1112 
September 11, 1915. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Lime and Liming. 
Part II. 
Wit AT Soils. —Personally I do not. be¬ 
lieve there is a farm in the country that 
has been under cultivation for 50 years 
that would not be helped by an applica¬ 
tion of lime. Some need it far more than 
others. There are strips of limestone soil 
where, a few feet below the surface, there 
are solid ledges of lime rock. It would 
seem as if such soils could not possibly 
need lime, yet the application of a small 
quantity of slaked lime often shows at 
once in the crops. I think in many such 
soils the soluble or available lime has been 
washed out of the soil, and parts of that 
soil may even be sour in consequence. I 
think it doubtful if ground limestone 
would pay on such soils, but I should try 
slaked lime in small quantities. On all 
other soils I feel sure lime will pay. It 
is not so much like using nitrogen or 
phosphoric acid to supply needed plant 
food, for we must remember that our chief 
reason for using lime is to fit the soil 
rather than to feed crops directly. On 
soil like ours lime is particularly needed. 
This is hard compact hill soil—merely a 
thin rind above the solid rock. It never 
had much lime to begin with, and has 
been losing what little it ever had by 
washing and careless handling. The or¬ 
ganic matter had been largely used up and 
the soil bakes hard in drought. Yearly 
applications of lime have greatly improved 
this soil. Other soils greatly in need of 
lime, as a rule, are low and wet soils, old 
pastures and meadows, -where green crops 
have been plowed under, light sterile 
soils and soils where clover makes a poor 
stand though well cared for, and soil 
where garden beets do not thrive. Per¬ 
sonally I do not care so much for the 
tests for acid soils though they are useful, 
but if I were taking a new farm I should 
use lime on general principles whenever 
seeding to grass, clover or Alfalfa. 
Wiiat To Use. —In our own case we 
use slaked lime—about 500 pounds each 
year, but this is no model practice for 
others. We use cover crops and plow un¬ 
der each year a stiff growth of rye, clover 
and turnips. This yearly plowing of a 
green, sappy crop would if let alone, tend 
to make the land sour. I use the lime to 
prevent this souring and to hasten the 
decay of this organic matter. I think the 
slaked lime performs both of these func¬ 
tions better than the ground limestone 
does, since it is more active. We have 
seen how burning the limestone drives off 
the carbonic acid and changes the car¬ 
bonate of lime to “quick” lime. Now this 
“quick” lime, when put into the soil, will 
slowly change, by taking up water and 
carbonic acid, until it goes back once 
more to the old form of carbonate of lime, 
so that in the end, you might say it is 
the same as using the ground limestone at 
the beginning. Yet the chemical action of 
the slaked lime in changing back to the 
carbonate is a strong one and I think it 
is very useful in my soil. I have not 
therefore used much ground limestone, 
though I -would under other conditions. 
Wiiat Other Conditions? —A differ¬ 
ent kind of soil, different crops and a 
shorter journey to a limekiln. I am 
developing an orchard with cover crops 
and chemicals on a hard soil. We grow 
corn between the trees to help pay ex¬ 
penses. We need the quick sharp action 
of the slaked lime to get our soil into 
shape. The ground limestone seems too 
gentle in its action. Again our hills are 
steep and hard to climb and we should 
need to haul two loads of limestone to one 
of slaked lime. Next year I hope to be 
able to seed the entire orchards to Alsike 
and Sweet clover. Then I shall give a 
good dressing of limestone and let them 
alone for a few years. On a mellow soil 
in better condition I think the limestone 
would answer, especially if the soil was 
light. For the heavier clays I am sure 
the burned lime is better, for the lighter 
sands the limestone will probably prove 
more satisfactory. It would be quite easy 
to injure these light soils by using too 
much slaked lime. I think they would be 
hurt mechanically and also the organic 
matter would be used up too fast. 
The Cheapest Lime. —After all it 
ought to come down to that if we figure 
on it properly. Whenever a farmer is 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
reasonably close to a limekiln the quick or 
stone lime will be cheapest. You get 
more lime in a pound of this than in any 
other form, and you can slake it on the 
farm. You may be able to haul 3,000 
pounds of stone lime at one load. With 
the increase of bulk and weight after 
slaking you could hardly get it into two 
loads. In former years farmers bought 
most of their lime in this form, and slaked 
the lumps in little heaps in the field or 
in some big heap. It is very hard to get 
workmen in these days to handle quick¬ 
lime, for it will scald and burn like boil¬ 
ing water. This dislike for handling 
quicklime is largely responsible for the 
great trade which has been developed in 
various trade forms of slaked or ground 
lime. Some farmers near limekilns still 
burn the lime at home. A layer of logs 
or poles is put on the ground and a layer 
of broken lime rock piled on top. Then 
comes a layer of fuel, wood or coal, an¬ 
other layer of lime rock and so on to the 
top. The whole thing is covered with 
soil, provision made for ventilation and 
a fire started. The pile is kept covered 
to prevent too much flame and too quick a 
fire and good lime is prepared in this way. 
