FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
95 
shown that in all such waters lime is the 
ingredient most abundantly leached 
out, and the same has been shown to 
be true of the waters of some of the 
world’s largest rivers. Reade, in his 
treatise on Chemical Denudation in 
Relation to Geological Time, calculates 
that 143 1-2 tons of lime carbonate are 
annually removed by solution from 
each square mile of land in England and 
Wales, and the average amount remov¬ 
ed annually from each square mile of 
the earth’s surface is about 50 tons. 
SOILS OF LIMESTONE ORIGIN MAY BE DEFI¬ 
CIENT IN LIME. 
It is commonly believed that soils 
of limestone origin are rich in lime, but 
this is not necessarily the case. The 
relative ease with which limestone dis¬ 
solves in carbonated waters partly ac¬ 
counts for this fact. An instance has 
been cited where two soils were 
thought, by the owner, to be rich in 
lime, derivedi from lime-stone rock, but 
while the parent rock in one case con¬ 
tained 92.6 per cent carbonate of lime, 
and in the other 91.3 per cent., the soils 
contained only 3.28 per cent, and .40 
per cent., respectiv'ely. In another in¬ 
stance, the parent rock contained 30 per 
cent, carbonate of lime, and the result¬ 
ing soil .14 per cent. 
THE FUNCTIONS OF LIME IN AGRICULTURE. 
Although all plants require lime, it is 
not usually regarded as a fertilizer in 
the sense that phosphoric acid, potash, 
and nitrogen are, since it usually ex¬ 
ists in tlie soil in quantities far in excess 
of the actual food requirements of the 
plant. (Among the other elements 
which are required by plants, but which 
exist in the soil in quantities quite suffi¬ 
cient for their requirements, may be 
mentioned iron, sulphur, magnesium, and 
sodium). However, there may be rare 
instances where the soil has been so 
thoroughly exhausted of its lime that 
an application of this material would be 
of value from the standpoint of a fer¬ 
tilizer. As we have just seen, lime has 
a part to play in building up the plant. 
This is shown by the fact that calcium, 
one of the elements of lime, is found in 
all plant ashes. This may be termed its 
physiological function. 
Physically, lime improves the condi¬ 
tion of the soil; if it be a clay soil it 
becomes more mellow, and is more eas¬ 
ily drained and cultivated; if it be a san¬ 
dy soil the lime acts as a cementing 
linaterial, binding the grains together, 
thus lessening the loss of water and 
plant food by percolation. 
Chemically, lime aids in rendering 
more available, elements of plant food 
which are locked up in the soil and are 
unavailable to the plant; especially, is 
this true of potash. 
In the processes of the nitrification of 
organic compounds, nitrates are formed, 
and if no base is present to unite with 
these, they are easily lost by leaching ; 
however, if lime be present, they will unite 
with the calcium of the lime, and in this 
form, calcium nitrate, they are readily 
available as plant food. Lime hastens 
the decomposition of organic matter, and 
aids in the formation of ammonia and 
Other nitrogen compounds from this or¬ 
ganic matter. 
A function of lime which we have 
been slow to recognize, but which nev¬ 
ertheless is an important one, is its 
power to correct acidity, or sourness, 
in soils, due partly at least to the pres¬ 
ence of organic acids. Such soils are 
