EFFECT OF LIME ON STOCK 271 



the natural pasture, the attempt has resulted in failure. 

 One of the regions where the effect of lime in the soil 

 is most markedly shown is in our own arid West. In that 

 region there is commonly about 2 to 4 per cent of car- 

 bonate of lime present in the surface soil, and grasses 

 growing out of that land are very sweet and nutritious. 

 Furthermore, the water of spring and stream is invari- 

 ably impregnated with lime salts. Horses grown on the 

 grass of that land have astonishing bone, hard, dense 

 and nearly four times as strong and tough as the bone 

 of horses grown on grasses in lime-deficient soils of the 

 East. In France the Government once made examina- 

 tion of soldiers, grouping them according to their birth- 

 place, and found that those from regions where lime- 

 stone abounded were nearly 1%" taller and correspond- 

 ingly stronger and healthier than those from the lime- 

 deficient lands. 



Feeding Lime and Bone to Animals. While there is 

 lack of accurate data as to the effect of feeding mineral 

 substances directly to animals where the herbage is sup- 

 posedly lime-deficient, yet we have proof that there is 

 considerable gain in the practice. If one has not yet suf- 

 ficiently limed one's soil so that the forage has in it nor- 

 mal or above normal lime supply, one can lime the food 

 or water that the animals drink. There are several ways 

 that this has been done. L. Ogilvy of Colorado has 

 placed lump lime in the drinking troughs with good 

 results, and says it is a practice among some successful 

 horse breeders in England. The amount of lime should 

 be small ; a piece of fresh-burned lime as large as an egg 

 dropped into a troughful of water say once or twice 



