CARBONATE OF LIME. 117 
Crab grass had choked out the feeble growth. Mr. 
McDonald was a stubborn man and had seen alfalfa 
grow in South America. He was determined to 
grow it on Idlehour. Suspecting that lime was the 
thing needed, he burned a lot of it on his own place 
and applied it with a manure spreader. His aim 
was to apply about two tons to the acre. In many 
parts he applied at least double that amount. 
Wherever the manure spreader dropped the lime 
the alfalfa grew luxuriantly and the crab grass, was 
vanquished. I could not ‘but marvel as I drove 
through this wonderful alfalfa. It was the twenty- 
fourth day of July and the alfalfa stood above the 
axles of the carriage and was ready to be mown, the 
third crop for the season. There was hardly a bit of 
grass or any weeds in the alfalfa. To show that the 
lime had done the work, one could see where the 
man driving the spreader had left strips here and 
there without lime. In these strips was hardly any 
alfalfa, and it was little, feeble stuff, while just be- 
side it, where the lime had been applied, it stood up 
like a wall. 
Crab Grass and Lime.—It seems true that crab 
grass, that arch enemy of alfalfa in the south, is 
easily vanquished by use of a goodly amount of 
lime. I have enough evidence of this to believe that 
it may be laid down as a law that lime will cure crab 
grass in alfalfa. It is not probable that the lime 
destroys the crab grass, or is particularly injurious 
to it, but it so helps the alfalfa that it springs into 
quick growth and gets the start of the grass. Hardly 
