LIME & HARROWING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1938, Page 3

LIME & HARROWING

CONDITION OF THE SOIL. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that lime applied to wet land is lime wasted, states the “Waikato Times.” Certain soil conditions are essential before lime is applied. Otherwise its application will be a waste of both time and money. Drainage is imperative when the ground is not naturally dry. Fertility in the soil is dependent on the activity of certain soil organisms, or very minute forms of life which cannot work properly in the absence of certain essentials. The first is drainage, followed by good management and manuring. Lime may then be applied with every confidence. In the case of pasture, draining it is just as imperative before liming as it is in the case of arable land. One English authority has emphasised the fact that the making of deep incisions in the soil is letting in the air, and that mechanical treatment of grassland greatly increased the benefit to be got from lime. He instanced the case of a farmer who complained that though he had limed for two years he had received no benefit from it. The field was then cultivated with a penetrating harrow. The lime started to go in and do some good. The opinion that when lime is applied to the same land continuously it loses its effect is only true when the fertility of the soil is not being kept up by applications of manure. And it is important to remember that lime is an. important means of making full use of the manures applied.