Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1911 — LIME ON THE FARM. [ARTICLE]

LIME ON THE FARM.

B««t Way to Test It Is to Try It on Small Patch. Lime seems to be needed on parts of most farms. It corrects sourness, mellows heavy soils, helps light soils to retain moisture, favors the growth of clover and alfalfa and checks the increase of some plant diseases. The most certain way, according to Professor Brooks of the Massachusetts experiment station, to find out whether lime will help the soil is to try it r a small plot in a field to be tested. Apply twenty pounds of fresh selected lime to two square rods. Beets are a good test crop, as they grow better upon a limed plot If the soil needed lime. An average of about one ton- of lime to an acre will usually be enough. It can be used at any season when the land is not occupied by crops and when It can be plowed. It may be planted broadcast and worked into the soil with a harrow.

Professor Brooks has been looking up various sources of lime in New England markets, and be finds that it varies considerably in cost and desirability. Quicklime is really the cheapest form, because when buying it the purchaser does not have to pay for water that is taken up when slaking lime. One hundred pounds of quicklime contains as much essential lime as 132 pounds of slaked lime, thirty-two pounds being moisture from the air, and it contains as much as 178 pounds of raw limestone. > Lime can be slaked in small heaps by applying just water enough to wet the lumps, using .about two pailfuls of water to 100 pounds of lime. After a few days it will have crumbled to a powder. Most farmers slake the lime before applying, as the unslaked lime is very disagreeable to use, even with a manure spreader protected with burlap. Finely ground limestone or marl works well on light soils, but ground limestone costs more for the results obtained as compared with quicklime. Sometimes refuse lime from tanneries is a very cheap source of lime, and it can usually be had for the hauling.