New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 397 
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WHAT FORM OF LIME TO USE. | 
Of the various forms of lime available, it will usually be 
found in this State that stone-lime* will prove cheapest, since 
it is in the most concentrated form. This is especially true 
when the material has to be freighted or drawn a considerable 
distance. In 2,000 pounds of quicklime, there is as much 
calcium oxid as in 2,600 pounds of slaked lime or in 3,600 
pounds of carbonate. There are in the market, lime materials 
which are sold under various names, as agricultural lime, 
prepared lime, hydrated lime, etc. ‘These are in some cases 
slaked lime and in others carbonate. They are usually sold at 
prices considerably higher than stone-lime and often extrava- 
gant claims are made for their superior merits. Farmers are 
advised not to purchase these much-advertised materials, since 
they are needlessly expensive. One party, for illustration, 
offers a Slaked lime for $8 a ton and quicklime for $5. The 
calcium oxid in the quicklime thus costs one-quarter of a cent 
a pound, and, in the slaked lime, more than twice as much. 
When quicklime can be purchased at $5 a ton, it is not profit- 
able to pay more than $3.75 to $4 a ton for slaked lime, or 
more than $2.75 to $3 a ton for carbonate. The hydrated 
materials have this one advantage over stone-lime, that the 
labor of slaking the lime is saved; but farmers can not, under 
the circumstances, more profitably employ their time than in 
slaking the lime themselves. 
Lime, properly slaked and dry, forms a finer powder than is 
possible with the ground carbonate, and it can be more uni- 
formly distributed through the soil. Moreover, freshly-slaked 
quicklime consists largely of calcium hydroxid, which is more 
easily soluble in water than the carbonate. This solubility is 
* Stone-lime can be furnished by the following parties: New York Lime 
Co., Carthage, N. Y.; Genesee Lime Co., Honeoye Falls, N. Y.; Ohio and 
Western Lime Co., Fostoria, Ohio; M. E. Reeder, Nursery, Pa.; C. H. Coons, 
Germantown, N. Y.; Rochester Lime Co., 209 W. Main St., Rochester, 
N. Y.; Catlin and Miller, Owego, N. Y.; John Heimlich, Le Roy, N. Y.; 
J. E. Reichard, Bloomsburg, Pa. These addresses are given solely as a 
matter of information, without recommendation or guarantee as to reli- 
ability. 
