1090 
THE KUKAU NEW-YOKKEH 
September 4, 1913. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Lime and Liming. 
Pabt I. 
Since these notes on cover crops were 
printed we have been asked to prepare a 
similar statement about the use of lime. 
We have had so much to say about lime, 
and there has been so much printed and 
freely distributed, that I felt it had be¬ 
come an old story. However, since there 
are so many questions I will try it once 
more. Bear in mind that I am no chem¬ 
ist, and therefore do not attempt to talk 
chemistry. All I can do is to tell the 
things about lime which have come under 
our own observation or experience. If 
you want more of the chemistry we can 
get it for you. 
Lime. —The only chemistry I attempt 
is to say that the chemical element known 
as calcium is the dominating thing in all 
the different forms of lime. When we say 
“lime” we mean what the chemist calls 
calcium oxide —a compound of calcium 
and oxygen. The source of our lime for 
agricultural purposes is limestone, oyster 
shells or marl. Most of us have seen the 
gray or whitish rock known as lime rock 
or stone, and of course all are familiar 
with oyster or elain shells. Lime is 
washed out of the soil through brooks 
and rivers into the ocean. There it is 
used by tiny forms of life to make coral, 
or by shellfish to form their shells. When 
the oysters or clams are eaten their shells 
may be burned or crushed for various 
uses. For instance, we feed crushed 
oyster shells to our hens. They use them, 
perhaps not unlike the shellfish, to cover 
or protect their eggs, while the burnt, 
shells may be used on the land. Lime¬ 
stone, however, may be regarded as the 
starting point and foundation of lime. 
Forms of Lime. —For agricultural pur¬ 
poses the limestone is handled by two 
methods—burnt or ground. Of course, 
grinding or crushing is the simpler and 
easier process. You merely smash the 
lime rock into fair-sized pieces and throw 
them into the lime crusher. The first 
thing to remember is that when you buy 
“ground limestone” or “carbonate of lime” 
you get this lime rock simply ground or 
crushed. In this form the lime is in about 
the same condition as most of that which 
is already in your soil. The other way 
of preparing the limestone is to burn it. 
This is done in kilns or in piles on the 
ground by alternating layers of the broken 
limestone and wood or other fuel. The 
heat from the burning fuel changes the 
character of the limestone by driving off 
the carbonic acid and thus leaving pure 
lime. 
Burned Lime. —Nothing more is done 
to the ground limestone after it leaves the 
crusher except to put it in bags or bar¬ 
rels. It is all ready for use on the 
ground, being a mechanical product en¬ 
tirely. The burned lime is a chemical 
product and several changes may occur in 
it before it is put into the ground. After 
the fire goes out and the lime cools it is 
found in white lumps or chunks. In this 
form it is called “quick” or “stone” or 
“caustic” or “lump” lime. When you buy 
lime under any of these names remember 
that it is as it comes out of the burning, 
with no further change. The great desire 
and end of this quicklime is to unite with 
water. Let water be brought to it either 
by throwing it on or by rain or even in 
damp air and the two unite quickly and 
fiercely with great heat. This is called 
“slaking,” which means that the lime 
takes up water or unites with it. When 
anyone offers you slaked lime remember 
that he means burned lime which has 
taken up what water it will. Our friend 
the chemist would call this slaked lime 
calcium hydroxide to be exact. Is this 
the same as “hydrated lime?” Not ex¬ 
actly. We may take the “quick” lime, 
freshly burned and grind it up fine, before 
slaking. Then this powder is blown 
through a tube, and as it goes a fine 
spray of water is blown upon it. Thus 
every particle of it is surely and evenly 
slaked while in ordinary slaked lime this 
action is not usually complete, so that 
every part is not touched by water. Thus 
we see that “hydrated” lime is complete¬ 
ly slaked and finer than the other forms, 
as slaking breaks the lime rock up finer 
than any grinding can do. 
f Difference In Value. —There is most 
actual lime in a ton of quicklime, less in 
slaked lime, and still less in ground lime¬ 
stone. A little thought will show us why 
this is so. The limestone or carbonate of 
lime as it stands in the ledge or quarry is 
“lime” combined with carbonic acid. In 
a pure sample of limestone weighing 100 
pounds there would be 50 pounds of lime 
and 44 pounds of carbonic acid. The 
burning drives off all the acid and leaves 
the lime with a few pounds of other ma¬ 
terials. On slaking the burned lime takes 
up one-third of its weight of water. Thus 
we may start with 100 pounds of lime¬ 
stone, burn it and have 50 pounds of lime- 
lime. Slake this and water enough is 
added to make 74 pounds of slaked lime. 
