104 Maine: agricultural experiment station. 1909. 



Estimated Yield of Hay.^ 



No. I*, 1,000 lbs. lime applied 5^300 lbs. 



No. 2, no lime applied 3,200 lbs. 



^^o- 3' 750 lbs. lime applied 4,400 lbs. 



No. 4, no lime applied 3,000 lbs. 



No. 5, 500 lbs. lime applied . . . .' 3,250 lbs. 



It is clear that in these cases the application of lime materially- 

 increased the yield of clover, and it is probable that in many- 

 places where clover has not been successfully grown, that the 

 application of lime might prove a remedy. 



It is, however, a question whether in a State which is so 

 largely dependent upon the potato as a money crop, as is Maine, 

 whether it be wise to use lime in connection with crops until the 

 question of the scab fungus has been more thoroughly worked 

 out and the methods of controlling it further developed, and par- 

 ticularly it is learned how to fight it after a soil is once infested. 

 It is an open question whether it is not better policy to have 

 smaller yields of legumes and keep the soil somewhat acid, in 

 order to make the conditions for the development of potato scab 

 as little favorable as possible. In the experiments here reported, 

 there is apparently no special benefit from the lime upon the 

 grain crop or upon the ordinary Knglish grasses, but it proved 

 to be beneficial on the legumes. To Alaine farmers who make 

 potato growing an essential feature of their business it is sug- 

 gested that if they use lime, they do so in an experimental way 

 at the rate of perhaps 500 pounds to the acre, and that they 

 carefully note the eft'ect upon the yield of clover and the devel- 

 opment of scab. 



* Acre plots. 



