly mixed
with the soil. The lime is dropped from
the wagon in small heaps, Of, say one