American Agriculturist, March 1, 1924 
Lime Puts The Soil in Better 
Shape To Use Fertilizer 
Efficiently 
A. F. Gustafson 
I N' many sections farmers have found 
that fertilizers were not giving as large 
increases in crop yields as they did some 
years ago. This has puzzled them since 
they were using as good, or better, fer¬ 
tilizers than formerly. In Western New 
York one farmer reported this condition 
to the company supplying him with fertil¬ 
izers. They sent a man to investigate his 
soil and cropping conditions with the 
result that the farmer was informed that 
his soil was sour and advised to apply lime¬ 
stone in addition to his regular fertilizer 
treatment. 
The residual or after effect of sulphate of 
ammonia, sometimes used to supply some 
of the ammonia in mixed fertilizers, is a 
tendency to cause soil acidity, while ni¬ 
trate of soda has the opposite effect, or 
tends to make lime somewhat less neces¬ 
sary. It has often been said that acid 
phosphate “sours the soil,” if used for 
any length of time. Neither the observa¬ 
tions of farmers using acid phosphate or 
mixed fertilizers containing from 1,000 
to 1,500 pounds of acid phosphate per 
ton for many years, nor the results se¬ 
cured by experiment stations bear out 
the statement that acid phosphate sours 
the soil. 
This lessened need for lime is believed 
to come about in this way. Sour soils 
usually, if not always, contain soluble 
iron and aluminum compounds, or the 
sour condition of the soil brings these 
into solution. When acid phosphate is 
put into such a soil, the soluble phosphoric 
acid unites with the iron and aluminum 
forming iron and aluminum phosphates 
which are considered insoluble. In this 
condition iron and aluminum compounds 
have no detrimental effect on crops and 
are not causing what we have long called 
soil acidity. Thus it is that acid phos¬ 
phate actually lessens the need for lime. 
While it might be possible to correct soil 
acidity with acid phosphate to some ex¬ 
tent, it is cheaper to do it with liming 
materials. 
* * * 
When soils contain a goodly supply of 
lime, it unites with the soluble phosphoric 
acid from mixed fertilizers or acid phos¬ 
phate, forming what is called lime phos¬ 
phate. Now lime phosphate is much 
more readily available to crops than the 
less soluble iron and aluminum phos¬ 
phates just described. This then explains 
how liming sour soils makes acid phos¬ 
phate, or fertilizers containing it, more 
efficient in increasing crop yields. 
The Ohio Station conducted a test in 
which one area was limed, another re¬ 
ceived acid phosphate, while on an adjoin¬ 
ing strip the same amount of lime and 
acid phosphate both were applied to the 
the same soil. The following table gives 
the average results covering a period of 
years, using very conservative crop 
values: 
Average Value of Value per Acre 
Treatment Crops per Acre of Increase Due 
Each Year to Treatment 
None . $6.60 - 
Lime . 13.40 $6.80 
Fertilizer . 9.80 3.20 
Lime and fertilizer. . - 17.00 11.40 
It is clear that this soil was in need of 
both lime and fertilizer. Lime alone gave 
$6.80 increase per acre, fertilizer alone 
only $3.20, but when lime was used with 
fertilizer the increase was worth $11.40 
per acre—$4.60 per acre more than lime 
alone, $8.10 more than fertilizer alone, or 
$1.40 per acre more when both are used 
on the same acre than when used separ¬ 
ately on two acres. 
Similar effects may be expected on sour 
soils in general. Neither fertilizer nor 
lime alone on such soils will give satis¬ 
factory yields. Neither can replace the 
other economically. 
In dairy or livestock farming on sour 
soils, manure, and lime together with acid 
phosphate produce grain, clover and hay 
most economically. 
* r. ’ i v 
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You can’t look at the ordinary 
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» 
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# t . 
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