THE USE OF LIME AS A FERTILISER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1188, 7 December 1894, Page 4

THE USE OF LIME AS A FERTILISER.

Many persons in whose good judgment and sense everyone has confidence, insist that lime is not a plant food, and is, therefore, useless as a fertiliser. Now a plant food is considered to be anything that, being contained m plants to a large extent, may be applied to the soil, to contribute to the supply of it for the crops. When we see that when such an element of plant substance is applied to the soil the following crop is greatly helped we can hardly agree with the opinion that it is not a food for plants. If we study the composition of plants, we find that lime is the most impoitant part of the mineral elements of nearly every one. The ash of a plant is made up of these mineral elements, and by examining the ash, we may discover yvhat kinds and quantities of mineral matters the plants require. And it is to be remembered that in the growth

of plants every element found in them is indispensable. But how much more must it be so —if such a thing were possible, for one element to be more indispensable than another —for lime, which exists in such a large proportion, to be anything but indispensable ? And this must be thought so as we consider that in the ash of hay oneeighth part is lime; in the ash of clover more than a third of it is lime; in the ash of potato tops nearly one half is lime. The ashes of wood, which we think so valuable on account of the potash in them, have 1 several times more lime than potash, the lime amounting to from thirty to seventy per cent. - And there is not one plant grown that has not lime in its ashes. The same applies to potash and phosphoric acid, and, reasonably, these are supposed to be food for plants; why, then, is not lime a plant food 1 Surely it must be so considered. The best farmed localities in the world are those where the soil contains a large proportion of lime, being derived from the decomposition of limestone rocks.. But it is not so much on account of the lime in the soil that the land is so well farmed and so productive, but mostly for the reason that lime being there abundant and cheap, the farmers burn the limestone and make lime, and apply it to the land. Lime, only, is a plant food, but limestone is not, and the soil may be well filled with limestone and yet be quite poor. This is cemmon experience. Now lime is a very active chemical substance. This will be seen if some of it is put in some vinegar. This will foam up and boil over the cup, . and a large quantity of gas will be evolved. In the end there will be no more acid in the vinegar. And this is one effect of lime on soil that is sour, such as swamp land, in which the excess of acid prevents the growth of any useful plants. If we put some lime on a dead animal, or on any other organic matter, it will quickly decompose it and reduce it to its original elements, and this is one effect of lime when used in a compost, the matters thus decomposed then becoming good manure and useful food for plants. And this same effect is prod uced in the soil when quicklime is applied, as it usually is in the fall when the land is prepared for wheat and grass and clover seeding. But the chemist may take some sand or other mineral matter and mix lime with it, and then add water, and the lime will dissolve quite a considerable quantity of this mineral matter, forming, silicate of lime; and by taking the silica from the potash, or the phosphates, or magnesia, or the alumina, etc., that the soil is made up of, the lime renders these elements of plant food soluble and available for the crops. Now this is a small part of the natural history of lime, as it is used in good farming. And with such a history we must realise its value to the farmer, quite independently of the fact whether it is actually a plant food or not. And as this is the season when the land is in the best condition for the application of lime, as lime is most soluble in cold water, and the wheat crop is most convenient for it, it is a question for all of us if it is not advisable to so use it, and gather the fruits of its good effects on the soil. The freshly burned lime only is used, and twenty to forty bushels per acre is the usual quantity. It is left in heaps in the field, preferably of one bushel each, two rods apart, and in a few days it falls to a fine powder by the action of the moisture of the air, or a shower of rain, when it is easily spread quite evenly—so as to just whiten the surface —with a longhandled shovel. But when lime is thus used for the wheat, it is not advisable to use superphosphate until the spring. It can then be used to advantage.—Henry Stewart in the American Agriculturist.

A dairyman writes to an English journal:—l know of no better food for dairy cows than wheat flour, and have often used it when wheat was twice its present price. Moreover, he asserts that 71b or Blb of wheat per cow when in full milk would cause her to yield more milk and richer cream then “ the same value of cake ” would do. A north of England farmer, who grows 100 acres of wheat, and milks between 60 and 70 big cows, was persuaded by him to give wheat to his cows instead of selling it, and the best results ensued. The north of England farmer last year gave nearly the whole of his wheat either to his cows, or to pigs, or mixed with oats for horses, and all his animals did well on it.