HOW TO TELL ACID SOILS 233 



Liming, and also inoculation, may prove very profitable in 

 growing peas^ (Fig. 122). 



Other Crops Benefited by Liniing. — ^Aside from alfalfa, medium 

 red, Japan, and mammoth clovers, and peas, the following field 

 crops are directly benefited by liming when grown on acid soils: 

 Cabbage, sugar beets, tobacco, and to a lesser extent, soybeans, 

 barley, peanuts, hemp, muskmelons, and rape. The following 

 garden crops grow best on soils sufficiently suppHed with lime: 

 Asparagus, common beets, celery, lettuce, onions, parsnips, peppers, 

 salsify, spinnach, and to a lesser extent, the eggplant. 



Crops Which Tolerate Acidity. — There are many crops that 

 grow well on shghtly or medium acid soils — lupines,^ cowpeas, vel- 

 vet beans, vetch, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, wheat, 

 cotton, rye, buckwheat, alsike, crimson ^and bur clovers, beans, 

 millet, red top, watermelon, blackberry, raspberry and strawberry. 



Alsike clover, soybeans, velvet beans, crimson clover and bur 

 clover are well adapted to acid soils, though they grow best on 

 limed soils, especially if strongly acid. 



Certain citrus fruits, such as grape-fruit, are harmed by liming. 

 Other crops, like pineapple, have been injured By an excess of lime 

 on sandy soils. 



In some cases, liming favors the development of certain crop 

 diseases, such as scab in potatoes; and in other instances it is the 

 best remedy — club-root in cabbage and nematodes on root crops, 

 for example. 



The fact that there are many crops that can tolerate soil 

 acidity does not mean that they are not benefited in any way by 

 liming. Most of these crops respond to liming because of its 

 general renovating effect. When clover, for example, is benefited 

 through the use of agricxiltural lime and a prime sod is produced, 

 the crops following must necessarily be increased because of the 

 better clover and improved soil conditions. It is fortunate, never- 

 theless, that there are so many good crops that can tolerate 

 slight to medium degrees of soil acidity, since soil acidity is so 

 prevalent in humid regions. 



How to Tell Acid Soils. — ^Acid soils may be determined in 

 different ways, as follows: 



3 A 3-year test at Columbus, Wisconsin, gave an average increase of 32 4 

 per cent due to liming alone. Field had been inoculated- Soil, sHt loam. 



4 Lupines generally do not respond to liming, but are frequently injured, 

 instead. Cowpeas seem to grow well without liming 



