228 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



The impurities silica, aluminum and iron oxide that constitute 

 from 5 to 10 per cent of our Kansas limestones, are substantially the 

 same as soil. Pick up a handful of soil from a wheatfield or cornfield, 

 have it analyzed, and ordinarily more than 90 per cent of it will be silica, 

 aluminum and iron oxide. One may dismiss the impurities in our lime- 

 stone, then, with an assurance that they in no way will injure the soil, 

 and are objectionable only by acting as a dilutent. 



A careful study of the accompanying map will show where limestone 

 may be found, and how far one will have to transport it to his farm. It 

 is probable that some farmers will find it desirable to have the limestone 

 shipped to them by rail. For others it will be desirable to have local 

 crushers supply crushed limestone for wagon trade. Crushed limestone 

 may be shipped as the cheapest kind of freight, so that if it becomes 

 necessary to ship it by rail it can be carried for a very small expense. 



WHAT SOILS NEED TO BE LIMED. 



All acid soils will be improved greatly by having lime added to them. 

 Soils formed from shales have too much sulphuric acid, and need lime to 

 destroy the acid. Other soils which for years have had excessive growths 

 of grass and weeds are likely to be acid from the vast amount of organic 

 acids produced by a partial decomposition of weeds and grass. This is 

 generally true of freshly-drained swamp lands. The soils have so much 

 decaying organic matter in them that at times they are good for little 

 until the organic acids have been neutralized or destroyed. All such 

 soils should be limed. 



FORM OF LIME TO APPLY. 



It is important to know the form of lime to apply to soil. Should one 

 use raw limestone or quicklime? The answer is that either will do good. 

 It is merely a question of time. Quicklime will act immediately and ac- 

 complish its purpose largely the first season, after which its beneficial 

 results will gradually decline for years. Crushed limestone added to an 

 acid soil acts more slowly, but ultimately accomplish.es the same results. 

 The finer it is crushed the more quickly it will act, so that if ground to an 

 impalpable powder it will act almost as rapidly as quicklime. The ex- 

 treme in coarseness would be fragments of any size not too large to inter- 

 fere with the plow. Such large pieces will have but little effect during 

 any one year, but nevertheless each piece will gradually yield to weather- 

 ing and slowly rectify an acid soil, and will continue in its well-doing as 

 long as it lasts, or until it is finally all dissolved. 



A word of caution should be given regarding the use of quicklime. If 

 used in excess it becomes injurious to growing crops, so that at first it 

 may prove a detriment if applied in too large quantities. Its ability to do 

 harm, however, is but temporary, for in the course of time it absorbs 

 carbonic acid from the air and passes back into the form of lime car- 

 bonate again, from which it came, or as it was in the original limestone, 

 after which it acts precisely as finely pulverized limestone. 



Limestone may be burned into quicklime very economically in places 

 where fuel is cheap. Our fathers and grandfathers generally burned lime 

 for their own uses by making piles of broken limestone, well mixed with 

 wood or other fuels, and then burning the fuel. Often the larger pieces 



