CARBONATE OF LIME. Ill 



indeed .with nine- tenths of the farms of America the 

 fertility is so low that any ho'pe of profitable agri- 

 culture thereon must first be based upon a stern and 

 inflexible determination to build the soils and make 

 them rich. It is a great thought then that we have 

 here, that soils filled with carbonate of lime naturally 

 grow rich of themselves if planted with leguminous 

 crops, or even left in a state of nature, and that 

 upon these soils stored abundantly with lime almost 

 any degree of fertility may be built. And what 

 other function has lime in the soil? We need' not 

 stop here to discuss its power to floculate and ren- 

 der more porous the soil, its ability to bind together 

 sands, and so on. Perhaps that power of lime has 

 been exaggerated, but this. is true, soils rich in car- 

 bonate of lime are almost universally rich also in 

 pho'sphorus. This arises from two causes, one that 

 lime carbonates usually carry a percentage of phos- 

 phorus in their own composition; the other, that 

 they prevent the waste of phosphorus by its leach- 

 ing away, or its uniting in insoluble compounds with 

 iron or alumina. 



Lime the Basis. — To put it short, you cannot build 

 a soil rich in either nitrogen phosphorus or prob- 

 ably potash unless it is first rich in carbonate of 

 lime. There is here a great field for thought. Hil- 

 o-ard says that no great and enduring civilization 

 has ever been built upon an acid soil. This seems 

 true. Babylon stood on an alkaline plain rich in 

 lime, Egypt's soils are reputed rich in lime, Greece 

 was built 'bpon marble hills, Eome upon limestone, 



