of decaying organic matter is practically indispensable. It is the source of 

 nitrogen; tlie acids liberated in its decay make available the important ash 

 materials which would otherwise be useless ; it warms the soil ; increases its 

 capacity to hold water needed to dissolve the plant food ; and improves its physical 

 condition. Without the presence of organic matter and the associated germ life 

 and the proper conditions for their action, a soil cannot produce its best results, 

 no matter how rich it may be in all the essential constituents of plant growth. 



Lime. 



Lime materials not only furnish calcium, which is essential for the growth 

 of crops, but they have the power of improving the mechanical condition of 

 both sands and clays. This they do by binding the materials more firmly together. 

 In the case of sands, lime thus renders them more compact and improves their 

 water-holding power. With clays, the tenacity of which is largely due to the 

 fineness of the particles, the lime causes the fine particles to adhere to one another, 

 and these aggregations make the soil act like one composed of larger particles. 

 Hence, it improves the mechanical condition, renders the soil more easily cultivated 

 and it is better aerated. Frost and humus also improve the physical state of 

 sticky, impervious soils; but lime is possibly the most potent agency, and it is 

 certainly the agency most readily controlled by the farmer. 



Lime also corrects, or neutralizes, the acid which naturally forms in soils, 

 especially tliose rich in decaying organic matter. Experience and investigation 

 show that many of the soils of this Province are gradually being depleted of 

 their natural supply of lime, leaving them in an acid or "sour" state, which is 

 detrimental to the development of many crops, and absolutely prevents the growth 

 of alfalfa, clover, or the plants of the leguminous family in general. 



Lime materials are also necessary for the useful and beneficial bacteria and 

 other organisms of the soil. They supply these organisms with the element 

 calcium, which appears to be just as essential a food constituent for them as 

 it is for the higher plants. Furthermore, in improving the physical state of the 

 soil, lime produces good air and moisture conditions which are so essential to 

 the well-being of these organisms upon whose activity the availability of the 

 plant food in the soil so largely depends. Thus it will be seen that decaying 

 organic matter and lime are very important constituents of soils. In fact, their 

 presence is fundamental. Without these the soil is practically useless no matter 

 how much other plant food may be present. In one sense it may be correct to 

 speak of the soil as a reservoir of plant food, to be drawn on for the growth 

 of successive crops, but it is equally correct to regard it as a busy, complex 

 manufacturing establishment in which all the various parts must work together 

 under proper conditions to bring the store of plant food into a form available to 

 plants. To bring this about is the object of cultivation. 



Losses of Plant Food by Leaching. 



These combined agencies, while beneficial, are destructive unless means are 

 taken to prevent loss by drainage. They tend to bring nitrogen, lime, magnesia, 

 potash, etc., into a soluble form, which, unless taken up by plants, is lost in 

 the drainage water. As proof of this, we have the familiar fact that water taken 

 from underground drains or from wells is "hard" because of the lime which it 



