348 



Liming. 



[July, 



by the second year the Hmed plot shows practically identical 

 results with the unmanured." The writer was requested to 

 sample the soil of the various plots in order to ascertain their 

 lime requirements. As indicated in the table given below, soil 

 samples were taken from : — (1) Fescue pasture areas, (2) areas 

 containing a high proportion of white clover, (3) Molinia 

 pasture areas, (4) peaty layer 1 in. to 2 in. depth covering the 

 fescue areas. 



Table showing lime requirement of soil from various plots. 



No. of 

 Sample. 



Description of Sample. 



Manurial 

 treatment of 

 ploi. 



Lime require- 

 ments calcu- 

 lated as 

 CaCO 3 percent* 



1 



Sample of the peaty surface of the 

 fescue area 



B. slag 



u-974 



2 



Sample of soil, fescue area. Plot I 



,, ,, 



0-180 



3 



„ •, . 11 



„ „ muriate of 

 potash 



0-420 



4 



„ . .• •• vin 



Lime, superphos- 

 phate, muriate 



0-460 



5 



. „ ,. , iv 



Lime, superphos- 

 phate 



0-430 



6 



.. „ „ „ V 



Lime, 10 cwt. per 

 acre 



O-390 



7 





No manure 



U-JtJO 



8 



,, .. ., clover „ I 





0-295 



1) 



,, ,, „ Molinia., ,, lY 





1 -065 



10 



,, ,, ,, bog land adjoining 

 plotsi 





0-735 



The figures given in the table show that the lime-requirement 

 of the soil of the Fescue pasture was very high (samples 2 to 7) 

 and that it was still higher in the case of the Molinia pasture 

 (sample 9). In the isolated spots where the clovers flourished 

 the Kme requirement was much lower (sample 8). The lime- 

 requirement of the surface peaty layer overlying the Fescue area 

 (sample 1) was so high that if a small dressing of lime were 

 applied it would be used up before it reached the undprlying 

 portion of the soil. Further, the lime-requirement figures in 

 general were so high that it could not reasonably be expected 

 that a small dressing of Hme would lead to much improvement. 

 The nature of the soil on these plots was fairly representative 

 of hill soils in Mid Wales. It is, therefore, not surprising that 

 small dressings of ground Hmestone applied to upland pastures 

 have often been " failures." This experiment was conducted in 

 the district of which Thomas Johnes wrote, and it explains the 



« 1 per cent, lime requirement is approximately equivalent to 1 ton per 

 acre for a soil 9 in. deep. 



