CARBONATE OF LIME. 131 



of many centuries, it is his privilege to crush and 

 grind the rocks of his own farm and put the dust 

 over his land. 



Farm Machines for Crushing. In this connection 

 it may be remarked that there are now machines 

 made that will take the raw rocks that may crop out 

 on a man's own farm and grind them into usable 

 dust, the machines being mounted on wheels and 

 readily portable, so that they can be drawn from one 

 farm to another, as need demands. Thus the farmer 

 may have a machine come to his own farm and 

 grind up for him a pile of limestone of as many hun- 

 dred tons as he desires. It will lie in pile unharmed 

 by weather till he is ready to put in a field. 



There are many thousands of acres of land in 

 Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and adjoining states that 

 is fairly fertile, is naturally pretty well drained so 

 that the expense of drainage will be but slight, and 

 that only awaits the coming of lime carbonate to 

 make it produce good alfalfa. And the beauty of 

 it is that in Tennessee and Kentucky very often the 

 limestone is right in the neighborhood, and some- 

 times right on the farm where it is needed. 



Summary. I realize that I have taken not a little 

 time to present this matter. My apology is that the 

 subject is fraught with such import. The wealth of 

 our land can easily be doubled. Drainage is the 

 first step. Use of carbonate of lime is the second 

 step, and the third is the addition of humus to the 

 soil, the use of phosphorus, in some instances of 

 potash, and the sowing of alfalfa. Or, if there is 



