The Syracuse and Lake Wawasee Journal, Volume 15, Number 19, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 7 September 1922 — Page 6

DOES YOUR SOIL NEED LIME The practice of applying lime to the soil, altho very old, has only within the last few years received a large measure of attention. In European farming districts and in England the use of marl, chalk and shells has been common for many decades. The introduction of commercial fertilizers with their ability to supply all plant food necessary caused a diversion from the use of lime. However, recent data has borne out the fact that lime must accompany commercial and natural fertilizers to make them available for plants to use. The benefits and effects of lime on the soil are numerous. The most noticed effect and the one which overshadows all others in importance is that of neutralizing acid materials in the soil. Acid conditions and indications of same are common to all of us. Laboratory tests are made free of charge at our state ex-* periment station or simple tests with litmus paper may be made at home. There are many conditions producing acidity in soils. Soil becomes more acid with leaching. On the whole, the alkaline forming elements produce soluble compounds, which in turn leave the soil and renders an acid condition. Fresh decaying organic matter is usually acid in reaction. This is shown through the action that takes place when corn silage is formed or apples decay. The removal of crops causes soil acidity. How rnafiy tons of lime has been removed from your farm? Clivers and alfalfa removes 75 to 100 pounds per acre per year. Fertilizers will leave an acid residue, potash and sulphate of ammonia render sulphuric and muratic acid in the soil. Other effects and benefits of lime are of great importance. Raw organic matter, leaves roots and straw that find their way into the soil, are of very little value in that form. It must undergo decay, which is carried about by bacteria and fungi in the soil; these benefical organisms survive only in a soil that is sweet and has lime. This combined action of organic matter and lime renders the soil to a friable condition bringing about a granular and porous texture. Lime is of value as a factor in soil sanitation. There are cases where lime has increased crop yields where no acid reaction existed. The increase was accounted for, by destroying toxic action of aluminum salts, or regulating the growth of disease producing bacteria. Lime assists in bringing about and correcting many of the above conditions. It is only a soil amendment and not a fertilizer. Desirable chemical reactions and physical conditions take place only where lime is present in some form or another. It is generally conceded by all that our Indiana soils are extremely acid. Look about our county and townships and decide for yourself that the successful crop growers have used lime in some form or another. Many alfalfa fields are yellow here at the time of the third cutting but note the fields on the farm of Mr. Graff, Mr. Grady and Mr. Green. Lime in connection with organic matter, commercial fertilizer makes plant food available, soil in friable condition, plus organic matter, means greater moisture content. As a result the above mentioned men are able to cut a good crop at this time of the year. Lime is generally used in the farm of ground limestone or hydrated lime. There is, however, a natural source now available in the northern half of this state and the southern half of Michigan. Marl is found in nearly every lake in this county. There are countless numbers of deposits in marshes. Why not develope our natural resources? It is well to compare the value of this product with that of ground limestone. In a special bulletin published by the Michigan Experiment Station in 1918 following data is available, “Marl testing 85 percent to 95 percent, air dried weights 2375 lbs. per cubic yard. The lime carbonate varied from 1500 to 1800 lbs. per cubic yard.” This would seem to verify that marl was somewhat near equivalent to a ton of limestone testing the same percent. Data taken from Table 11, page 9, bulletin No. 91, sh6ws yields reported on experimental plats with grain crops. “Marl, acid phosphate and nitrate soda, yielded 18.40 bushels rye, equal I

