Lime

“ No one can conceive the period of time which has been consumed in the production of this remarkable formation—a drop of water, containing the fractional part of a grain of lime, leaving an imperceptible deposit in its downward course, thus forming the stalactites and stalagmites of fantastic forms and delicate proportions, which the ingenuity of no human hand, however skillful, can imitate. ”

“ Lime might be advantageously used more often where the land is liable to be soured, or where much vegetable matter has accumulated. It should be remembered that, as ashes contain about 30 per cent. of lime, we should diminish the quantity of lime when we have applied ashes. ”

“ COMMON LIME is a variety of carbonat of lime, or of lime in combination with carbonic acid (26) , which is harder and heavier than chalk, usually of a greyish colour, and is always found in a massive state.
Vast mountains of limestone occur in several countries of the globe; but no where is lime more abundant than in some parts of England and Wales. It forms, in particular, nearly the whole mountainous districts of Derbyshire and Shropshire, and encloses, in its substance, numerous veins of lead ore, calamine, and other important mineral productions. ”

“ From eminences in those countries where lime is burnt as a manure, a chain of lime kilns for many miles may be sometimes seen, which blazing amid the doubtful darkness of an extensive landscape, have a fine effect. ”

“ Lime applied to trees makes them put forth leaves and flourish, and produce fruit early, but then it kills them. Wine cheers and stimulates men, and makes them thrust forth flowers of wit; but, then, there is no doubt it shortens life. ”

“ As food for plants, lime is of considerable importance. All plants contain lime—some of them in large quantities. It is an important constituent of [Pg 161] straw, meadow hay, leaves of fruit trees, peas, beans, and turnips. It constitutes more than one third of the ash of red clover. Many soils contain lime enough for the use of plants, in others it is deficient, and must be supplied artificially before they can produce good crops of those plants of which lime is an important ingredient. The only way in which the exact quantity of lime in the soil can be ascertained is by chemical analysis. ”

“ These colours, when they are carefully laid on stucco still wet, do not fade but are permanent. This is because the lime, having had its moisture burned out in the kiln, becomes porous and loses its strength, and its dryness makes it take up anything that may come in contact with it. On mixing with the seeds or elements that come from other substances, it forms a solid mass with them and, no matter what the constituent parts may then be, it must, obviously, on becoming dry, possess the qualities which are peculiar to its own nature. ”

“ These extremes ought to be carefully avoided. When the lime is deficient, or a pattern comes out of a dirty grey, and the sediment does not change its colour, there is scarcely any effervescence on the vat; the liquor smells only of lime, or of the lixivium of lime. ”

“ The soil is a great chemical laboratory, but exact knowledge of all its processes doubtless would enrich the farmer's vocabulary more than his pocketbook. We are concerned in knowing that lime's field of usefulness is broad in that it is an essential plant food and provides the active means of keeping the feeding ground of plants in sanitary condition. We want to know how it comes about that our soils are deficient in lime, and how we may determine the fact that they are deficient. ”

“ There is much in the action of lime in the soil that is not known, but all that we really need to know is simple and easily comprehended. The purpose of this little book is to set down the things that we need to know in order that we may make and keep our land friendly to plant life so far as lime is necessarily concerned with such an undertaking. ”

“ The old-time practice of making heavy applications of fresh burned lime to stiff limestone soils to make them friable, and to make their plant food available, led to disuse of all lime in some sections on account of the exhaustion that followed dependence upon these large amounts as a manure. ”

“ So is the ivory on which the Japanese artist works with such delicacy and refinement. Whether as coral in a Pacific island, as a pearl in a necklace or as a stone in the Parthenon, lime seems often privileged to form the material basis of beauty in nature and beauty in art. ”

“ The Farm Lime Heap. A common method of producing lime for farm use has [Pg 50] been, and continues to be, a simple and inexpensive one, involving the use only of wood, coal and limestone, with earth as a covering. Dr. Wm. Frear, chemist of the Pennsylvania station, in Bulletin 261 of the Pennsylvania department of agriculture, describes a method of burning lime on the farm as follows: "A convenient oblong piece of ground is cleared, and leveled if need be, to secure a fit platform. ”

“ We must drink a certain amount of water each day to keep the body in perfect health. The lime in this water goes chiefly to the building of our bones. Plant roots take up lime in the water that mounts as sap through the plant bodies. We get some of the lime we need in vegetable foods we eat.
All of the kingdom of vertebrate animals, from the lowest forms to the highest, all of the shell-bearing animals of sea and land, require lime. Many of the lower creatures especially these in the sea, such as corals and their near relatives, encase themselves in body walls of lime. ”

“ Action of Lime.—The benefits arising from the application of lime to agricultural lands, although in many cases great, do not arise from any distinct fertilizing action of its own. Plants need lime for growth and need plenty of it, but as a rule any soil which is good enough to grow crops will contain enough lime to furnish that constituent of the crops for many years. ”

“ Our native trees are not so pretty as the English lime, which, clothed with softer foliage, has a smaller leaf and a neater and more elegant spray. Ours bears larger and more conspicuous flowers, in heavier clusters, but of inferior sweetness. Both species are remarkable for their size and longevity. The young leaves of the lime are of a bright fresh tint that contrasts strongly with the very dark color of the branches ”

“ On the other hand, we find very little hydrated lime on the market that has not had sufficient exposure to the air to become changed in some part to an air-slaked condition, or has had refuse mixed with it. ”

“ Lime is taken out of land by plants, and the loss is a considerable item, but our interest is in the form of lime that can correct soil acidity, and we know that compounds of lime that are worthless for this purpose may be the chief source of the lime in our crops. A determination of the lime in the ash of a crop does not give data of much practical value. ”

