VALUE OF LIME

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10852, 18 March 1921, Page 3

VALUE OF LIME

EFFECT ON CROPS.

BIG MANAWATU DEPOSIT.

Lime we have in any quantity (writes the “Times” Palmerston North correspondent), but the business of the farmer is to co-operate and organise in order to make it available for himself. There is a big deposit of raw lime in the hills adjacent to the Manawatu Gorge that only needs energy and capital to place it at the disposal of agricul ture. Farmers unfortunately are lacking in cohesion over the matter, and so the question drifts along with but the assistance of the Manawatu sub-provin-cial Farmers’ Union to keep in touch with its whereabouts. One has .only to talk with farmers to see how obscure the benefits of lime are understood by him. the reason being that the merits of this aid to agriculture are seldom explained, and few who have used it have renorted any really convincing results. Borne information, however, was forthcoming at the recent meeting of farmers held in Palmerston North when Mr Giloyn, Rongotea, mentioned a most phenomenal crop of rape growing on his property. He said he used ground lime on a piece of land which produced rape three feet high. The present spell of

dry weather has definitelv shown the farmer of the Manawatu distriot that it is foolish to depend entirely upon grass, and that a man must have supplementary feed of some kind ready for the emergency. Supplementarv green feed creates a drain upon the soil that in a few years requires lime or other fertiliser to give a regular standard of results.