Читать книгу Make Your Garden Feed You - E. Brown T. - Страница 40

Lime must be present in the soil; it neutralises acidity or sourness, it helps to break up stiff clay and to bind very light soil. It is a plant food, but it plays a much more important part than providing nutriment. It sets free food matter from the humus and it helps bacteria in their work of converting insoluble plant food into a soluble form. It is also a soil tonic, for it makes the land a healthy place in which the plants can grow steadily, and helps to prevent disease.

As a general rule lime should be applied every third year, but never at the same time as natural manure.

Lime can be obtained in many different forms. The following are all satisfactory :

1. Chalk, broken into small pieces and dug in at the rate of 1 lb. per square yard.

2. Gas lime. This should be weathered for three or four weeks by exposure to the air, scattered on the surface at the rate of 1 lb. per square yard, and dug in.

3. Ground lime, which should be distributed over the surface after digging, using ¹/₂ lb. per square yard.

4. Limestone, which should be used as chalk.

5. Quicklime. This must be stacked in small heaps and slaked ; then it should be scattered all over the surface at the rate of ¹/₂ lb. per square yard, and dug in.

6. Slaked lime. This should be evenly distributed, using 1 lb. per square yard, and dug in.

Do not bury lime deeply. It tends to sink through the soil, so it should just be pricked into the top two or three inches.

If a three-year cropping plan¹ is adopted, one plot should be given a full dressing of natural manure or a manure substitute, the second plot a half-dressing and the third plot left unmanured each year. The lime should be applied to the unmanured plot—that is once every three years.

1 See page 77.

2 See page 18.

1 See page 2.