INJURIOUS EFFECT OF LIME. 



23 



Among the experiments with bhieberry seedlings in different soil 

 mixtures started on December 22, 1908, was one in which six plants 

 were set in glass pots in a peaty soil thoroughly intermixed with 

 1 per cent ofcarbonate of lime. The first difference that showed be- 

 tween these and unlimed plants in the same soil was the much feebler 

 root growth of the limed plants. This w^as followed by an evident 

 tendency toward feebler stem growth. The relative condition of the 

 two cultures on April 13, 1009. is shown by photographs of represent- 

 ative plants reproduced as figures T and 8. The later progress of this 



Fig. 7. — Bhielien-y seedling in peat mixture Fig. 8. — Blueberry seedling in peat mixture 

 limed. (One-half natural size.) unlimed. (Oue-half natural size.) 



experiment was interrupted, hoAvever, and its average results vitiated 

 because the roots of some of the limed plants found their way through 

 the holes in the bottom of the pots and obtained nourishment from 

 the unlimed material in which the pots were plunged. Such plants 

 made nearly as good growth as the unlimed plants. On November 

 27, 1009, there remained only one of the limed plants whose roots 

 Avere all inside the pot. This plant was feeble and small, its stem 

 being only 2^ inches high. Its inferiority to the unlimed plants was 

 almost as conspicuous as that of the garden-soil plants described on 

 page IT and illustrated in figure 5. 



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