1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
639 
A TALK ABOUT LIME. 
What It Is and How Prepared. 
The following notes are condensed from The Nature 
Guard, an excellent series of pamphlets issued by the 
Rhode Island Agricultural College. The author, Prof. 
H. J. Wheeler, is our highest American authority on 
the agricultural uses of lime: 
“Limestones in various parts of the world are given 
different names, according to the manner in which 
they were deposited, the materials of which they were 
made, their purity, color, hardness, etc. A fine quality 
of limestone, like that found at Rutland, Vt., is known 
as marble. You are all familiar with the shells of 
clams and oysters. There are other animals having 
similar hard shells of widely different shapes and 
sizes. Some such animals live in fresh water, but the 
greater portion live in the ocean. Beside the shells 
which are large enough to be readily seen, there are 
in the ocean enormous numbers of tiny ones that can 
only be distinguished by the aid of a microscope. Such 
shells form chalk. When the animals die the shells 
in which they had lived, like the skeletons of the 
corals, accumulate in large quantities. If they are on 
or near the seashore they may be broken or even 
ground to powder by the waves. When ground in this 
way one would never suspect from what the material 
was originally derived. Vast quantities of solid mat¬ 
ter are always being carried into the sea by rivers and 
streams. Where the shore is gradually settling such 
materials may accumulate to a deptn of thousands of 
feet so that an enormous weight may finally come to 
rest upon the shells. 
“The earth is continually growing smaller. Apples 
do the same thing when Kept in a dry place. When 
the apple shrinks tne sKin wrinkles 
because it is so soft that it can do so. 
When the earth shrinks it sometimes 
wrinkles, though the outer crust is 
now so hard that it usually breaks. 
Such wrinkling, breaking and grind¬ 
ing together of the earth’s crust makes 
it for a time very hot. The internal 
heat of the earth and the heat thus 
caused, assisted by the pressure of the 
material resting upon the shells, have 
changed them into crystalline lime¬ 
stones and marbles. 
“If you visit a lime-kiln you may 
learn how limestone is put into it with 
wood or coal and burned. By burning, 
a gas is driven off into the air. This 
gas consists of two things called ele¬ 
ments. One of these elements is car¬ 
bon, which exists in the form of lamp¬ 
black, coal, graphite (the black ma¬ 
terial in lead pencils) and diamonds. 
The carbon, when it escapes from the 
limestone, is combined with oxygen. 
This oxygen gas is a part of the air 
we breathe. Thus a gas has united 
with a solid body and in this instance 
the whole has become a gas. Chem¬ 
ists write C tor carbon and O for oxy¬ 
gen. This gas may also be driven from limestone 
by means of acids. Take a few little pieces of lime¬ 
stone or marble and pour over them some warm vine¬ 
gar. Soon the acid, which is the sour substance of the 
vinegar, will drive out the gas and you may see the 
little bubbles of carbon dioxide collect upon the 
pieces, then finally rise and escape into the air. You 
can make the same gas by taking wood ashes or bak¬ 
ing soda, instead of limestone. After the gas has been 
driven out of limestone or shells by heating, there is 
left behind what is known as quick or burned lime. 
This is the kind that masons use in preparing mor¬ 
tar. If water and burned lime are brought together, 
the water boils, hisses and becomes very hot, forming 
whitewash. If only a little water is sprinkled over the 
lime, it crumbles, forming water-slaked lime. 
"If a little burned lime is put into a large bottle 
nearly full of water, it will slake. If slaked, stopped 
up, and allowed to settle, the clear liquid will be what 
is known as lime-water. This can be bought of any 
druggist. If you breathe into a glass of lime-water 
through a straw, pipestem or glass tube, little solid 
white particles will be formed, which cause it to be¬ 
come milky. The carbon dioxide which you breathe 
out unites with the lime of the lime-water and forms 
particles of carbonate of lime. If this could be made 
into a hard crystalline mass, it would be limestone. 
If left standing in an open glass, lime-water will grad¬ 
ually take carbon dioxide out of the air and form a 
white scum of carbonate of lime upon the surface. 
