Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 



of litmus paper down into it and examining it 

 in an hour's time will indicate, according as it 

 retains its color or turns pink — the acid reaction 

 — the presence of acidity in the soil, or a cupful of 

 the soil may be mixed with water to a thin paste 

 and the paper inserted with the same diagnosis. 

 Lime is more in the form of a stimulant or in- 

 direct fertilizer than a real plant-food; it is in a 

 medical sense an alterative, changing the nature 

 of the soil. It not only sweetens, but mechan- 

 ically, it binds loose soil, but flocculates or opens 

 up tenacious clayey soils, affording freer passage 

 of air and water and lessening the tendency to 

 wash. It should be applied, on light, sandy soils 

 at the rate of about five hundred pounds per acre 

 or twenty-five pounds to every fifty square feet 

 of garden plot; ten times this amount can be 

 used on a heavy clay soil, but liming of the soil 

 is not necessary every year, about once in five 

 being desirable, so that considered as an expense 

 it is nearly negligible. Slaked lime is best, and 

 wood ashes, which contain about thirty-four per 

 cent, of lime, are valuable aids in building up the 

 fertility of the soil. They should not, however, be 



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