“ Again, plants which grow on sand containing not a particle of lime, are found to contain as much of this mineral as those which grow in a calcareous soil; and the bones of animals in New South Wales, and other districts where not an atom of lime is to be found in the soil, or in the plants from which they gather their food, contain the usual proportion of lime, though it remains an entire mystery to the chemist where they can have obtained it. ”

“ Sand and its sources having been thus treated, next with regard to lime we must be careful that it is burned from a stone which, whether soft or hard, is in any case white. Lime made of close-grained stone of the harder sort will be good in structural parts; lime of porous stone, in stucco. After slaking it, mix your mortar, if using pitsand, in the proportions of three parts of sand to one of lime; if using river or sea-sand, mix two parts of sand with one of lime. These will be the right proportions for the composition of the mixture. ”

“ In this form it is slightly soluble in water containing carbon dioxid, and hence lime has become a universal component of all soils and is very generally found in natural waters, in which it furnishes the chief ingredient necessary for the formation of the shells and skeletons of the various tribes of mollusca and corals. In combination with sulfuric acid calcium forms the rock gypsum. Lime is not only a necessary plant food, but influences in a marked degree the physical condition of the soil and the progress of nitrification. ”

“ As a rule the product made from limestone, or “stone lime,” is the best article in commerce, and is much more free from stones and clay than “gray lime” or “shell lime.” The best stone lime contains sometimes only 1⁄2 per cent. of impurities, and seldom more than 5 per cent., while inferior kinds of gray lime may contain as much as 50 per cent., and would be of little use in glue-making.
After removal from the lime pit, the material is placed in willow baskets or nets, and immersed in the stream to remove the greater portion of the lime, which is generally effected in a few days. ”

“ Combined with carbonic acid (26) it forms limestone (140) , chalk, and marble; all of which are capable of being converted into lime by burning. Lime may also be obtained from oyster and other sea shells. When pure, it is of white colour, and moderately hard substance, though it is easily reducible to powder. Its taste is burning and acrid; and, like the alkalies, it changes vegetable blue colours to green. It has likewise the property of corroding and destroying animal substances. Lime, when pure, absorbs water rapidly, becomes hot, and falls into powder. ”

“ The addition of lime to the soil should take place at the end of summer, when the ground is dry. Little heaps of quicklime, each containing about twenty kilograms, are placed at intervals of five meters and covered with a few spadefuls of earth. In a short time the moisture in the atmosphere reduces the lime to a fine powder, which is then spread evenly with a shovel and covered with earth—an operation involving no severe labor.
“Lime should never be applied with seed. ”

“ The immediate effect of lime on the vegetation of the land to which it is applied is very striking. It immediately destroys all sorts of moss, makes a tender herbage spring up, and eradicates a number of weeds. ”

“ Botanically considered, the Common Lime is a large and handsome tree with spreading branches, thickly clothed with leaves twice the length of their petioles, cordate at the base, serrate, pointed, smooth—except a woolly tuft at the origin of each nerve beneath—unequal and entire at the base ”

“ Nature made the value of land as a producer of food utterly dependent upon the activity of lime, and at the same time gave it some power to shirk its work. In a normal soil is a percentage of lime that came from the disintegration of rock of the region or was transported by action of water on a huge scale. Possibly rarely would it be in insufficient amount to keep a soil in a condition friendly to plant life, and to feed the plant, if it stayed where nature placed it and kept in form available for the needs it was intended to meet. ”

“ Many farmers who use lime for the first time on wheat, are apt to feel a little discouraged in the spring. I have frequently seen limed wheat in the spring look worse than where no lime was used. But wait a little, and you will see a change for the better, and at harvest, the lime will generally give a good account of itself.
There is one thing about lime which, if generally true, is an important matter to our wheat-growers. Lime is believed to hasten the maturity of the crop. ”

“ We have seen that the best soils generally contain a natural proportion of lime, not fixed in quantity, yet scarcely ever wholly wanting. But an ordinary liming, when well mixed up with a deep soil, will rarely amount to one per cent. ”

“ The lime causes the minute separate particles of clay to flocculate or group themselves together into larger compound grains between which air and water can percolate more freely. It is this power of creating a more crumbly tilth on stiff clays that makes lime so valuable to the farmer. Lime also assists in the decomposition of the organic matter or humus in the soil and promotes nitrification; hence it is of great value after green manuring or where the land contains much humus from the addition of bulky manures such as farm-yard dung. ”

“ Some knowledge of sour soils and the efficacy of lime in their amendment is nearly as old as the history of agriculture, it is true, but answers to the questions uppermost in the minds of men wanting to apply lime to land have been sought only within recent years. The variation in soil types, and in sources of lime, and in preconceived ideas of men drawing conclusions from incomplete data may easily account for failure of our soil scientists to be in the close agreement in statement that would remove all confusion in the public mind. ”

“ The best lime marls provide excellent material for the correction of soil acidity, the actual value per ton being practically the same as that of the finest pulverized limestone. Some dealers in marl make extravagant claims for their goods, but any farmer may easily put these claims to the test and learn that he should not expect more than a fairly good carbonate of lime can do. ”

“ Lime sinks in the soil; and therefore, when used alone, should always be applied as a top dressing to be carried into the soil by rains. The tendency of lime to settle is so great that, when cutting drains, it may often be observed in a whitish streak on the top of the subsoil. After heavy doses of lime have been given to the soil, and have settled so as to have apparently ceased from their action, they may be brought up and mixed with the soil by deeper plowing. ”