LIME AS A FERTILISER.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2502, 14 April 1882, Page 3

LIME AS A FERTILISER.

On the value of lime a« a fertiliser we take the following extract from the “ San Francisco Weekly Chronicle Lime is every where an essential of a fertile soil, and is more extensively used where agriculture occupies an advanced position than any other mineral substance. It is applied in a variety of forms, but in this country only common lime, plaster, and marl, are of much interest. Lime can scarcely be applied to any soil judiciously without advantage ; but as under varying circumstances its effects also vary, care and experience are required in its applicationin other words, the quantity to be used depends upon circumstances, and can only be told by experiment and practice. Not long since Professor Hilgard, in discussing the objects and interpretation of soil analysis, gave among other things the following advantages resulting from an adequate supply of lime in soils :—-1. A more rapid transformation of vegetable matter into active humus whirb itStdfwtß itßflf bj h or deep black tint of the soil. 2. Thfi retention of suoli humus, against the oxidising influences of hot climates; witness the high humus percentage of such soils, os against all others, in the Southern States. 3. Whether through the medium of this humus, or in a more direct manner, it rendeis adequate for profitable culture percentages of phosphoric acid and potash so small that, in the case of deficiency or absence of lime, the soil is practically sterile. 4. It tends to secure the proper maintenance of the conditions of nitrification, whereby the inert nitrogen of the soil is rendered available. 5. It exerts a most important physical action on the flocculation, and therefore on tillsbility of the soil, as heretofore shown by Schlmsing and by myself."