i] LIMING OR CHALKING 3 



Liming or Chalking. 



Liming is indispensable for wet land or sour land. 

 The crop tells pretty plainly whether it is needed : these are the 



1. If clover fails to start well, or to stand the winter, or looks 

 bad in spring. 



A Suffolk farm was recently examined by the writer where 

 lucerne was failing in patches and weeds were consequently 

 getting a firm hold. A similar occurrence was investigated 

 on a Norfolk farm. The amounts of lime in the soil were: 



Suffolk Norfolk 



On the good parts: 0-8 0'6 per cent, calcium carbonate. 



On the bad patches: 0-07 0'2 



2. If swedes, turnips, or cabbages get finger and toe rather 

 badly. 



The Armstrong College experiments have shown that 

 2 tons per acre of ground lime, or 3 tons per acre of ground 

 limestone, afford suitable dressings in this case 1 . 



3. If mayweed springs up vigorously among the wheat, or 

 if spurrey, sorrel, or bent grass become prevalent. 



Land that has laid wet through the winter ought to have 

 lime in the spring: otherwise uneven patches may arise in the 

 field, causing the crop to ripen unevenly, and giving weeds a good 

 chance to develop. 



At the present moment lime is of further value because it 

 liberates the reserves of potash in the soil; indeed it is quite a 

 sound policy to spend on lime the money that would normally 

 be spent on potash. 



Lime can be put on either as ground lime, limestone, or chalk. 

 Convenient dressings are: 



From 10 cwts to 2 tons lime. 



1-4 tons ground limestone. 



20 loads small chalk, or 40 loads of larger lumps, such as 



are dug out of the ground. 



The smaller dressings can be used for light soils, and the 

 larger ones for heavy soils, or soils in bad physical condition. 



1 Armstrong College Bull No. 12, 1915. 



12 



