Gas Lime

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 March 1914, Page 4

Gas Lime

Gas lime is the spent lime from gasworks which has been used in purifying gas, says an English authority. When quite fresh it contains a large portion of the sulphide of lime, which is poisonous to plants, but on exposure to the air this takes up oxygen and changes into the sulphite and then into the sulphate, the latter being a valuable manurial substance. Gas lime may be put on (he land fresh in the autumn, so that it may be oxidised before the crop is sown in spring; and as much as six tens per acre may thus bo used, though smaller quantities at short intervals are desirable. Besides its manurial properties it is an insecticide, and will even kill out the weed.s. It is of course, liable to kill the nitrifying organisms in the soil. Mixed with earth or waste vegetable matter it forms good compost. Gas lime gives the best results on stiff clay soils while as much as three tons per acre maybe spread directly directly on rough pasture land with I benefit. I