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CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



HERE is much in the action of lime 

 in the soil that is not known, but all 

 that we really need to know is simple and 

 easily comprehended. The purpose of this 

 little book is to set down the things that we 

 need to know in order that we may make 

 and keep our land friendly to plant life so 

 far as lime is necessarily concerned with 

 such an undertaking. Intelligent men like 

 to reason matters out for themselves so far 

 as practicable, taking the facts and testing 

 them in their own thinking by some truth 

 they have gained in their own experience 

 and observation, and then their convictions 

 stay by them and are acted upon. The 

 whole story of the right use of lime on land 

 is so simple and reasonable, when we stick 

 only to the practical side, that we should 

 easily escape the confusion of thought that 

 seems to stand in the way of action. The 

 experiment stations have been testing the 

 value of lime applications to acid soils, and 

 the government has been finding that the 