i amounts of ground limestone, ! acid phosphate and nitrate of soda produced 18.36 bushels. No treatment 12.00 bushels per 1 acre." Pure marl attains a great degree of fineness and consequently is readily soluble. .This product, taken from the bed or deposit, compares approximately equal to 80 mesh limestone. As compared to limestone in price, one must consider location from the deposit. Limestone at present will cost one dollar at the mine, plus freight, while marl in many cases can be purchased for less than SI.OO per cubic yard without freight and near your farm. If your farm needs lime why not develope your own marl deposit or help your neighbor? o S3OO TO TRAVEL BY AIR Trips from London to India by air in three days, at a cost of ”S3OO first class and $l7O second class, may soon be offered British travelers. A number of large technical corporations have made a proposal to the government to run a mail and passenger service from London to Bombay. The airship would have a capacity of 5,000,000 cubic feet and would be capable of flying at 80 miles an hour with 200 passengers. The proposal has been put forward in order to develop the communications of the British Empire* in speed and cheapness, and thereby assist the development of trade. No promotion nrofits would be taken by any narty and all the promoters ask is a subsidy from the government sufficient to pay the public investor a dividend of four and one-half per cent, 4,000 MILES OF HIGHWAY With approximately 4,000 miles of state highway under its control, and about $9,000,000 to spend in construction and maintenance this year, the Indiana state highway commission is carrying a heavy responsibility. There are over 357,000 automobile owners and over 43,000 truck owners in Indiana who are interested in seeing good roads built and maintained everywhere. There are many manufacturers of road materials anxious to sell to the state. And there are about 200,000 farmers who recognize the need of good roads in their business, and yet who are hard-pressed to find the tax * money that must meqt their good-roads bill. These are some of the interests that the highway commission must consider. — o THE LARGEST FLAG What is probably the largest American Flag in continuous use hangs in the court of the Post Office Department Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington. The Flag, suspended from the level of the eighth floor, reaches down to the third. It would make a good, hefty load to carry around, since it weighs ninety pounds. Accurate measurements of the banner show it to have a fly of 70 feet 4 inches; hoist, 37 feet; field, 20 feet by 28 feet. The stars are 30 inches between the tips and the strips are a yard wide. It is literally as big as a house,» since. a comfortable, sixroom bungalow could be built on the space it would cover. o Subscribe for the Journal.

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AID MARTHA WASHINGTON GAVE “HER” SOLDIERS Martha Danbridge was born on a plantation in Virginia in 1732. When very young she learned to play the spinet, to dance gracefully and to sew remarkably well. How surprised she would have been when she made her debut into society when fifteen years of age, if some one had told-her She was only a little girl, *Wearing a tight basque and flowered petticoat then. But she was to be the only woman to hear the first and last shot of every campaign of the Revolutionary war. Martha Danbridge was married to Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy land owner, twenty years her senior, when she was eighteen years of age. Seven years later he died, leaving her with two children and a great fortune. It was in 1759 that she met ana married Col. George Washington. The Washingtons were living a quiet life in Mt. Vernon when the Revolutionary war broke out and Mr. Washington was called away, as commander-in-chief of the army. It was then that the wife of the “little colonel” indicated her true self and surprised the world with her courage and bravery. When Washington notified his wife that he would have to remain in Cambridge, in 1774, his wife realized that she might be of great help if she could go with him. But Cambridge was held by the enemy, and Washington’s camp was just outside the city. The trip would be most dangerous. Friends tried to discourage the determined Mrs. Washington but she left thg quiet plantation and traveled to the war zone to be near her husband if he needed her. Finally the dreadful winter at Valley Forge came, and Martha Washington was still standing by her soldier husband. With her little cape and hood on, she waded through the snow, defying death from cold or pneumonia, while carrying aid to the suffering and offering consolation to the dying. Pleadings were in vain. Martha Washington would not forsake what she thought was her post of duty, She wrote letters for the soldiers, read to them, sewed for them—in fact, there was no little service which she did not endeavor to render “her” boys. They soon grew to love her, and called her “Lady Washington,” The men were without shoes and half starving. Martha Washington suffered with them. The inspiration of her presence helped the suffering men through the long winter. Washington might have given up in despair, and the victory might not have been won if Mrs. Washington had not been there with her courageous smile. Then' came victory in 1781. Shortly after Mr. and Mrs. Washington returned to their home at Mt. Vernon he was elected President of the United States. After serving two terms he returned home with his wife But happiness was not to last long. Two years later the brave commander-in-chief passed away. Martha Washington, who had been his inspiration during their forty years of married life, followed him two years later. She was laid by his side in Mt. Vernon, in a simple brick tomb. .■ - •

SYRACUSE AND LAKE WAWASEE JOURNAL

■ INTERESTING FACTS j Waters in the vicinity of the Panama canal zone are thickly infested with sharks. Many wild flowers are harmful to eat, while some are really poisonous, such as the buttercup. In Australia there are ants which build their nests along a north and south line so accurately that a traveler may direct his course by their aid. Flats have been built privately in a California town in which no single person is allowed, and where married couples with no children must pay double rent. The word “garage” though now used exclusively to designate a building or part of a buildng used to house a motor vehicle, was originally a French word denoting a place for keeping boats, railroad engines,, cars, etc. It is said that there was a census system in Babylonia before 3800 B. C. in connection with a complete system of fiscal control. There are at the British Museum some of the returns of later censuses in Babylonia in the form of a part of 30,000 tablets dated about 2500 to 2300 B. C. The heart of the common oak, it is said, begins to rot at the ige of 300 years, so even when an oak is undisturbed it rarely lives much beyond 500 years. A larch may live 275 years, a silver fir 425, and a pine over 500 years. The yew has a remarkable power of resisting time’s ravages, and may survive for 1000 years or more. Silver coins are notched on the edges because the people used to