Of late years lime crushers have been 
adapted to farm work. These smaller ma¬ 
chines can be used in a neighborhood 
■where there is lime rock, either located 
at some central place or driven from 
farm to farm like a thrashing machine 
or silo outfit. They crush the lime rock 
about as fine as coarse sugar, and thus 
make a very cheap form of lime. I am 
satisfied that this would not be as satis¬ 
factory for our conditions as the slaked 
lime, but in many localities farmers can 
buy a pound of lime cheaper in this form 
than in any other and therefore they are 
wise in taking it. I should use two 
pounds of this limestone for one pound of 
slaked lime and figure in the cost of 
freight and hauling when comparing 
prices. Considering these things the 
ground limestone will usually be cheapest 
when the haul is short, while when the 
haul is long the slaked lime will usually 
be cheaper. 
“Patent” Limes. —Every year agents 
appear talking hard for some new form 
of lime. It usually has some fancy name 
tagged on it, and some fairy tale mixed 
in, the price being several dollars a ton 
more than slaked lime. A plain “hydrat¬ 
ed” lime (we saw what that is on page 
1090) is all right. It handles well, drills 
easily and is effective. We have used 
many tons of it, but came back to the 
plain slaked lime. We get more pounds 
for a dollar in good slaked lime. It is 
not so easy to handle as the “hydrated,” 
but we have never been able to find the 
difference in price. All things considered 
we find the slaked lime more economical, 
though the hydrated is pleasanter to han¬ 
dle. Various “patent” limes are on the 
market. The dealers claim that they 
contain small quantities of potash and 
phosphoric acid as well as of lime. In 
some cases these elements seem to have 
been mixed in with the lime. In others 
it is a natural mixture like marl. This 
may be described as a great bed or col¬ 
lection of shellfish buried in the soil 
years or ages ago, and broken up or 
massed into a new form. Naturally a 
marl found in that way might contain 
traces of potash and phosphate along with 
the lime in the old shells. When dug up 
and ground or made fine it makes a fair 
substitute for ground limestone with the 
other elements added. Years ago great 
quantities of this marl were used in New 
Jersey and gave fair results. The intro¬ 
duction of other forms of lime and of 
chemicals has about ended the use of 
marl by those who know it best. Not 
long ago one of our readers wrote that 
he had a bed of this marl. He proposed 
digging and grinding it and offering it for 
sale as a lime substitute and he wanted 
to know if it would sell. We went to 
some of our readers, who had formerly 
used marl, for information. They said 
that the only way to sell it in their part 
of the country was to give it some fancy 
new name. If it were offered as marl or 
for just what it is no one would touch it! 
I think that is just about the size of this 
business in “patent” limes. Most people 
who buy them seem to pay for the name 
rather than for the lime. I do not buy 
them, but stick to a good quality of plain 
slaked lime. If I lived where ground 
limestone could be bought cheap I should 
use some of that, but for heavy, sour land 
give me slaked lime. 
How To Use Lime. —We have many 
letters from farmers who tell about plow¬ 
ing lime under or spreading it on top of a 
grass or grain crop. Such farmers will 
never obtain full benefit from the lime. 
In many cases they will claim that liming 
does not pay. The true way to use lime 
is to mix it thoroughly all through the 
upper part of the soil where the plant 
roots live and pasture. Spread lime on 
top of the ground and in many cases it 
will remain right there like a crust of 
mortar. It does not work down through 
the soil and sweeten it, but you will have 
the curious condition of an inch or so of 
alkaline soil at the surface, while below 
the soil may be as acid as a pickle. This 
very thing has been shown by some exper¬ 
iments in the cultivation of blueberries. 
On the other hand when the lime is 
spread on top and plowed under we have 
the reverse of this condition. The lime 
lies at the bottom of the furrow. Lime 
is heavy and washes down so that the 
subsoil may become alkaline while the 
surface soil is acid. . In one case a far¬ 
mer tried this form of liming and put the 
lime down into the subsoil. One year he 
plowed some of this subsoil up and it 
was mixed with the surface soil and gave 
fine results with clover. It was not un¬ 
like making a good application of marl. 
