CHAPTEB X 



LIME IN AGEICULTUEE 



\0 be fertile a soil must contain limestone, sand, 

 and clay, besides the organic substances com- 

 ing from humus and fertilizers. Now it may be that 

 lature has not endowed the soil with a sufficient quan- 

 tity or with any of these three constituents. Then 

 the character of the soil must be corrected by giving 

 it what it lacks. That is what is called improving 

 the land. Thus a soil that is too sandy is improved 

 by the addition of limestone and clay ; one that is too 

 compact, too clayey, is improved by adding sand and, 

 still more, by adding limestone. Mineral substances 

 thus added to the soil to correct it are called cor- 

 rectives. These substances cooperate also in the 

 nutrition of plants, and from this point of view may 

 be regarded as mineral fertilizers. 



"One of the most valuable of correctives is lime, 

 which is indispensable to soils lacking limestone, in- 

 dispensable also to the nutrition of nearly all our 

 cultivated vegetables. It acts in various ways. 

 First, it energetically attacks vegetable substances, 

 decomposing them and converting them into humus. 

 A pile of leaves that would take long months to rot 

 becomes in a short time a mass of humus when mixed 

 with lime. Hence its great utility in fields over- 



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