ACTION OF LIME AS A MANURE. 
9 
on. Thus, large doses of lime repeatedly applied year by year, 
render the soil poor in nitrogenous food, and as a consequence 
the grain obtained from such land becomes poor in crude 
protein. The brittleness of the rice groivn on overlimed soil, is 
accordingly due to an indirect action of the lime, which favors 
the loss of nitrogenous nutrients from the soil, thus reducing the 
formation of albuminoids in the plant and their accumulation 
in the grain. 
In all cases where lime has been frequently applied and the 
injuries are manifest in the crop, the use of this manure should 
be entirely given up for a considerable number of years. Fer¬ 
tilizers rich in organic matter, which are chiefly resorted to 
in conjunction with liming, such as green manure, farmyard 
manure, oil-cakes, rice brans, etc., will produce good effects 
on such soils also without the application of lime, if they are 
incorporated with the land 2-4 weeks before transplanting the 
rice ; but the dose of manures especially of the oil-cakes, brans, 
etc. should be so increased in the first years after discontinuing 
the ruinous liming, as to supply the rice plants with about 
25% of nitrogen more than formerly. 6 Where the amount of 
lime hitherto applied has been small, the above kinds of ma¬ 
nures should be thoroughly fermented before they are mixed 
with the soil. Unless this is done, they undergo a sort of 
fermentation in the soil itself whereby organic acids are 
produced in f j _h large quantities and the free oxygen in the 
soil is so completely absorbed that the plants are injured during 
the first period of growth, and although they mostly recover 
2-3 weeks later, they never attain that vigour which they 
would have acquired, had they not been thus injured. Lime 
which neutralizes the free acids, paralyzes, it is true, this bad 
action of fresh organic manures, and also from this point of 
view farmers may attach much value to its use, but they would 
fare better if they bestowed more care on the preparation of a 
well decomposed compost for the paddy land, instead of using 
6 Lime seems to increase the yield of grain only by J if it is applied 
with other direct fertilizers. 
