LIME ACTION IS VITALLY NEEDED 



and make it amenable to all the revivifying influences of sun 

 and rain and air and warmth. The plant is copartner with 

 the. weather in the building of the primal soils. The lichen 

 spreads its thin substance over the rock, sending its fibers 

 into the crevices and filling the chinks, as they enlarge, with 

 the decay of its own structure; and finally the rock is fit for the 

 moss or fern or creeping vine, each newcomer leaving its im- 

 press by which some later newcomer may profit. Finally the 

 rock is disintegrated and pulverized, and is ready to be still 

 further subdued by corn and ragweed, by other plants, or 

 trees." 



Thus it becomes plain that to feed our trees we first must 

 work our ground tear it up deeply and thoroughly pulverize 

 it. We must fill it full of dead grass and leaves in order to 

 change its texture to change that old rock nature to loam 

 nature. This must be done to give roots a chance to take up 

 any food the soil carries. The soil itself never is food for plants. 



This is where all processes work together. To conserve 

 moisture, we work the land. To drain, we work the land. To 

 do both of these, we use dynamite and heavy mulches. When 

 we save or get rid of water, we grind and mix the soil, which 

 is exactly the treatment the soil needs to improve its texture. 

 So far, so good; but often, to get enough fineness and mixing, 

 the treatment has to be continued after it could be stopped 

 so far as moisture is concerned. 



LIME ACTION 



We should like to say here, "The decay of vegetable and 

 animal matter produces some acids." That statement would 

 be clear to most people, but it is not correct. There is no such 

 thing as decay of these organic materials. Wherever a piece 

 of meat, a stalk of grass or a leaf is touched by moisture in 

 or on the ground, millions of bacteria attack it. They swarm 

 to it from every surrounding particle of earth, and feed upon it 

 until seemingly it disappears. In reality it does not disappear, 

 but is changed into other forms by the bacteria, helped to a 

 slight extent by the chemical action of minerals. The work 

 of bacteria is like that of the buzzards, which gather from every- 

 where and consume a dead body. 



Organic matter is added to the soil in the form of manures, 

 leaves, rotting fruit, plowed-down cover crops, grass and 

 weeds, mulches, bone phosphate, etc. In consuming these, 

 bacteria produce acids. These acids change plant-food from 

 available into insoluble forms, kill the bacteria which produced 

 them and which are needed, and in other ways hinder or pre- 

 vent plant growth. 



Organic matter is necessary, yet we must get rid of the acids. 

 Lime is the thing to do it with. The action of lime is called 

 sweetening. The work lime does is to deaden the acids by 

 taking away their "edge," making them incapable of doing 

 harm. Wet soils generally are especially acid. 



The wood of fruit trees contains lime, in a form almost 



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