CHAPTER XII 

 LIME HYDRATE 



Slaking Lime. The usual means of re- 

 ducing fresh burned stone lime to a condi- 

 tion that makes even distribution upon land 

 possible is by slaking. A few years ago 

 considerable effort was made to create a 

 market for lime pulverized by machinery, 

 but the difficulty in excluding the moisture 

 of the air so that packages would not burst 

 has been in the way of developing a market. 

 Slaking, by the addition of water to the 

 fresh burned lime, is the common method 

 of getting the required physical condition. 

 When the slaking is done on the farm, the 

 custom has been to distribute the lime in 

 small piles in the field, placing the piles at 

 such convenient distance apart that the 

 lime, after slaking, could be spread easily 

 with a shovel. 



The water for slaking comes from rains, 

 or from moisture in the air and earth. The 

 method is wasteful and can be justified, if 

 ever, only where farm-burned lime costs 

 little per ton, and the nature of the soil is 



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