LIMING THE LAND IO7 



soil may be bettered and improved. But do you know 

 these useful kinds are active only when the soil is free of 

 acid, or is neutral in its reaction? If this is true, then 

 we cannot expect these good fairies of the soil to do 

 their work, unless we do our part and get rid of this dis- 

 tasteful enemy. Our legumes root tubercle plants 

 quickly disappear from any soil where an acid condition 

 prevails. 



Not many years ago we heard much about "clover sick" 

 soils. We know more about these now: some were acid 

 soils, and clover disliked them ; root tubercles failed to 

 develop because the bacteria were unable to thrive or 

 even live in such soils ; and, without bacteria, there could 

 be no formation of the nodules, and without the nodules, 

 there could be no vigorous growth of the clover plant. 

 Just as soon as lime was used freely enough to correct 

 the acid condition, bacteria returned to these lands and 

 the clover plant prospered as it had done in former days, 

 when the land was sweet and wholesome, and filled with 

 an abundance of vegetable matter. 



If it is your plan to employ leguminous crops in your 

 system of farming, so that needed nitrogen may be 

 secured fully and without cost to you, it will be to your 

 profit and advantage to guard against an acid condition 

 of your lands ; for the tiny forms of plant life that multiply 

 and grow and develop in the soil are the direct means of in- 

 creasing the yields of the useful crops that grow out of it. 



