CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



expectation that a deficiency will appear at some 

 time in the future. Experience is the basis of 

 such a forecast. Just as coal was stored for the 

 benefit of human beings, so was lime placed in 

 store as a supply for soils when their unstable 

 content would be gone. 



The only ones that need be concerned with the 

 question of lime for soils are those who cannot 

 secure good growths of the clovers and other 

 legumes. Putting aside past experience, they 

 should learn whether their soils are now acid. 

 Practical farmers may judge by the character of 

 the vegetation and not fail to be right nine times 

 out of ten. Where land has drainage, and a 

 fairly good amount of available fertility, as evi- 

 denced by growths of grass, a failure of red clover 

 leads immediately to a strong suspicion that lime 

 is lacking. If alsike clover grows more readily 

 than the red clover, the probability of acidity 

 grows stronger because the alsike can thrive under 

 more acid soil conditions than can the red. Acid 

 soils favor red-top grass rather than timothy. 

 Sorrel is a weed that thrives in both alkaline and 

 acid soils, and its presence would not be an index 

 if it could stand competition with clover in an 

 alkaline soil. The clover can crowd it out if the 



[18] 



