590 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1887. 



Every farmer may find out for himself if his land 

 is sour or not in a very simple manner. There can 

 be purchased of all chemists, for a few pence, some 

 small slips of blue paper, called " blue lirmus paper." 

 This paper is turned red by acids, so that if a small 

 ()uantity of a damp, sour soil be pressed with the 

 finger and thumb against a slip of this blue paper, 

 wherever the soil touches the paper it will produce 

 a red color, and if this red color remains after the 

 paper has been exposed to the air for a few minutes, 

 it is a sure sign that the soil needs lime. If the soil 

 is very sour it will produce a bright red color, but 

 if it be only slightly sour it will cause only a bluish 

 pink or purple color ; and by this means a rough 

 idea of the amount of lime required can be formed. 

 For a purple color only two or three hundredweights 

 of lime to the acre may be necessary ; but for a bright 

 red, half a ton or a ton may be required ; it being 

 always borne in mintl, however, that a strong clay 

 soil will require, and can bear, a heavier dressing than 

 a loose sandy one. 



Liming will do no good if the soil contains suflS- 

 cient lime already. And here again is a^ case in which 

 the farmer can apply a simple test sufficient for most 

 purposes. If vinegar be poured on to a piece of lime- 

 stone or a piece of old lime, it will cause a bubbling 

 up or effervescence similar to, but less than, that 

 which takes place when water is poured on a mixture 

 of carbonate of soda and tartaric acid, or when car- 

 bonate of soda is put into a mixture of vinegar and 

 water, as is sometimes done for making a cheap drink 

 in the bush. If then a little soil be placed in a 

 tumbler or wine glass, and sufficient water be poured 

 on to cover the soil and to allow ail the bubbles of 

 air to rise out of it, and if then vinegar be poured 

 into the glass, those soils which contain lime will 

 bubble up ; and the more lime there is the more will 

 be the bubbling up. If this effervescence should occur, 

 it ma3' be certain that it would be a waste of money 

 to add lime to such a soil. But, if this effervescence 

 should not take place, and if also it has been found 

 that the soil is not sour, then the only way to ascer- 

 tain whether the soil is deficient in lime or not is 

 by having it analysed. 



Liming may injure the soil in three ways — first, by 

 rendering it too open and loose, so that it will re- 

 tain no moisture ; secondly, by forming a mortar, and 

 so hardening the land that neither water nor roots 

 can penetrate it ; and thirdly, by exhausting the land. 

 But all these dangers can be readily avoided. As 

 pointed out previouslv, lime should be used very sparingly 

 on light, sandy or gravelly soils. If it is found neces- 

 sary to add it to such soils, then it should -be put on 

 in the form of a compost of one part of lime with 

 .six or eight of fine earth, the compost being allowed 

 to stand some time before using; or, if marl cm be 

 had readily, the lime may be put on as marl, about 

 half a ton or a ton to the acre. Or, if the sand rests 

 on a clay subsoil, then the clay may be dug up in 

 trenches, as is done in the fen country in England, 

 and spread over the soil, the clay being afterwards 

 ploughed in, and then the lime sprinkled over the 

 surface ; or, if neither marl nor clay can be had, then 

 an abundance of vegetable matter should be given in 

 the form of farm yard or stable manure, or in the 

 form of green crops, particularly root crops, ploughed 

 in the lime being added afterwards. All sandy soils, it 

 should be borne in mind, are greatly improved by an 

 admixture of clay, and it is exceedingly likely that 

 a process of claying, similar to that adopted in the 

 fens in England, would greatly improve the sandy 

 soils lying to the south-east of Melbourne. 



The setting of the lime into a mortar can only 

 take place in heavy wet soils, and it may be taken 

 as a general rule that all wet clay soils and swamps 

 should be drained and ploughed before they are limed. 

 But at the same time no fear may be entertained of 

 the hardening of the land unless very heavy dress- 

 ings of lime, such as 20 and 30 tons to the acre are 

 used. 



