Irrational Use Of Lime

Categories: THE NEED OF LIME

Some refusal to accept the facts respecting

soil acidity and its means of correction is due to a prejudice that was

created by an unwise use of lime in the past. Owners of stiff limestone

soils learned in an early day that a heavy application of caustic lime

would increase crop production. It caused such flocculation of the fine

particles in their stiff soils that physical condition was improved,

and it made the organi matter in the soil quickly available as

plant-food. The immediate result was greater crop-producing power in

the soil, and dependence upon lime as a fertilizer resulted. The

vegetable matter was used up, some of the more available mineral

plant-food was changed into soluble forms, and in the course of years

partial soil exhaustion resulted. The heavy applications of lime,

unattended by additions of organic matter in the form of clover sods

and stable manure, produced a natural result, but one that was not

anticipated by the farmers. The prejudice against the use of lime on

land was based on the effects of this irrational practice.



There are land-owners who are not concerned with present-day knowledge

regarding soil acidity because they cannot believe that it has any

bearing upon the state of their soils. They know that clover sods were

easily produced on their land within their remembrance, and that their

soils are of limestone origin. As the clovers demand lime, these two

facts appear to them final. The failures of the clovers in the last ten

or twenty years they incline to attribute to adverse seasons, poor

seed, or the prevalence of weed pests. They do not realize that much

land passes out of the alkaline class into the acid one every year. The

loss of lime is continuous. Exhaustion of the supply capable of

combining with the harmful acids finally results, and with the

accumulation of acid comes partial clover failure, a deficiency in rich

organic matter, a limiting of all crop yields, and an inability to

remain in a state of profitable production.



Lime deficiency and its resulting ills would not exist as generally as

is now the case if the application of lime to land were not expensive

and disagreeable. These are deterrent features of wide influence. There

continues hope that the clover will grow successfully, as occasionally

occurs in a favorable season, despite the presence of some acid. The

limitation of yields of other staple crops is not attributed to the

lack of lime, and the proper soil amendment is not given to the land.