The thing to remember in buying lime is 
that there is the same quantity of actual 
lime in 100 pounds of limestone, 74 of 
slaked lime and 50 of “quick” or stone 
lime. When we come to figure compara¬ 
tive prices we must estimate on about 
that basis. Farmers sometimes conclude 
that because limestone costs less per ton 
than other forms it must be cheaper. 
They should buy only on the basis of the 
actual lime they get in 100 pounds, and 
count in the freight. Prof. L. L. Van 
Slylte, in his book on “Fertilizers and 
Props,” gives the following table to show 
comparative values of different forms of 
lime : 
Values Per Ton. 
Quicklime. 
Slaked T.lme. 
Ground limestone. 
$S 
$6.05 
$4.50 
7 
5.30 
3.95 
6 
4.55 
3.40 
5 
3.80 
2.80 
4 
3.05 
2.25 
3 
2.30 
1.70 
This is figured on the amount and value 
of lime in its various forms. Sometimes 
a farmer finds be can buy limestone at 
.$2.50 per ton with one dollar for freight. 
By this table this limestone costing $3.50 
at his railroad station would be about 
equal to slaked lime at $4.75 only—as we 
shall see later he would have to use about 
twice as much of the limestone to obtain 
equal results with the slaked lime. 
Why Use Lime? —There are a few 
soils in the country that actually con¬ 
tain so little lime that it is needed as a 
plant food, especially by clover, Alfalfa 
or other crops which use great quantities 
of it. These soils are not often found, 
and we may conclude that we must use 
lime to fit the soil in various ways and 
for its chemical action. Lime may be 
called a soil medicine or a tonic rather 
than direct plant food. When we get 
away from the regular limestone ridges or 
belts most soils become sour after 30 
years or more of cultivation. A few 
crops, like cranberries, blueberries, sorrel 
and others, prefer a sour soil, but the 
great majority of our farm crops, and es¬ 
pecially the most important of them— 
leaving out corn—will not do their best 
unless the soil is sweet or at least not 
sour. It would require more chemical 
knowledge than I possess to explain why 
that is—so we can merely say that lime is 
the great substance for correcting an acid 
soil. Well-rotted manure will do it in 
part and so will thorough tillage and 
drainage help, but lime is the great medi¬ 
cine for a bilious soil! Lime does other 
things. Sometimes a hard, stiff clay gets 
into such condition that water and air 
cannot pass readily through it. In wet 
weather it is like putty—in drought like 
a brick. The particles of soil are so fine 
and are packed so closely together that 
there is no drainage or ventilation. Now 
when we put an active lime, like the 
slaked form, on such soil, an action 
known as “flocculation” is started. To 
understand what this means, stir up a 
mud puddle until the water is thick and 
yellow. This condition is due to the fact 
that very small particles of clay are float¬ 
ing about in the water—too small and 
light to sink quickly and clear the water, 
as sand would do. Throw a handful of 
“quicklime” into this muddy puddle. 
The water quickly clears. What hap¬ 
pened is this: The lime brought those 
little soil particles together into little 
flakes. These being heavier than the sin¬ 
gle particles sink and clear the water. In 
the hard, pasty clay the lime has much 
the same effect by uniting the fine soil 
particles and thus making a coarser soil 
through which the water and air and also 
the plant roots can move freely. That is 
why the more active forms of lime are 
more useful on heavy clay soils than the 
less active ground limestone. On lighter 
land lime has the opposite effect of com¬ 
pacting the soil so it will better hold 
moisture and not take in too much air. 
There are other actions of lime in the 
soil which we shall come to later, h. w. c. 
Rye and Vetch. 
Last year I sowed a little over five 
acres to rye and Hairy vetch for seed. 
The rye grew between five and seven feet 
high, the vetch did well, and both went 
down together, four or five tons to the 
acre. What can I sow this year with 
the vetch that will hold it up so I can 
harvest it with a grain binder? How 
about wheat? ^ s. F. B. 
Itansomville, N. Y. 
Rye is the best grain for holding up 
the vetch. Rye straw is much stiffer 
than wheat. The trouble may be that the 
soil is too rich so that the rye straw 
makes a rank, tender growth and falls 
down. We should, in such case use pot¬ 
ash and phosphate on the rye and vetch 
or about 300 pounds per acre of salt to 
help stiffen the straw. 
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