Determining Lime Requirement

Categories: THE NEED OF LIME

It is wasteful to apply lime on land

that does not need it. As has been said, the man who can grow heavy

clover sods has assurance that the lime content of his soil is

satisfactory. This is a test that has as much practical value as the

analysis of a skillful chemist. The owner of such land may dismiss the

matter of liming from his attention so far as acidity is concerned,

though it is a reasonable expectation that a d ficiency will appear at

some time in the future. Experience is the basis of such a forecast.

Just as coal was stored for the benefit of human beings, so was lime

placed in store as a supply for soils when their unstable content would

be gone.



The only ones that need be concerned with the question of lime for

soils are those who cannot secure good growths of the clovers and other

legumes. Putting aside past experience, they should learn whether their

soils are now acid. Practical farmers may judge by the character of the

vegetation and not fail to be right nine times out of ten. Where land

has drainage, and a fairly good amount of available fertility, as

evidenced by growths of grass, a failure of red clover leads

immediately to a strong suspicion that lime is lacking. If alsike

clover grows more readily than the red clover, the probability of

acidity grows stronger because the alsike can thrive under more acid

soil conditions than can the red. Acid soils favor red-top grass rather

than timothy. Sorrel is a weed that thrives in both alkaline and acid

soils, and its presence would not be an index if it could stand

competition with clover in an alkaline soil. The clover can crowd it

out if the ground is not too badly infested with seed, and even then

the sorrel must finally give way. Where sorrel and plantain cover the

ground that has been seeded to clover and grass, the evidence is strong

that the soil conditions are unfriendly to the better plants on account

of a lime deficiency. The experienced farmer who notes the inclination

of his soil to favor alsike clover, red-top, sorrel, and plantain

should infer that lime is lacking. If doubt continues, he should make a

test.