Without carbonate of lime plants cannot grow. Soils 
containing too little of it become acid or sour. In 
order to learn whether a soil is acid, stir up two or 
three tablespoonfuls of it with just enough water to 
make a thick paste. Part the soil and insert one end 
of a small strip of blue litmus paper, which you can 
buy at almost any drug store. Take care not to touch 
your fingers to the end of the paper which you place 
in the soil, for there is acid on your fingers. After a 
quarter of an hour remove the paper and rinse care¬ 
fully the end which was in me soil. If the blue color 
has disappeared and a distinct reddish one has taken 
its place, the soil is acid. Another way to test it is 
to put a teaspoonful of soil in a glass, fill it nearly 
full of water, add two teaspoonfuls of dilute ammonia 
water, stir and let it stand for several hours. A dark 
brown or black liquid above the soil shows that it 
lacks carbonate of lime.” 
ENGLISH PRICES OF AMERICAN GOODS. 
Regarding the prices of American manufactured 
goods in this country, I herewith enclose list of the 
most common ones. There are great quantities of 
American agricultural machines sold in England, but 
the prices are about the same as home manufacture; 
the dealers regulate the price. Self binders are about 
$150 cash, $165 credit; mowers, tedders and rakes 
about 40 to 100 per cent above the prices in America. 
American food stuffs: Bacon, 16 cents per pound: 
cheese, 14 cents; lard, 14 cents; American chilled 
beef, chiefly fore quarters, about eight to 15 cents per 
pound. All these are retail prices. There are no for¬ 
eign-made shovels in this town; they are not the 
shape used here. They are made in this place and 
sold at very low prices; stamped shovels from 30 to 
50 cents each. Fruit jars, as known in the United 
States, are not used here (that is, jars with patent 
screw tops). Jars are cheap and are bought filled 
with jam, and seldom used again, but thrown away. 
American preserved fruit comes in tins, peaches, 
pears and tomatoes. There is not much competition 
in heavy goods in this district, as Wolverhampton 
makes pretty nearly everything in the shape of iron 
goods and exports to all parts. Wire nails, two to 
three-inch, per 112 pounds, $2.8 d; wire nails, four to 
six-inch, per 112 pounds, $2.25; barb wire, four points 
set three inches apart, per 112 pounds, $.1.85; the 
above goods are chiefly German. American hay forks, 
four-foot shaft, each 18 cents, with six-foot shaft and 
upwards, 35 cents. American manure forks, 54 cents; 
hay hand rakes, per dozen, $1.85; moving spanners, 
from 30 to 85 cents each. Washboards, from 12 to 25 
cents; American wheelbarrows, $3.25; ax handles, 12 
to 25 cents. james chadwick. 
Wolverhampton, England. 
SECOND-GROWTH CLOVER IN THE SILO. 
I noticed a recent inquiry asking what to do with 
the second growth of clover. I will tell you what we 
are doing with a heavy growth at Baker Homestead. 
This piece of about three acres near the barn was 
cut the first time the last Saturday in June. It rained 
almost every day through July, and the first half of 
August; consequently the second growth was about 
as heavy as the first and as we had no room under 
cover if we made hay of it we decided to put it in a 
stave silo standing close to a bank, which gave us 
about an advantage of six feet to fill. I placed a 
scaffold down about six feet from the top, and as the 
silo is only 20 feet high it was not hard work to pitch 
it up, and I concluded to fill it with whole clover or 
mixed grass, as the Timothy as well as clover was just 
in bloom. As I wished to get along without too much 
help I left my Blizzard cutter standing in the barn. 
August 25 three of us commenced to fill a 50-ton silo 
with freshly-mown mixed grass. The first afternoon 
we got in three loads, next day five, and so on. One 
afternoon it was too hot and dry, the grass wilted Loo 
fast, and we quit until the next day. We have put 
in every day from one to three loads, and tramped it 
as hard as we could and this morning a load, and we 
think we can put in two more, and that will finish it. 
