The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-09-10
LIME AS FERTILIZER
HOW TO USE 1T FOR REAL SOIL
IMPROVEMENT
Best Manner of Preparation and Applica-
tion-when to Apply-Anount to Acre.
Valuable as Means of forming Glover
Sod-yarious Forms of Lime.

The current issue of Farm and Fire.
side contains the following instructive
article about the use of lime as a fertil-
izer, written by one of its regular con-
l.tributors:
| "Interest in the use of lime on land
! has become so great in the last few
years, as indicated by the great in
crease in sale. of prepared lime and by
inquiries from readers of farm papers,
that it may be wise to restate as briefly
as possible what are believed to be the
| facts about the correct use of lime for
/ soil Improvement. A number of big
lime manufacturers are now selling
their product to farmers on an extern
sive scale, and the profitable use of
this material depends upon the intelll-
gence of the buyers.
ain this country we have large lime
stone sections where the stone may be
burned on the farm by its owners, and
in such sections some land has been in
jured by its free use. Lime is one of
the elements that are required in the
growth of plants; but most soils have it
in abundance as plant food, and the
benefits derived for a time from the
excessive applications of lime burned
by the farmer were due to the stimu-
latIng effect upon the land. 1t was
used just as it were manure, and
temporary soil exhaustion resulted
The modern use of lime, of which more
is now being said, is entirely distinct
from the older and lavish use that
brought it into disrepute i'll some lime
stone regions. do not assert that a
heavy application of lime to a stiff
limestone soil may not be advisable in
some instances to improve physical
conditions Of the soil, but our interest
is IN an entirely different use of the
material. There is an immense area of
land, constantly increasing in size, that
does not grow good sods of clover and
timothy, and much of this land when
tested for acid shows that it contains
free acid that is harmful to most plants.
Anything that will make heavy
clover sod for blowing down is a bene-
fit to the soil, and we are learninglt that
a very light application of lime will do
this for much land.
Ground Limo
"The old way of using lime WAS to
haul it to the field, slake it in piles and
spread it with shovel. 1t cost little,
and was used in harmful quantities.
Such liberal use is out of the question
for land remote from supplies, and also
is entirely undesirable; but when it
comes to using a small quantity to the
acre, with the old method of distribut-
ing it, there were difficulties. Years
ago / saked it, then scattered it by
hand, which was hard task. Then l
tried fertilizer grain drill, but the
slaked lime was too fioury to feed we'll,
and as it had doubled in volume by
shaking, there was a. difficulty in get
ting few hundred pounds to the acre
Finally the lime burners came to our
rescue, equipping themselves for grind
ing the stone lime, and then bagging
and shipping 1t to us so that We could
run it through the drill bsfore.it slaked.
This ground lime is more granular
! than the slaked, less bulky and more
effective, pound for pound.n One would
su oppose that the ground lllme would
slake, and burst the bsgs before it
could be used, and in wet season this
may occur, especially if a pure lime
stone is used for burningy Many burn
ers, however, use a magnetism lime
stone that slakes less readily, and such
lime gives good results. Ground lime,
however, closely bagged, is not attacked
readily by the moisture in the air.
Amount to the Acre
nThe amount to the acre that should
be used depends upon the soil. have
had marked results from one-fourth of
ton, but believe that 1000 pounds to
the acre should be used by anyone test
ing it-for his SOIL 1t can be bought at
the factory for from $3.50 to 81 ton,
aud the addresses of manufacturers
may be found in the advertising col
unns OF The farm papers.