TESTING SOIL FOR LIME.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13737, 31 May 1913, Page 8

TESTING SOIL FOR LIME.

There- is one way to learn whether the application of ordinary lime is entirely unnecessary. That is to take a littb of the soil and put a drop of some acid xipcm it. If bubbles come off it has all the lime- that is neo-drd. Vinegar can be used for this if no other acid is available. Possibly the bubbles may not form and yet the soil have enough ]imo.

To bo perfectly sure that lime is needed one can pnt a little blue, litmus paper iv a ball of wet soil for half an hour or so, and if it turns at all pinkish, lime- is needed. Possibly also it might not not turn colour and yot be needed. This is especially true of heavy soils, where lime often would do much good mechanically even though the ground was not sour. Yet these Are the two .methods, on-o for being sure that lime is not needed, the other for being sure that it is, and there is quite a margin between.