294 State Horticultural Society. 



physical effect of lime upon heavy soils. Light, peaty soils may be 

 injured from a physical standpoint, but heavy soils will never suf- 

 fer in this regard. 



The amount of lime required on different soils will vary very 

 greatly from one to several tons per acre. Hilgard considers that a 

 normal sandy soil should contain one-tenth per cent, available lime, 

 whereas a clay soil three-tenths per cent. Others, however, regard 

 heavy applications essential. 



The soil survey work of recent years, so far as it has gone in 

 neighboring states, or has been officially reported upon in this 

 State, tends to strengthen the general and growing conviction that 

 there is a very fair supply of potash in most of our agricultural 

 soils. This potash may not always be present in available form, 

 and it may be required by some crops in such considerable quan- 

 tities that applications are desirable even when the soil is fairly 

 rich in this substance. Nevertheless, the fact remains that con- 

 siderable potash is present, and that the supply is often almost in- 

 exhaustible when sufficiently deep cultivation is given, when proper 

 drainage and the matter of soil acidity are duly appreciated, and 

 when a proper return of organic matter to the soil is constantly 

 made. 



If, however, we take up seriously the phosphorous problem, we 

 are brought face to face with a threatening danger. It may be a 

 little early to speak definitely of general conditions in Missouri, 

 since the soil survey work is yet incomplete, but two things are 

 quite certain: (1) The soils of all this general section of the 

 country are deficient, or are likely to be deficient, in phosphorus; 

 (2) there are present no other important general sources of phos- 

 phorus than phosphatic rock and bone-meal products, which cost 

 much, and which will cost more, since the supplies of these are 

 growing less, and few finds of rich phosphatic rock are being 

 made. In 1905, Mr. Hopkins of the Illinois Experiment Station 

 made the statement that "there is no method known or suggested 

 by which the ordinary soil of the lower Illinois glaciation can be 

 made sufficiently rich in phosphorus to produce the most profitable 

 crops without buying phosphorus in some form and applying it to 

 the land." This is true of many other soils. 



In a very summary way it may then be stated that (1) nitro- 

 gen, a very essential element, can be had cheaply in all orchards 

 by means of leguminous crops; (2) the addition of lime is quite 

 generally recommended for this section of country, and while the 

 supply of lime is unlimited, a cheap source of agricultural lime is 



