Middletown transcript., 1897-12-18
AIR SLAkED LIME.
AS Fertilizer--If You Want Grass O
Glover, Use Lime.

4 AS a Fertilizer--If You Want Grass or
Clovcr, Use Lime.
Remarks concerning lime made from
time to time are often misleading to
readers not experienced in the use of
lime as a fertilizer. The term air slaked,
for instance, as used In eontradistino-
tion to hydrate Of lime, is wholly misap-
piled. The following from the pen of q
Country Gentleman correspondent fur
nishes enlightenment on the subject.
He writes:s
The practice among farmers who use
lime more or less every year as the rota-,
tion returns to the wheat and grass or
clover seeding is to bring the lime fresh
from the kiln and take it to the field
where it is to be used and drop it in
suitable heaps at stated distances. Thus.
if 40 bushels to the acre, which is the
ordinary amount used, is to be spread,
the lime is dropped from the wagon in
small heaps two rods apart each way,
which, Of course, gives one bushel to
four rods and 40 to the acre
The lime thus exposed to the dew and
the moisture of the air becomes air
slaked, or, as one correspondent says,
hydrated or caustic lime These terms
are all equivalent, for the lime is SIM
ply air slaked by exposure to the air
which contains sufficient moisture to
reduce the lime to an impalpable pow
der in a short time without in the
least affecting its caustic property. It
is hydrate of lime unquestionably, and
as certainly it is air slaked, which is
quite different. thing from water slak-
ing, which cannot be done for this pur-
pose without very great trouble and in
measure spelling the lime for the use
it is intended for
To slake the lime with water would
make part Of it pasty and the rest
coarse powder. whilo the absorption of
the due proportion Of water, which is
about one-third of its weight, by the
lime brings it into the condition of an
impalpable powder, which is spread
easily by the shovel aided by gentle
wind by which it is carried all over the
land. 1t is not good practice to cover
the lime with damp earth, and as it is
quite unnecessary would be an enor-
nous waste of time and labor. The ex-
clusion of the air from the lime is of no
Importance whatever, for the lime takes
carbonic acid from the air very slowly,
and year or more would. not be sufi-
cient wholly to carbonize pile of ten
bushels of lime and destroy its caustici-
ty when it is in the form of Jumps as
it comes from the kiln. So the exclusion
of the air is quite inmaterial, and the
method above described is found to be
all that is necessary.
The effect of the caustic or air slaked |
lime when produced in the way men
tion is to dissolve the mineral matter
of the soil to some extent, but to much |
larger extent to deconlpose organic mat
ters, and to valuable extent-when it |
is reduced to carbonate by exposure to |
the air in its very fine condition Of di- |
vision-to feed the minute organisms by
which, in the presence of carbonate of |
lime, and not the caustic lime, the inert |
nitrogen of the soil is made available |
The caustic lime would destroy these,
and thus it is that the mild carbonate |
of lime and even the common mari,
which is the decayed remains of minute |
shells, are sometimes found almost as
valuable for the growth of clover and
grass as the caustic air slaked lime is. |
have used some thousands Of bushels of |
lime in my life and for some years
lived in Pennsylvania valley where
nearly every farm had its own limekiln
on it, and there it was the commonest
saying, "If you want grass or clover,
you must use lime. And my expert
ence fully warranted this.