THE LOSS OF LIME

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3248, 19 January 1926, Page 5

THE LOSS OF LIME

No soil can produce healthy and abundant crops unless it contains an adequate supply of Ilrae, and therefore the question of liming' is one which should occupy the attention of all farmers. A dressing of lime becomes exhausted in several ways; it is soluble to some extent, and is washed out by rains; this is proved by its presence in drainage water. From a plot at Rothamsted as much as 2501 b. per acre has been found in the gauge that catches drainage water. In addition lo that source of loss, lime is used up when it acts on the soluble phosphate of super-phosphate applied to the land: it has the valuable effect of causing the soluble phosphate to revert, and while precipitating it' in a very fin 0 powder through the soil, it saves the phosphate from being washed away. And when sulphate of ammonia is applied as a fertiliser, a portion of the lim e in the soil combines with the acid of the nitrogenous fertiliser, and thus is no longer available. On considering thes e ways of loss farmers will realise that it Is essential on most soils to apply every few years a dressing of lime to maintain fertility.