Improving the Condition of the Soil 



capacity that it renders enormous services to agricul- 

 ture, in which very often it plays a part as impor- 

 tant as, even more important than, manure. There 

 are soils, of course, to which it is not necessary to 

 give lime ; there are others in which its use would be 

 dangerous ; but not to employ it at all under any 

 form, on the pretext that the soil generally contains 

 sufficient, is a great mistake. On the other hand, we 

 must guard against its abuse, for it has been abused 

 terribly in times past, so much so as to give rise to 

 two dictums — inexact it is true : " Lime enriches 

 the father and impoverishes the son " ; and again, 

 "Lime once and make a fortune. Lime twice and 

 lose it." Well ! in either case the blame ought 

 not to be put on the lime, but on the person who 

 has abused it. It would be better to say, " When 

 lime has impoverished the soil it is because the 

 farmer does not know how to use it." And when 

 one hears of applications of four and five tons to the 

 acre, sometimes even of seven to ten, one is not 

 astonished at the harmful results. 



Heavy dressings on land under ordinary cultiva- 

 tion ought to be avoided. The very conspicuous 

 and rapid action of lime has given it a vogue, and 

 has led to the practice of giving it in large quanti- 

 ties. But in so doing the farmer is really killing 

 the goose that lays the golden eggs — in other words, 

 he is destroying the humus in the soil. Much, 

 however, as we condemn this abuse of lime, we 

 certainly recommend its reasonable use. 



But to be able to apply lime with a knowledge 

 of the subject one must imderstand the part it plays 

 and the services which it renders, and on that 



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