18 WILSON & TOOMER FERTILIZER COMPANY 



Other Uses of Lime 



Lime is one of the essentials of plant growth. It is 

 used to strengthen the cell walls, and with potash, aids 

 in the moving of organized plant foods starch, sugar, 

 etc., within the plant. The word "organized" is used 

 in this instance to distinguish the "digested" sap or com- 

 bined substances from the "raw" sap, or separate ele- 

 ments. Van Slyke, in his extensive study of the relation 

 of lime to plant growth, found lime to be most abundant 

 where there was the greatest activity; that "leaves use 

 over fifteen times as much as fruit;" and that the least 

 lime is found where "manufactured foods are stored and 

 in dead parts such as old wood." Without doubt, more 

 lime is used as a direct plant food than is generally sup- 

 posed, and it also has decidedly beneficial effects on 

 soil texture. 



Lime makes clay soils more open and sandy soils more 

 compact. It aids in the decomposition of organic matter 

 through creating conditions favorable for the rapid mul- 

 tiplication of bacteria. It, in a measure, replaces potash 

 in unavailable soil compounds and often induces a union 

 with the phosphoric acid of insoluble iron phosphates, 

 thus bringing both potash and phosphoric acid into avail- 

 ability. 



Because of this soil exhaustion it used to be said that 

 lime made "rich fathers and poor sons," but we now 

 have learned to reap the good and avoid the evil. 



