THE EFFECT OF LIME ON POTATOES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 6

THE EFFECT OF LIME ON POTATOES.

The application of ldme to the soil for the promotion of the healthy growth of most crops is so generally recommended that tie results of experiments carried out by the Maine Agricultural College are of value to fanners as showing that a liberal supply of lime may , be productive of injury to the potato crop. The results which are given are certainly worthy of the attention of growers. Tbe question to consider, therefore, is : Can the amount of lime be so gauged as to procure the required crop of clover and not materially increase the amount of scab when potatoes are again planted on the land? N One of the trials carried out by the above college was made up of alternate acre piois treated with 10001b, SQDIb, and no lame per acre. The lime was applied when eown with clover and oats in 1906, and with a three-year rotation potatoes would be tho crop for 1908. A strip was ploughed directly across the middle of these plots and at right angles with them. Five long raws of potatoes were planted on this strip. It was at first intended to use treated seed, but by some misunderstanding untreated seed was ueed instead. The treatment of the plots with regard to liming was as follows, given in the order that the potato rows intersected the lime plots from north to south: — No. 1, lO&Nblime; No. 2, no lime ; No. 3, 5001b lime. At the time of digging the crop on the rows for about 12ft on either side of a junction of two plots was discarded, and the percentage of scab in the remaining portion of the rows carefully determined. The results obtained on similar plots were very uniform. The following table gives the. average percentage of scab on potatoes from each set of plots receiving the different applications of lime :—: — S-l § £ $s -° " I til I g\ r-i to S3 Percentage of pcab on potato | crop ... 49 27 11 I Thes-e figures go to show that an excess of lime in potato manure is detrimental, but that a liber? 1 dressing of stable manure with a high-class Peruvian guano generally gives the best results in the potato crop.

Storrie's Ri<]<jcr is the only one with patent hillside attachment and facilities for packinpr drills where the land is dry. — j Nimino and Blair. •