160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



This subject of lime is too important to be passed over 

 without further general comment. Upland and naturally 

 well-drained soils have not been usually considered, in this 

 country, as sufficiently acid to prove injurious to plants ; and 

 the occurrence of such a degree of acidity in such soils in 

 New England has been, if not publicly, yet pi'ivately and 

 by way of personal correspondence, questioned by several 

 of the leading agricultural chemists and professors of agri- 

 culture in New England. Notwithstanding this, carbonate 

 of lime has been shown to ])e so deficient in many sections 

 of Rhode Island that the ])rofitable production of beets, 

 clover, timothy and many other crops is impossible until 

 the acidity of the soil has been reduced by the use of alka- 

 line applications, such as stable manure, wood ashes and 

 lime. Even upon precipitous hillsides, with a fall of one 

 foot in every six to ten feet descent, similar observations 

 have been made. As a result of this, farmers in other 

 States have taken to testing their soils and using lime, 

 records of wonderful successes from its employment having 

 come to hand from New Jersey, sections of New York, 

 where it was not supposed to be lacking, Connecticut, New 

 Hampshire, and also from Wellesley, Westminster and Bol- 

 ton in the State of Massachusetts. 



These statements are made with the full knowledo:e of the 

 fact that the professor of agriculture at your Agricultural 

 College conducted many experiments with lime in Massa- 

 chusetts, and found it of little or no use. The applications 

 made were, however, too small to show marked results, and 

 the experiments were conducted with Indian corn, a plant 

 which thrives well on acid soil, and which seldom shows, 

 superficially, a marked benefit from liming, provided it is 

 supplied wnth a liberal amount of the three usual elements 

 with the nitrogen as nitrates. 



Personal observations and chemical tests of soils lead to 

 the belief that many sections of Massachusetts may be greatly 

 benefited by a further study of this question, if conducted 

 in the proper way ; and to the further conviction that, though 

 still apparently almost ignored so far as concerns the State 

 at large, it is a most promising field for investigation by 

 your experiment station. 



