The Evening standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1910-1913, 1910-08-20
Beneficial and Injurious Effects Of Lime

~ THE different essential plant foods
limo is az important any for plants
~ cannot thrive without 1t, and yet its
real character and benefits (and Injuries un-
der some condltions) arc not we'll understood.
The commercial fertilizer agents have laudcd
nitrogen. potash and phosphorlc acid and
have said but little If anything. about limo.
which ls equally essential
On one hand the enthusiasts that are sat-
isflcd with riding hobbies take up one thing
end praise II With eXtrnvagant epthets. for
getting that IL is only one OF the many Gle
mcnts needed In making plants grow To per-
fec;ion. Some have taken UP lime and sung
its praises to such an extent that people who
have just conception Of its Importance look
on with disgust. Others. after having expert
merted with lime on n small scale. have been
disappointed. as they did not know how and
where to use II, have condemned il unre-
scrvcdly as worthless as food soil
rector
Lime contains calcium. OF tho primal
clements that arc essential In plant and ami
NAL growth. II Is found In lava rock that
has been bclchcd forth from the interior Of
the earth where external Influences have
acted upon It. Lime is found in feldspar tho
most universal OF the silicntes OF the struc-
ture rocks found on the surface OF the earth
in America there three layers, show ing
that the surface has been submerged be-
meath tho ocean three times and that the
limestone forced at the bed OF the ocean has
each time made up strata.
II we look down in the abyss of natural
life we will see that water is common
carrier of plant and animal foods; that plant
and animal forms have drank water charged
with lime and lived their cycle of time and
perished and become dsinteGratcd and been
taken up by subsequent life forms Tho
anlmalculac that has made the chalk beds
arc an example. The accumulation of llfo
forms the crustaceans that carry the COM
binntion of lime and oxygen in their shells.
tho vertebrntes that have bones which arc
made OF lime and Oxygen make up the mass
that form the phosphate rock that arc the
grayeyards of prehistoric ages. This phos-
phato rock is the source from which phos-
phoric acid can be made: that contains phos-
phorus. one of the essential plant foods that
aids the plant at several stages OF It's growth
and in maturing seeds.
If VIC dry plants and burn them VIC have
in the ashes what Is called the metallic Gle
ments that arc essential TO plant forma-
tlon and among those elements find lime
in the lead In many cases there are several
times az much lime as potash. One author
jty Oh. II Dow says he has found ten times
as much limo as potash in tho ash OF plants.
This must have been unusual case.
II We put in thirteen small pots Gas there
nre thirteen elements called plant food) sand
that contains moisture in which there Is no
trace OF plant food and put in each pot all
the essential elements but one, leaving out
one from each pot In regular order. and then
plant some seeds and watch results. we would
see which are essential and which are not.
We would find that the plants would
thrive without soda, chlorine and silica, but
would not thrive without nitrogen. hydrogen.