22 CIRCULAR NO. 130, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



Avhen little else could be done, and at the same time the land could 

 be cleared of stone and cultivated. The coal could have been secured 

 for 6 cents a bushel if Iwught during the summer, 



CAUTION REGARDING THE USE OF LIME. 



There is an old English proverb which, in substance, saj'^s that the 

 use of lime on land makes the father rich and the son poor. Caustic 

 lime should be used with good judgment, and no more should be 

 applied than the land requires in order to neutralize it. From 800 

 to 2,000 pounds to the acre is the quantity of caustic lime usually 

 applied, or from 2,500 to 5,000 pounds of ground limestone. Caustic 

 lime should never be scattered on growing plants. 



Lime uses up the humus in the soil very fast; hence, this im- 

 portant ingredient of the soil must be constantly and liberally sup- 

 plied by plowing under vegetable matter in the fonn of green cover 

 crops or stable manure. 



RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL LIME AND GROUND 



LIMESTONE. 



On three farms, two in Warren County, Ky., and one in Jefferson 

 County, "Vy. Va., the average cost of burning lime according to the 

 methods just described was about $1 per ton of finished product, 

 burnt or stone lime. On one of these farms the average cost of 

 grinding the limestone to such fineness that the largest particles would 

 pass through a 10-mesh sieve, wdiich is practically fine enough, was 

 about $1 per ton. including the cost of quarrying. Of good burnt 

 lime 56 pounds is equivalent in agricultural value to 100 pounds of 

 finely crushed limestone or to 74 pounds of " hydrated " lime. The 

 product known as '' agricultural lime," " ground lime," etc., is 

 usually partly hydrated and partly carbonated, and hence is a little 

 less valuable than pure hydrated lime. 



REFERENCES AND SOURCES OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION. 



Most of the experiment stations in the eastern section of the 

 United States have carried on experiments in liming the land. The 

 following bulletins will be of interest to farmers in the three 

 States to which this circular applies : 



Ellet. W. B. 



Lime for Virginia farms. Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulle- 

 tin 187, 4S p.. 23 fig., 1910. 

 HiTE, B. H., and Kunst. F. D. 



Commercial fertilizers. Complete report for 1909. West Virginia Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, Bulletin 125, 102 p., 1910. 

 Patten, A. J., and .Teffrey, J. A. 



Lime for agricultural purpose.s. Michigan Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Circular 11, p. 79-82, 1911. 

 [Cir. 130] 



