MINOR MANURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 6

MINOR MANURES.

Gas lime is a waste product in the manufacture of gas. It has not a high reputation, and may, when secured from a gasworks, be bought at a low figure. In it? fresh state it has an evil smell, and contains sulphur of lime and other sulphur compounds that give off sulphuretted hydrogen, and are injurious to vegetable life. It is these the farmer who uses it must guard against, and failure to do this brings about disastrous results. But when rightly understood the danger may be reduced to a minumuin, for if gas lime is exposed the oxv-gen of the atmosphere soon destroys the bad smell by changing the sulphuret of lime into sulphite, and finally sulphate of lime or gypsum ; or, in other words, changing from a positively poisonous substance to a well-known fertiliser.

in a sample of gag lime from which the ■water (that constituted about 40 per cent. «i itr.had been evaporated, and that had been -kept long enough to be used with safety asa manme, Dr Voeleker found the following compounds of lime -. — Sulphate of £me, 4.64; ~ sulphite of lime, 15.19; carbonate of .limej^ 49.4o ; and caustic lime, 18.23 per cent. IA substance such as this in lime compounds '^annot fail to be of considerable service to -farmers, and in actual practice-it is found to liave much the same effect as ordinary lime. The crops on which it does the most good are clovers of various kinds, beans and peas, tares and turnips. It is said to cause scab on potatoes, but this is probably only when it

has been^iheorporated , with the soil in a fresh state. On grass laud it should be spread in frosty weather, at a time when vegetation is dormant, so that it may have changed to a mild form before the growth of grass in spring; or, better still, it should be made into a compost with roadscrapings, diteh-scourings, or other refuse, before being applied. It is of great service in destroying moss, heath acid-loving plants, and certain other useless vegetable growths. On arable land it should l>e spread three or four weeks before being ploughed in, and it may be used at the rate of two, three, or Sour tons per acre. It is said, if applied quite "*fresh and ploughed in at once, it will destroy coltsfoot or other weeds that may have taken rossession of the soil and cannot be removed by ordinary

Miss Ormerod and Dr Voelcker recommend it as an almost certain cure for "Finger-and-Toe" or "Anbury"' in turnips. The latter makes the following interesting statement : — "On visiting the fields where the turnips were affected (by the abovenamed disease) by wart-like excrescences', and forked and twisted into the most fantastical forms, I noticed a spot on which the Toots were nearly all sound. On stooping down and examining the soil, I-picked up rome bits of a whitish-looking substance which appeared to me like dried gas lime, and I learned afterwards that on thif very sbo.V a cart of gas lime had been unloaded the year before. The chemical examination of the soil on this field showed merely traces of lime : and, at my recommendation, the occupier applied a heavy dose of gas lime, which completely cured the evil." Considering the above, we can come to no other conclusion tha-n that gas lime is of value to those who can easily obtain it.