90 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Jan., 



CONCERNING THE GENERAL NEED OF LIME IN RHODE 



ISLAND. 



Having begun the experiments just enumerated, it became 

 important to learn if the need of Hme was more or less common 

 in all of the five counties of the State, and in order to test the 

 matter, cooperative experiments were begun in many different 

 sections. Two plats were manured alike with standard agri- 

 cultural chemicals. One of these was then limed and beets, 

 barley, grass, and clover were employed in the various tests. 



At Foster Center, R. I., in 1896, the yields of red table beets 

 upon the limed and unlimed plats were 143.4 and 36.6 pounds 

 respectively. 



■■^<i 



M'., 



In a similar test at Slocums, the yield of table beets upon-, 

 the unlimed plat was but i pound and upon the limed plat it 

 was 101.8 pounds. The barley (cut in the milk) was increased 

 in this case by liming from 3.7 to 39.1 pounds. 



In 1897 clover was grown upon the plats at Foster Center. 

 The first crop, upon the unlimed plat, amounted to 140.2 

 pounds, and upon the limed plat to 195.6 pounds. 



In a grass experiment at Hamilton, a section of the unlimed 

 plat gave a product of 15 1.6 pounds, consisting of about equal 

 parts of timothy and redtop. A corresponding section of the 



