110 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



up ; and the immediate result was a noble crop of 

 Corn. That hill-side has not yet forgotten the appli- 

 cation. 



If I should try to explain just how and why Lime 

 is a fertilizer, I should probably fail ; and I am well 

 assured that liming has in some cases been overdone ; 

 yet I think most observers will concur in my state- 

 ment that any region which has been limed year after 

 year produces crops of noticeable excellence. I cite as 

 examples Chester and Lancaster Counties, Pennsyl- 

 vania, with Stark and adjacent counties of Ohio. 

 Possibly, results equally gratifying might be secured 

 by applying some other substance ; I only know that 

 frequently limed lands are generally good lands, as 

 their crops do testify.. I heartily wish that the flat 

 clay intervales of Western Vermont could have a 

 fair trial of the virtues of liming. I should expect 

 to see them thereby rendered friable and arable ; no 

 longer changing speedily from the semblance of tar 

 to that of brick, but readily plowed and tilled, and 

 yielding liberally of Grain as well as Grass. I am 

 confident that most farms in our country will pay 

 for liming to the extent of fifty bushels per acre 

 where the cost of quick -lime does not exceed ten 

 cents per bushel ; and most farmers, by taking, hot 

 from the kiln, the refuse lime that is deemed unfit 

 for building purposes, can obtain it cheaper than that. 



I wish some farmer who gives constant personal 

 attention to his work as I cannot would make 

 some careful tests of the practical value of alkalis, 



