The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-02-03
The Use of Lime as a Fertilizer.

MANY persons in whose good iudg-
ment and sense every one has conf
dence, insist that lime is not plant
food, and is, therefore, useless as fer
tilizer Now plant food is considered
to be anything that, being contained in
plants to large extent, may be APP
piled TO the sol, to contribute to the
supply of it for the crops. When we
see that when such an element of plant
substance is applied to the soil the fol-
lowing crop is greatly helped, we can
hardly agree with the opinion that it is
not food for plants.
If we study the composition of plants,
we find that lime is the most important
part of the mineral elements of neaT,y
every one. The ash of a plant is maze
up of these mineral elements, and, by
examining the aeh, we may discov'
what kinds and quantities of miuer |
matters the plants require And 1t is
10 be remembered that in the growth
of plants every element found IN them
is indisp But how much more
must it be so--il such a thing were
possible, for one element 10 be more
indispensable than aGother-for lime,
l e
to be anything but indispensable?
And this must be tHouehtso ats we con
slider that in the ash of hay one eighth
part is lime; in the ash OF clover more
than third of it is lime; in The ash of
potato-tops nearly one-helf is lime.
The ashes of wood, which we think so
valuable on account of the potash in
them, have several times more lime
than potash, the lime amounting to
from thirty to seventy per cent. And
there is not one plant grown that has
not lime in ashes. The same applies
to potash and phosphoric acid, and,
reasonably, these are supposed to be
food for plants; why, then, is not lime
plant foodp Surely it must be so con-
sidered.
The best farmed localities in the
world are those where the soil contains
large proportion of lime, being de.
rived from the decomposition of lime
stone rocks. But it is not so much on
account of the lime in the soil that the
land is 30 well farmed and 80 produc-
tive, but mostly for the reason that
lime being there abundant and cheap,
| the farmers burn the limestone and
make lime, and apply it to the land.
Lime, only, is a plant food, but lime
stone is not, and the soil may be we'll
filled with limestone and yet be quite
poor. This is common experience.
Now lime is very active chemical sub.
stance. This will be seen if some of it
is put in some vinegar. This will
foam up and boil over the cup, and a
large quantity of gas will be evolved.
In the end there will be no more acid
in the vinegar. And this is one effect
of lime on soil that is sour, such as
swamp land, in which the excess of
acid prevents the growth of any useful
| plants.
| If we put some lime on dead ami
NAL, or on any other organic matter, it
will quickly decompose it and reduce it
| to its original elements, and this is one
effect OF lime when used in a compost,
the matters thus decomposed then be-
coming good manure and useful food
for plants. And this same effect is
produced in the soil when quicklime is
applied, as it usually is in the fall when
the land is prepared for wheat and
grass and clover seeding. But the
chemist may take some sand or other
mineral matter and mix lime with it,
and then add water, and the lime will
dissolve quite considerable quantity
of this mineral matter, forming silcate
of lime; and by taking the silica from
the potash, or the phosphates, or mag
nesia, or the alumina. etc., that the soil
is made up of, the lime renders these
elements of plant food soluble and
available for the crops.
Now this is small part of the nat
ural history of lime, as it is used in
good farming. And, with such a
history, we must realize its value to the
farmer, quite Independently of the fact
whether it is actually plant food or
not. And as this is the season when
the land is in the best condition for the
application of lime, as lime is most
soluble in cold water, and the wheat
crop is most convenient for it, it is
question for all of us if it is not advis-
able to 30 use it, and gather the fruits
of its good effects on the soil. The
freshly-burned lime only is used, and
twenty to forty bushels per acre is the
usual quantity. 1t is left in heaps in
the field, preferably of one bushel each,
two rods apart, and in few days il
falls to fine powder by the action of
the moisture of the air, or a shower of
rain, when it is easily spread quite
evenly-sO as to Just whiten the sur
face-with long-handled shovel. But
when lime is thus used for the wheat,
it is not advisable to use superphos-
phate until the spring. 1t can then be
used to neutrality-suspicious. Agri-