i52 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Marci i 
Part I IT. 
LVood Ashes and Bono. 
Last week, we talked about the action 
of ashes on the soil. We see that one 
ton of unleached ashes contains 1,233 
pounds of lime. What about that? What 
does it do and why is it valuable ? What 
we call liras, is really a compound sub¬ 
stance—like water. What we call water, 
isn’t one simple substance—it is a mix¬ 
ture of two gases—oxygen and hydrogen 
—the most helpful and common com¬ 
bination in the world. There is a curious 
metal called calcium—of no value in its 
pure state except as a curiosity. When 
united with oxygen it forms a %vhite sub¬ 
stance which we know as lime. This 
lime carries and retains the properties 
of the useless calcium so that they may 
be used as plant food, and for doing 
peculiar and needed work in the soil. 
Lime is found in the ash of all plants, 
and is a necessary element. it is not 
ranked with potash, phosphoric acid and 
nitrogen in valuing plant food, because 
it is so abundant in most soils that 
plants have a ready supply. Few, if 
any, crops will take from an acre in one 
season more lime than can be carried in 
a large basket, while, naturally, Jime is 
one of the most abundant substances in 
the world. It has been estimated that 
one-sixth of all the rocks on the surface 
of the globe, are iimestone. and that the 
metal, calcium, forms nearly eight par 
cent of the earth’s solid crust. There¬ 
fore, there can be no lack of lime for 
plant food. The other three substauees 
often named are singled out because of 
the money it costs to buy and apply 
them. It is a question of value entirely, 
and we value lime aud pay our money 
for it not to feed our plants directly, but 
to make the soil do better work. 
Like everything else, lime appears in 
many different forms as it com bines with 
other substances. Limestone and oyster 
shells are two forms that would have 
little value in the soil. Burn them, how¬ 
ever, and you have a white, line powder 
called “quicklime.” This *• quicklime,” 
as you know, unites quickly with water, 
giviugoft’ heat and ‘fizz” in doing so. 
We call that “slaking,” and the hot, 
caustic action which will burn your 
finger, or heat your dinner pail, gives a 
needed and useful action on the vege¬ 
table matter in the soil, or even on the 
tough soil particles. This is a chemical 
or dissolving action which wc shall say 
more about when we come to talk of 
this vegetable matter or humus. You see 
the importance of applying lime un- 
slaked, or before it is mixed with water, 
in order to secure this action in the soil. 
Lime is usually “air-slaked” when ap¬ 
plied—that is. partly “slaked” by the 
moisture in the air. We saw last week 
how ashes act on open soils. Ilow does 
the lime help in this? When you white¬ 
wash your henhouse, you mix some of 
this air-slaked lime with water to form 
a thin paste. This is spread over the 
boards in a thin layer. As it dries, it 
forms a hard, tough film which sticks so 
hard to the board that you cannot even 
scrub it off easily. Whitewash a brick 
or a pile of stones, and the lime will 
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stick oven closer. Or make mortar by mix¬ 
ing a great many little stones like gravel 
and sand all through the whitewash, and 
you have a better i 11 ustration of the power 
of “quicklime” after receiving water 
and drying out to stick and bind coarser 
particles together. Now you can see 
what happens when a heavy dressing of 
quicklime is put on a coarse or sandy 
soil. The action is like that of the white¬ 
wash or mortar. Water mixes with the 
lime, and causes it to act on the coirser 
particles of the soil, and bind them to¬ 
gether very much as the sand in the 
mortar is fastened or “ set.” Of course, 
we do not use enough lime to make the 
whole soil into mortar, but the action is 
much the same, and the result is to bind 
the particles together and make the soil 
better able to hold moisture and give the 
plant roots a better chance. The potash 
and soda in the wood ashes, as we saw 
last week, also help bind the soil to¬ 
gether by means of a lye or soapy action. 
For this reason, they often harm a stiff 
clay soil, while leached ashes or pure 
lime oft; n helps such clays. Bow is that ? 
The trouble with a stiff clay is that 
the soil particles are too fine. The great 
difference between sand and clay lies in 
the size of the soil particles—one is 
coarse and the other ground into a fine 
powder. The clay, of course, contains 
more water because its drainage is not 
so perfect. This makes it hard and 
sticky, and also cold, because the air 
cannot work through and evaporate the 
water and warm it up. We shall tell 
more about this when we come to talk 
about soils. It has been noticed that 
well-limed clays change their character 
somewhat. The drainage seems to be a 
little better, and the soil becomes warmer 
and drier and more easy to work. That 
seems strange at first when we think 
that liming sand makes it hold water 
better, and that the trouble with claj is 
that it holds water too well. 
Now the particles of the sand are much 
larger than those of the lime, and they 
thus give the latter a chance to “hold 
on” when it dries out after water is 
added. With the very much finer clay 
particles, an opposite action occurs. 
This is called “ flocculation,” or the pro¬ 
cess of collecting these finer particles 
into larger grains. For example, a mud 
puddle may cont lin grains of soil so fine 
that they are lighter than water, and 
will float in it. Add quicklime, and the 
water becomes clear. Why ? Because 
these very fine particles have quickly 
formed into large ones which are heavier 
than water, and sink to the bottom. 
Without this action of lime in the soil, 
many of our clay lands would be washed 
away as fine mud in heavy rain storms. 
Another action of lime may be noticed 
in brick making. Take some tough, hard 
clay, mix it with water, work it up into 
a putty-like mass and let it dry out. It 
will form as hard as a stone. Add to 
the mass a small amount of quicklime, 
and when it dries, a light blow will m ike 
it crumble into small pieces. Now lime 
on the stiff clay soil acts to make the soil 
patches cohere into larger grains, and to 
prevent the clods turned up in plowing 
from drying out as hard as bricks. The 
result of enlarging the soil particles is to 
give more space between them, and thus 
better drainage and better access for the 
air. This not only warms the soil, but 
gives the plant roots a better chauec to 
work through it. 
These may be callcl the mechanical 
effects of lime by which the soil itself is 
better prepared to make use of water 
and air. Another thing that puts the 
soil in better shape, is destroying an ex¬ 
cess of acid. Little babies often suffer 
from colie caused by a “ sour” stomach 
or the presence of an acid fermentation. ! 
A little lime water often gives almost 1 
instant relief, because it neutralizes or 
“kills” the acid. Sour soils are caused 
by the presence of acid. They are 
usually cold and wet with poor drainage, 
or too much green vegetable matter that 
cannot decay properly. Lime not only 
gives better drainage and lets in more 
air bv the soil actions we have notieed, 
i 
hut also “kills the acid” by destroying 
its sourness, as soda would take the sour 
taste out of vinegar or partly change the 
taste of souring milk. It is often said 
that lime sweetens land, and this will 
explain why that is so. After thor¬ 
oughly draining a swamp or bog so as to 
remove the surplus water, one of the 
first things usually done is to put on a 
heavy dressing of wood ashes or quick¬ 
lime. We now see w'vj that is a good 
thing, because we know how lime affects 
the soil. But it does other things, too. 
The soil is full of vegetable matter—the 
roots and the leaves and stems of plants 
that have either died and fallen on the 
surface, or been worked into the sod. 
This is called humus. We are not to dis¬ 
cuss it now. Liter, under soils and 
nitrogen, we shall talk fully about it. 
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