This farmer concluded that all you had 
to do to sweeten the soil was to plow up 
and mix in the subsoil and he advocated 
it as a standard practice. A number of 
other farmers tried it and nearly ruined 
their soils, for there was not much lime 
naturally in the subsoil and they merely 
mixed in sour dead lumps. The best 
way we have found to use lime is to 
spread on the furrows and harrow thor¬ 
oughly in. The cutaway or disk harrow 
is a good tool for this lime mixing. It 
tosses or tumbles the soil up so the lime 
is stirred in better than it would be with 
a spring-tooth or smoothing harrow. In 
this way the lime is mixed all through 
the upper soil and, particularly if it be 
“quick” or slaked lime its chemical action 
is felt all through the soil. We should 
always follow this plan of harrowing in 
the lime or drilling it down into the fine, 
open soil. Our plan is to use a lime drill 
as soon as possible after plowing, and 
scatter the lime on the plowed surface. 
Then follow at once with the harrow. 
When putting in fine seed or grain we 
prefer to work in the lime several days 
ahead of seeding and work the soil over 
at least once more before sowing the seed. 
H. w. C. 
City Manure. 
What is put in city manure that is 
shipped down here that makes it so 
active? w. B- E. 
It is not likely that the manure deal¬ 
ers put anything into- the manure except 
water. It would not pay them to do so. 
We see great piles of this manure along 
the tracks on the marshes in New Jer¬ 
sey, and men at work wetting it down. 
The manure is well fermented, and this 
makes the plant food in horse manure 
available. 
When you write advertisers mention 
The R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick 
reply and a “square deal.” See guaran¬ 
tee editorial page. : : : : 
Tgo/t for the Watcfy 
urith the 
Purple Ribbon 
What time 
is it? 
When you’re asked this 
do you say, “About so- 
and-so o’clock?” Or 
“Somowheres near such- 
and-such an hour?” 
With a SOUTH BEND 
Watch you can always 
be SURE. 
Our new 68-page cata¬ 
log, just published, 
tells why South Bend 
Watches are ‘‘Ever¬ 
lastingly Accurate”— 
why we are able to give 
a permanent, unlimited 
guarantceon reliability, 
durability and accuracy. 
fATQt 
ilkl 
HALF A MILLION South 
Bend Watch owners and 
10,000 leading jewelers know 
the true quality and merit 
of every one of the 120 styles 
of South Bend Watches 
descril:>od and beautifully il¬ 
lustrated in colors in thiscat- 
alog. It also tells you about 
our club offer. Write for 
this catalog now—it's free. 
All of the watches illustrat¬ 
ed here and over a hundred 
others — ladies’ and gentle¬ 
men’s sizes, with such hand¬ 
some cases, wonderful styles, 
enamel effects, artistic mon¬ 
ograms, etc.— are shown in 
tills catalog. A post card re- 
questwillstartiton itsway 
to you. See your jeweler— 
he has or can get South 
Bend Watches. 
South Bend Watch Co. 
303 Studcbakcr St., South Bend, Ind. 
THRESHERS 
HORSEPOWERS 
SAW MACHINES 
ENSILAGE CUTTERS 
GASOLINE ENGINES 
Don’t buy any of the above till you get our Catalog and 
reasonable prices. We’ll surprise you. Hundreds testify 
to the wisdom of this counsel. Send for new 1915 
Catalog full of pictures. A. W. GRAY’S SONS, 
14 South Street, Middletown Springs, Vt. 
ifawr 
Dairy Barn of E. S. Burke, Wickliffe, Ohio 
a ' 
Why Can’t All Barns Be Like That ?* 5 
Such was the exclamation of an artist when shown this picture. You 
know why. Not every farmer is handy to an architect. 
But this is true: Whatever the size and plan of your bam, it can be 
as well painted as this one. 
Dutch Boy White Lead 
and pure linseed oil are the materials specified for Mr. Burke’s buildings. 
Instruct your painter to use Dutch Boy White Lead and Dutch Boy Lin¬ 
seed Oil and your buildings will have best protection against weather, 
scaling and early repainting. 
Would you like to see a simple test that will help make you paint wise? We will send 
you materials and directions for such a test, together with booklet of prac¬ 
tical suggestions and color schemes. 
Ask our nearest office for Painting Aids No. 299 
NATIONAL LEAD COMPANY 
New York Buffalo Boston Chicago Cleveland 
St. Louis Cincinnati San Francisco 
John T. Lewis & Bros. Co., Phila.) (National Lead & Oil Co., Pittsburgh) 
Cl 
