66 BULLETIN 355, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
material, original cost, fineness, freight, distance to haul, condition 
of roads, and handling. 
When 100 pounds of pure limestone is burned it gives 56 pounds 
of quicklime, which, when slaked with water, will give 74 pounds of 
hydrated lime. Hence, for neutralizing acidity, 56 pounds of burned 
lime is equal to 100 pounds of limestone or 74 pounds of slaked lime. 
Relatively speaking, the application of 1 ton per acre of burned lime 
would be equivalent to the use of 1| tons per acre of slaked lime, or 
2 tons per acre of finely ground limestone. On average acid soils 
such an application is ample for from three to five years, at the end 
of which time it might be advisable to use one-half the amount of 
the previous application. When limestone is used it should be 
comparatively fine, and it might prove in many cases more practical, 
and eventually more economical, to apply a larger quantity per acre 
than above noted at correspondingly longer periods of time. Where 
lime in any form is used for alfalfa, which commonly occupies the 
land from six to eight years, liberal applications are necessary. In a 
short rotation, where potatoes is one of the crops, it is advisable to 
make light applications of lime and to add the material during each 
cycle of the rotation following the harvest of the potato crop. 
Lime may be applied at any season of the year when its use is 
convenient. It should be mixed with the soil as thoroughly as pos- 
sible. For this reason it is better not to plow the lime under, but to 
apply it after plowing, following with the disk or other harrow. If 
applied just ahead of a tilled crop, such as corn, the cultivation of 
the crop will aid in mixing the lime into the soil. In a distinctly 
acid soil, where red clover is one crop of the rotation, it is well to 
apply the lime in preparing for the crop preceding the red clover. 
Surface application on grass land will give some benefit, but not so 
much as where the lime can be more thoroughly incorporated with 
the soil. 
The application of lime by hand with a shovel is tedious, and it 
can not be spread very evenly in this manner. The fertilizer attach- 
ment of a grain drill will sow lime when it is granular and not damp, 
but will spread not more than one-half ton to the acre. It is a com- 
mon practice to use a manure spreader for this purpose, placing a layer 
of litter upon the table before loading the lime. Moreover, where 
the use of some form of lime is an established practice on the farm, 
a lime distributer will prove a good investment. There are several 
kinds of these on the market. Satisfactory homemade distributers 
have been built by using the wheels from a laid-by mowing machine 
and constructing a box and the feeding apparatus. 
Other benefits from the use of lime. — Besides correcting acidity, lime 
causes other benefits in the soil, the principal of which are (1) the im- 
provement of the physical condition, especially of clays; (2) the im- 