PUBLI£IALE We print sale bills—the kind that brings the crowd—-on short notice. TRY US FIRST. 9 5 SYRACUSE JOURNAL 'W• f -

file off a little from each gold and silver coin that passed through their hands. Coins often lost a quarter of their weight within a few months of issue. Milled edges were introduced to discourage such evil-doers. Mill(ing also aids in distinguishing coins by touch. The Japanese have developed the artificial pearl industry to such an extent that over-produc-tion is feared. Their success in inducing oysters to make pearls by the thousands threatens to upset the market. And yet the Japanese want high prices for their artificial pearls, but there is no telling what they may be when the product becomes common. It is now possible to send a crewless vessel as far as radio impulses will carry. The same means can be used in sending a giant torpedo against a foe, regardless of how far distant the enemy might be, provided he is within the reach of radio. In vessels the device is attached to the fuel engine, the water engines and the steering mechanism, making it possible to guide, fuel and water by radio. The sea is salt because salt is a mineral which prevails largely in the earth, and which being soluble in water is taken up by the ocean. All lakes and rivers hold some degree of saline matter, which they contribute to the ocean. When the sun evaporates the water in the sea, the salt is left behind. The vapor forms clouds and falls again as rain. The rain washes the earth, and carries more saline minerals to the ocean. In this way the ocean has become far more salty than lakes and rivers, Few persons realize the effort required to make a pound of

honey. In a pound jar, it is said, there is the concentrated essence of about 60,000 flowers. To make : a pound of clover honey, bees i take nectar from about 62,000 blossoms and make approximately 2,700,000 visits in getting it. Often the journey from the hive to the flower and back is as much as two miles, so journeys that may aggregate more than 5,000,000 miles are required. The bee is indeed “busy.” I The name Aurora Polaris as applied to certain remarkable luminous phenomena that are seen in the night sky from high and moderate latitudes in both [ hemispheres of the earth.. When seen in the northern hemisphere the phenomenon is called “aurora borealis,” or northern lights; when in the southern hemisphere, “aurora australis.” The aurora borealis is seen most frequently, not in the midst of the Arctic regions, but in Labrador and the region of Hudson’s bay. It is often visible in New England and the northern part of the United States generally, but seldom as far south as the Carolinas, Whatever the ill deeds of the living shark may be, dead it is to be reckoned with our friends. The head of a shark is full of glue of a highly valuable quality. As a fertilizer it is superior to dogfish. In the shark carcass there is only 2 percent oil, while in the dogfish oil is so plentiful that it takes an expensive chemical process to separate it from the body. The fins are much prized by the Orientals as a food delicacy. The liver contents run from 60 to 70 percept of finest oil, of which about 10 percent is glycerine. The teeth are in demand, and fetch a high price when made into ornaments. To leather manufacturers and boot makers the hide of the shark is valuable. Shark hides range

from perhaps an inch in thickness in the older fish to the consistency of paper in the baby shark. o EMULSIFIED ASPHALT (Special to The Journal) Indianapolis, Sept. 4. —For the first time in its history the State Highway Commission is testing a section of emulsified asphalt pavement on one of the principal State highways. In the event that it holds up in the manner many claim it will, there is much likelihood that emulsified asphalt will be considered in future pav- . ing projects contemplated by the State Highway Commission, John D. William, director, says. The section in question is 2.9 miles on State Road No. 22, the Indianapolis, Martinsville and Bedford route. It is in Marion county between Valley Mills and West Newton, and as this is an important road in the State road system, will necessarily be subjected to heavy traffic. The emulsified asphalt is spread over a width of 16 feet, and there is a two-foot stone shoulder on either side giving a 20-foot roadway. Specifications called for two inches of asphalt surface, but the contractor, The Emulsified Asphalt Company of this city, was exceedingly cooperative with the commission and in places spread the asphalt to a depth of six inches in order to make a perfect grade. One mile of the asphalt is laid on gravel, and the remainder is on stone. The road cost approximately $29,000 and was opened to traffic last week. FISHER & MILLER Auctioneers We have made a success of the New Paris sales and we can do it with yours. Write, phone or call us at New Paris.