AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 181 



This yield is low for either plot, but the facts that the land 

 had been so shortly reclaimed, and that commercial fertil- 

 izers were depended npon entirely, no humus being added, 

 account for it. 



During the last cultivation of the corn, the land was seeded 

 to clover and grass, to carry the experiment still another sea- 

 son. The weight of grass taken from these plots this season 

 was, for the limed, 2,975 pounds, and for the unlimed, 2,660 

 pounds, — a difference of 315 pounds in favor of the limed 

 land. The second crop was pastured, and therefore is not 

 included in the above weights. 



Experiment 3. This experiment was undertaken last 

 spring through the assistance of two students in the Two 

 Years' Course in Agriculture, Mr. C. W. Martin and Mr. G. H. 

 Wheeler, to ascertain if the various fields of the college farm 

 would be helped by liming: The work carried out in the 

 main was to apply the tests recommended by Professor 

 Wheeler of Khode Island,* ''How to Ascertain if a Soil will be 

 Helped by Liming.'^ The method, which is simple and should 

 be understood by every one, is as follows: 



"A tablespoonful or more of soil is placed in a tumbler or 

 cup and moistened with sufficient water to make the mass of 

 about the consistency of a thick paste. It is best to allow it 

 to stand for from fifteen to twenty minutes before making 

 the test, thouo-h it mav be made at once. With a knife blade 

 part the soil and introduce one end of a slip of blue litmus 

 paper, j which may conveniently be one half to three quarters 

 of an inch wide and two inches long, press the soil about the 

 paper, and after from two to five minutes remove the paper 

 without tearing it, rinse off the adhering soil with water and 

 note whether it still retains a blue tint or has become posi- 

 tively red. If the paper bas been strongly reddened, it may 

 be concluded that lime will probably benefit many crops which 

 may be grown upon the soil. If the soil has a marked red- 

 dish tint, as is sometimes the case, it mav be better to brino- 



* Bulletin 46, R. I. Agricultural Experiment Station. 



+ A few cents will buy enough at any apothecary store to make many 

 tests. 



