54 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
soil was pine land soil, and what they 
needed was the forty per cent of carbon¬ 
ate of lime which the ashes contained. 
All productive soils contain a fairly 
large amount of lime. Professor Fippin, 
of the New York Agricultural College, 
places the amount in a normal soil at 
24,000 pounds per acre of soil one foot 
deep, or at .8 of one per cent. When the 
proportion of lime falls below a certain 
limit the crop yields begin to diminish. 
This limit is not constant, but varies ac¬ 
cording to crop and the texture of the soil. 
Red clover and alfalfa will do best when 
the soil contains at least 3 per cent of 
lime. Let us then see if our Florida soils 
show by analysis a deficiency of this ele¬ 
ment. 
Florida soils are composed very largely 
of sand which has been derived from dis¬ 
integrated rocks. Originally, minerals 
containing bases were associated with this 
sand, but because of their not being so re¬ 
sistant to the weathering action of air and 
water they were carried into the sea either 
in solution or as suspended particles of 
silt or mud. 
In 114 samples of high pine land an¬ 
alyzed by the Florida Experiment Station 
(1908-B. 93), 67 were found to be dis¬ 
tinctly acid, and the lime content ranged 
from .01 to .14 per cent. In other words, 
they only had one pound of lime where 
they needed at least a hundred. 
Two samples of spruce pine soil con¬ 
tained only .0001 per cent of lime. In 
three samples of low pine land the lime 
content ranged from .01 to .1 per cent. 
In nine samples of flat woods soils only 
one was found to be alkaline, and the lime 
content ranged from .03 per cent to .16 
per cent. From these figures it is self- 
evident that one of the most important 
factors in Florida agriculture is and must 
always be the liming of soils. And it is 
interesting to note that we are not alone 
in this phase of agriculture, as the use in 
the United States of lime on the soil has 
steadily increased; in 1912 we used 604,- 
000 tons, valued at $8,000,000, compared 
with 596,000 tons, valued at $7,000,000, 
in 1911. 
We have so far endeavored to show 
that the liming of our Florida soils is of 
greatest importance and deserving a closer 
study of its effects on plant growth than is 
generally given to it by the average 
farmer. It is to bring to your attention 
the very numerous effects of lime on plant 
growth that this paper has been written. 
The first effect to be noted is a physical 
one, spoken of as flocculation. In this phe¬ 
nomenon the fine particles of a clay soil 
are drawn together to form little crumbs 
of soil. The hydrated or rock limes are the 
most effective in this regard. This draw¬ 
ing together of the fine clay particles to 
form groups or crumbs of larger size per¬ 
mits of a more favorable soil moisture 
condition. When it rains the water more 
readily sinks into the soil, rather than 
flowing off, and in dry weather the sub¬ 
soil water can move upward by capillary 
attraction much more readily. The circu¬ 
lation of air through the soil is better and 
deeper, thus increasing the root area of 
the soil, and the plant food in the soil is 
brought into available condition much 
more rapidly. 
The physical effect of lime on sandy 
