88 Practical Farming 



in the fact that it is more a stimulant and reagent in 

 rendering plant food already in the soil available to 

 plants. 



In a soil abounding in vegetable decay the work of the 

 bacteria which change the organic nitrogen into nitrates 

 is greatly helped by lime, for these microscopic plants have 

 a power which no green-leaved plant has, in that they can 

 get the carbon they need from the carbonate of lime, while 

 green-leaved plants get it from the air as we have before 

 explained. Lime should never be mixed in fermenting 

 animal manures, as it tends to make the ammonia in the 

 manure more volatile and to drive it off into the air. On 

 the other hand plaster, which is the sulphate of lime, has 

 a tendency to prevent the loss of ammonia by putting it into 

 a less volatile form. 



It is supposed by some that the use of the dissolved 

 phosphatic rock or acid phosphate is apt to render the soil 

 acid, by the plants taking up the phosphorus and leaving 

 the sulphuric acid which at once unites with the Hme 

 already in the soil, and in this way robs the soil of Hme 

 carbonate. In this case lime freshly slaked in water 

 and apphed will restore the lime needed as a carbonate, 

 and will tend to sweeten the soil. 



It has been found that a sour condition in the soil is 

 detrimental to the bacterial Ufe needed there, and in this 

 condition clover fails to grow, and the farmer says that 

 his land is "clover sick." This condition always indi- 

 cates the need of lime. Lime is of great value to the 

 student farmer, but must be used intelligently because it 

 may be of damage to the man who does not study his 

 conditions. 



