We are naturally so lacking in judicial temper that opinion has swung violently from favor to disfavor. As most soils need organic matter, we seize upon the thought that anything evidently inclined to use it up is an evil. The purpose of tillage is in no small degree to bring about disintegration and resulting exhaustion of vegetable matter. The latter is a storehouse of plant food, and some of it is needed to feed the crop desired. Tillage is no more to be commended for this purpose than a quantity of lime equivalent in power to do the needed work. Excepting the case of raw soils rich in the remains of plants, most land hardly needs lime for this purpose, it may be, the tillage required for making a seed bed retentive of moisture and for control of weeds being effective, but the point is emphasized that the disintegration of organic matter into available plant food is one of the chief aims of a good farmer. It is only the excessive use of caustic lime that causes loss.
The use of caustic lime in sufficient amount to correct all acidity, and the use of such material to free plant food in humus sufficiently to produce heavy sods, are just as good farm practices as drainage and the application of manure.
Laying Foundation for a Lime Stack at the Pennsylvania Experiment Station
A Stack Nearly Completed at the Pennsylvania Experiment Station