We have, on a pre\'ious occasion, referred to the 

 exhausting action of lime. It is this very quality, 

 however, which, when rightly applied, renders the use 



of lime so specially advantageous in many cases. 

 The lime liberates for the immediate use of plants 

 the various ingredients of the soil and manures which 

 are ordinarily locked up in an inaccessible form, and 

 by so doing it greatly increases the returns. In fact 

 it enables the farmer to turn over his capital quickly. 

 But if he thereby gets more out of his soil, he must 

 return more to it in the form of manure. Exhaustive 

 farming in any case is bad ; it is just as bad to 

 exhaust a naturally fertile soil as to exhaust one 

 rendered fertile by lime. The object of the farmer 

 in any case should be to improve the land if it be 

 poor, or to maintain it at a good level if it be rich. 

 And the preventive of the exhausting action of lime 

 is just the same as the preventive of the exhaustion 

 of a good soil, namely the proper use of manures. 

 The forms in which lime may be used are marl, crushed 

 limestone shells, and shell sand, and quick and 

 slacked lime. All the forms are best strewn, over 

 the surface, the more evenly the better, the dres- 

 sing being put on some months before seed time. 

 Quicklime acts most rapidly, slacked lime the 

 next, shells and shell sand the next, and crushed 

 limestone and marl act the most slowly. Limestone, 

 shells, and shell sand may be converted into quicklime 

 by burning ; but it is generally most convenient to 

 buy quicklime of the lime burners. Quicklime is only 

 used for sweetening heavy and very sour lands, such 

 as recently drained swamps. Of all forms of lime, the 

 slacked lime is the most useful ; it is made by the 

 farmer himself, by sprinkling quicklime with water, 

 when the lime becomes hot, gives off steam, and 

 if good, falls into an exceedingly fine powder. If it 

 does not fall into this powder, either the lime is not 

 good, and is of less value, or too much water has 

 been added, with the result of ciusiug the lime to 

 chill. The great point to be aimed at is to get the 

 lime into this fine powder, for it is theu much more 

 effective in its action, and a small quantity of it goes 

 a great way. 



We last week referred to the action of lime in in- 

 creasing the immediate effectiveness of stable and farm 

 yard manure. It is well to bear in mind, however, 

 that the lime should not be mixed with the decom- 

 posing manure heap ; but should only be mixed with 

 it in the form of a compost immediately before using. 

 If mixed with the decomposing manure heap, it causes 

 the escape of ammonia, and thus a valuable part of 

 the manure is lost. 



The action of shell sand on the soil may be seen, 

 near many of the fresh water lakes of Victoria, as 

 for instance along the margin of Lake Corangamite, 

 where fine shells blown up yearly by the winds and 

 strewn over the ground, induce a surprising degree of 

 fertility. Similar cases are known in almost all coun- 

 tries. An instructive case may be cjuoted which oc- 

 curred in France, where a sandy soil, similarly com- 

 posed, was every other year laid an inch thick over 

 land which producecr only a threefold crop of rye, 

 and caused it to yield an eightfold crop of wheat 

 for several years ; but — and this is the point to be 

 borne in mind — after 40 years of this treatment, 

 without any other manure being added, the land would 

 produce only a fourfold crop of wheat. — Leader. 



AGEICULTUKE IN ECUADOR. 

 Consul Beach, of Guayaquil, says that Ecuador 

 covers an area of 150,000 square miles, and has a soil 

 and climate scarcely equalled by any other country in 

 the world. About one-fourth of the extent is of tide 

 water level, and the remaining three-fourths of 

 various altitudes embracing hills, mountains, and 

 mountaiu valleys, the highest altitude being thit of 

 Ghimborazo, 21,220 feet. There are about twenty 

 mountain summits that are more than 10,000 feet in 

 height. The great diflference in altitude wi I serve as 

 an explanation of the wide iliversity of ciini'\te and 

 variety of soil productions, both of which are much 

 greater than would be conidered po.ssible in the 

 equatorial region. The mountains, though all of 

 volcanic orgiu, are yet somewhat varied in their 

 elements, but each has the characteristic of quite 



