RIGHT USE OF LIME IN SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



to acidity than red clover, but often fails to 

 make a heavy sod where the deficiency in 

 lime is marked. Rhode Island Bent, 

 known as redtop, is less exacting, and 

 where it thrives to the exclusion of timothy, 

 or is in evidence in grass lands, the infer- 

 ence is fairly safe that a test would show 

 that the soil is sour. 



When Production Decreases. It is not a 

 matter of any moment to the owner of a 

 productive soil whether or not his soil 

 would give an acid or an alkaline reaction 

 under test. Returns from his labor are sat- 

 isfactory. Some land in this class is not 

 strictly alkaline. The man most interested 

 in the effects of lime applications is the one 

 who is not satisfied with yields. The tests 

 for acidity have been so many throughout 

 our eastern and central states that the owner 

 of land which is not productive has reason 

 for the presumption that its percentage of 

 lime is too low. There is danger of error, 

 and a scientific test is surer, but in most 

 cases the land which has been reduced from 

 a fertile to an unproductive state has lost its 

 alkaline nature. 



Naturally Thin Soils. Nature may be 

 prodigal in supplies of nearly all the ele- 



18 



