The Story-Book of the Fields 



nutrition of all our cultivated vegetables. 

 It acts in various ways. In the first place 

 it attacks vegetable substances vigorously, 

 decomposes them, and converts them into 

 humus. A heap of leaves that would take 

 a long time to rot, if mingled with lime soon 

 becomes a mass of humus. Hence it is of 

 great use in fields that contain many weeds, 

 or in those that have been recently cleared, 

 or wherever there are old trunks, heaps 

 of leaves, fragments of wood or heath to be 

 removed. It will speedily convert all these 

 herbaceous or woody substances into humus, 

 enriching the ground to the great advantage 

 of future harvests. 



In the second place, lime will correct and 

 neutralise the acid nature of some soils. 

 This property is shown in the following 

 experiment. If we mix a little lime with 

 strong vinegar we shall find that the smell 

 and acid taste will soon disappear. Where- 

 ever there are rotting plants, leaves, mosses, 

 reeds, or old trunks of trees, substances with 

 a bitter taste are produced, otherwise called 

 acids, the presence of which is injurious to 

 all cultivation. This is specially the case 

 in marshy ground, where the excessive acidity 

 suits the tough growth of reeds and sedges 



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