402 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



straw. There are, however, a number of imperfect forest and cul- 

 tivated growthisi that are readily injured h}^ taking up from the soil 

 an excess of this constituent. The peculiarities of behavior of the 

 !sO-called calciphile, or lime-loving, and calcifuge, or lime-avoiding 

 plants have been quite fully discussed in Bulletin 61. I will not 

 refer at length to the subject in this connection, confining myself to 

 the mention of a few recent experiments relative to it. Hannamanu 

 and Kourwisky (8) have found a large gain from liming hops grow- 

 ing in soil deficient in lime. W. C. Sturgia (9) studying the effects of 

 lime upon tobacco, finds that, notwithstanding the prevalent opinion 

 among Connecticut tobacco growers that lime is injurious to that 

 crop, the application of this material to the sandy tobacco lands of 

 that State tends to reduce the "calico" disease to which the leaf is, 

 in some localities, much subject. Adler (10) found a gain when lime 

 was used with the white lupine, but an injury to yellow, black and 

 blue lupines. The sentiveness of the latter species to an excess of 

 lime has been elsewhere discussed. B. Schulze (11) adds that the 

 addition of even small quantities of lime to land receiving phosi)horic 

 acid and potash fertilizers was injurious to lupines. R. Ulbricht (12) 

 also observes that the yellow lupine can not stand either a heavy 

 liming nor a heavy potash dressing in conjunction with a light liming, 

 and that this injury appears also in a crop grown the second year 

 after the application. Curiously, the limed plants in this case, 

 are said to be more slender than those not limed. 



The farmer is interested not only in the vegetable friends that 

 work for him in the formation of forage, fruit and grain, but also in 

 those that work obscurely in the soil to prepare the raw materials 

 which the more complex, surface-growing plants require for their 

 operations. The soil is no more the abode of death than the air; on 

 the contrary, there dwell in the darkness of the soil, hosts of friendly 

 workers with which we are only beginning to become acquainted. 

 Lime potently influences the activit^^ of some of these, since, how- 

 ever, it does not appear to form an essential part of their organism. 

 Consideration of this influence will be given in another connection. 



In passing, it ma.y be noted that lime is absolutely essential to 

 animal life, the very frame-work of the animal has lime as its princi- 

 pal basic constituent, combined as calcium phosphate. So careful is 

 nature to ensure the supply to the young animal that, as Bunge (13) 

 has beautifully shown, the ash of dog's milk contains 34.4 per cent, 

 of lime, that of the young animals body 35.8 per cent., while the 

 blood-serum from which the mother's milk is prepared contains only 

 2.1 per cent. In the natural economy,. therefore, we must regard the 



(S) Sachs Lder. Ztschr., 21, 155. 



(9) Rep. Conn. Station, ]S99, 252-261. 



(10) Exp. Station Record. 11, 613. 



(U) Jahresbincht t. Agrlk-Chem.. 1899, 197. 



(12) Op. cit, 193-4. 



(13) Lebrbuch des Physidoglschen und paltologischer Chemie, 97. 



