Sweet Clover Thrives When Lime and Manure Are Supplied, Ohio Experiment Station
Red Clover. When land is in excellent tilth, it may grow red clover satisfactorily while showing a decided lime deficiency. On the other hand, much slightly acid land fails to grow clover, and an application of lime is followed by heavy growths. Red clover is most at home in calcareous soils, and lack of lime is a leading cause of clover failure in this country. Other causes may be important ones in the absence of lime and be overcome when it is present.
Alsike Clover. Most legumes like lime, and alsike clover is not an exception, but is far more acid-resistant than the red. It is less valuable, both for soil improvement and for forage, having an inferior root system, but has proved a boon to farmers in areas that have been losing the power to grow red clover. The custom of mixing red and alsike seed has become widespread, and distinctly acid soils are marked in the clover flowering season by the profusion of the distinctive alsike bloom to the exclusion of the red. While there is acid-resistant power, this clover responds to liming.
Crimson Clover. Among lime-loving plants crimson clover has a rightful place, but it makes fairly good growth where the lack of lime is marked.
Bluegrass. The heaviest bluegrass sods are found where lime is abundant in the soil. This most valuable pasture grass may withstand the encroachments of weeds for a long time when lime is not abundant, if plant food is not in scant supply, but dependable sods of this grass are made only in an alkaline soil. Heavy liming of an acid soil pays when a seeding to permanent pasture is made, and old sods on land unfit for tillage may be given a new life by a dressing.
Crops Favored by Lime. Nearly all staple farm crops respond to applications given acid soils. Corn, oats, timothy, potatoes and many other crops have considerable power of resistance to acids, but give increased yields when lime is present. Liming is not recommended for potatoes because it furnishes conditions favorable to a disease which attacks this crop. When clover is wanted in a crop rotation with potatoes, it is advisable to apply the lime immediately after the potato crop has been grown, and to use limestone rather than burned lime. Most kinds of vegetables thrive best in an alkaline soil.
INDEX
- Air-slaked lime, composition and relative value of, [31], [57]
- Agricultural lime, composition and relative value of, [58], [76]
- Amount of lime per acre, [82]
- Basic slag, [76]
- Burning lime, methods of, [49]
- Calcium, [29]
- carbonate, [30]
- hydroxide, [30]
- oxide, [29]
- Carbon dioxide, [30]
- Causes of soil acidity, [10], [12], [13], [14]
- Caustic lime affects physical condition, [44], [46]
- acts on humus, [44], [47]
- frees inert plant food, [44]
- compared with limestone, [45]
- irrational use of, [44]
- may injure a sandy soil, [66], [85]
- right use of, [48]
- Caustic magnesian lime on sandy land, [66]
- Chemical changes produce acidity, [13]
- Clover, [17], [19], [87]
- Composition of limestone, [24], [30], [31], [46]
- Distribution of lime, [70], [78]
- Distributors, [80], [81]
- Dolomite, [30], [67]
- Equivalents in value, [69]
- Extent of soil acidity, [6], [11]
- Fineness of limestone, [39], [73]
- Frear, Dr. Wm., [50]
- Fresh burned lime, [44]
- composition and relative value of, [29], [31], [45], [69], [71]
- Gas lime, [62]
- Ground limestone, composition and relative value of, [30], [33], [69], [72]
- Hydrated lime, composition and relative value of [30], [31], [53], [71]
- Indications of soil acidity, [5], [15], [17], [18]
- Irrational use of lime, [9], [44]
- Land plaster, [76]
- Leaching, [12], [38]
- Lime for alfalfa, [86]
- alsike clover, [87]
- bluegrass, [88]
- crimson clover, [88]
- potatoes, [89]
- red clover, [87]
- most staple crops, [88]
- in fertilizers, [77]
- is unstable, [10]
- necessary content variable, [5]
- on sandy soils, [85]
- Limestone burned to effect distribution, [34]
- land, value of, [4], [6]
- varies in composition, [33]
- Litmus paper test, [20]
- Low-priced pulverizers, [35]
- Lump lime and hydrate compared, [71]
- limestone compared, [72]
- Magnesian lime, [64]
- limestone, [66]
- Magnesium, [30], [64]
- Marl, composition and relative value of, [59], [76]
- New York experiment station, [42]
- Old heaps of burned lime, [58]
- Oyster shells, composition and relative value of, [61], [75]
- Redtop, [18]
- Relative values of lime, [68], [71], [72]
- Removal of lime in crops, [14]
- Slaking lime, [53]
- Small applications may pay, [84]
- Soil acidity, cause of, [10], [12], [13], [14]
- extent of, [6], [11]
- indications of, [5], [15], [17], [18]
- tests for, [20], [21]
- Soils vary in lime requirement, [82]
- Sorrel and plantain, [15]
- Spreading farm-burned lime, [70], [80]
- Storing lime in the soil, [38]
- Storing limestone, [73]
- Source of lime, as:
- agricultural lime, [58], [76]
- air-slaked lime, [31], [57]
- fresh-burned lime, [29], [31], [44]
- gas lime, [62]
- ground lime, [31]
- ground limestone, [30], [33]
- hydrated or slaked lime, [31], [53]
- magnesian limestone, [30]
- marl, [59]
- oyster shells, [61], [75]
- wood ashes, [61], [75]
- Source of lime in soils, [10], [24]
- Technical terms, [28]
- Tests for soil acidity, [20], [21]
- Thin soils usually acid, [18]
- Timber as an index, [7], [15]
- Timothy, [17], [88]
- Truog, Prof. E., [21]
- Truog test, [21]
- Value of lime after magnesium removal, [62]
- Voorhees, Dr. E. B., [62]
- Warding off soil acidity, [7]
- When production decreases, [18]
- Wood ashes, composition and relative value of, [25], [61], [75]