So far all we have put in the silo has come off this 
one piece of ground. We have been at very little ex¬ 
pense, as we have finished up the oat and barley har¬ 
vest, and plowed some in the same time, as well as 
cleaned up the briers and weeds around the fences. 
I don’t think we have used to exceed 12 days’ work, 
so if we get 40 tons of silage it will not be very ex¬ 
pensive feed. Our corn for silage is making a great 
growth, and if September continues warm we may 
get some grain on it to fill our other two silos. I 
will report our failure or success when the feeding of 
our hay silage comes on. a. d. b. 
Auburn, N. Y. 
WHEAT GROWING IN NEW JERSEY. 
Part II. 
Phosphoric acid is the controlling element in ferti¬ 
lizing wheat. In the ash of the wheat plant there is 
only one-half as much potash as there is in the ash 
of corn and oats, and the need of available nitrogen 
is not so great in the case of a long-growing plant 
like wheat as in the case of other farm crops. The 
cheapest source of this phosphoric acid is lound in 
acid phosphate. At $12 per ton it gives the available 
phosphoric acid for 4 y 2 cents per pound. In the aver¬ 
age brand of ready-mixed wheat “specials” which are 
on the market in great numbers there 
is eight to nine per cent of phosphoric 
acid, two per cent of potash and some¬ 
times a little nitrogen for appearance 
sake. I doubt if you will find one in 
which the potash and nitrogen cannot 
be bought tor $4, and, as the “spe¬ 
cials” cost from $19 to $21 per ton, the 
phosphoric acid in them costs the 
farmer 10 cents per pound. Farmers 
are not in the habit of paying 10 
cents a pound for what they can get 
for 4 y 2 , but this is what they are 
doing. Taking into consideration the 
cost of fertilizing a field of wheat 200 
pounds per acre, 200 pounds per acre 
of the acid phosphate is $1.20 per acre, 
while a like amount of the so-called 
complete fertilizer is $2. But you may 
say that the latter will go farther. On 
the contrary, it does not go as far. In 
the former instance you are giving the 
wheat 28 pounds of phosphoric acid, 
the element it most needs, and in the 
latter only 18 pounds. 
I am aware that there is a prejudice 
against acid phosphate, and many 
farmers will not have it around if they 
know it. They claim that it ruins their 
land—makes the soil hard and sour. This lack of ap¬ 
preciation of a useful article is due in part to the hos¬ 
tility of the fertilizer agent, and in part to a misun¬ 
derstanding of its proper place and use. Its proper use 
should go along with a better system of farming. 
Nitrogen should be grown in the form of clovers and 
cow peas, and not only bought in bags. It then en¬ 
ters into the soil in the form of humus and vegetable 
molds, loosening the soil, giving it life and enabling 
it to withstand the attacks of drought. The feeding 
of stock and the careful saving of the manurial 
wastes, both liquid and solid, also go with it; also 
a little lime occasionally to make the clover thrive, 
and more tillage to make the inert plant food of the 
soil available. All these introduced in the farming, 
and the use of acid phosphate is not only safe but 
economical in the highest degree. 
FARM POWER.—Elmer E. Tufts, of Dearborn Co., 
Ind., sends the picture shown at Fig. 256. This, he 
says, is the best power for a farmer—a strong, intelli¬ 
gent horse. He is right about that. What the steam 
engine is to a factory the farm team is to a farm. 
Little wonder the western pioneers were ready to 
hang a horsethief, for they knew that the farmer was 
ruined without his working team. We find that the 
type of farm horse desired varies with the locality— 
whether it be smooth or level, or whether the soil is 
light or heavy. Some farmers want “beef” on their 
horses, while others want lighter, active animals that 
can travel at a good pace on the road, and sober down 
when in front of the plow. Whatever the type may 
be the true farmer respects his horses and gives them 
a fair chance to do their work. All farm animals de¬ 
serve good treatment, aud none responds more fully 
than the horse. 
GEO. E. SCOTT, OF OHIO. Fig. 257. Skk Page 641. 
