n._ While burning the stone does not affect
the ability to correct acidity, it does increase the power to make a
stiff soil friable and to bind a sandy soil. No one may say how much
this power to influence soil texture is increased, but it is marked, and
when improved physical condition is the chief reason for applying lime,
there is no question that fresh burned material is to be preferred to
pulverized stone or marl, or any other carbonate form. A light
application is not markedly effective in this respect, and the chief use
for this purpose has been in limestone areas that may not have had any
lime deficiency, but did have a stiff soil. The presence of the stone in
great quantity for burning on the farm made heavy applications possible.

_Using Up Organic Matter._ The presence of carbonate of lime in the form
of pulverized limestone or marl favors the disintegration of any organic
matter, but the action is so slow that it may not be observed. While the
use of limestone in manure piles is inadvisable for this reason, the
loss is not comparable to that resulting from mixing caustic lime with
manure. The caustic lime in a soil hastens decay of vegetable matter in
a degree impossible to the limestone or marl. Irrational use of the
former has produced such destructive action in many instances that the
failure to add manure or heavy sods for a long term of years has led to
heavy decline in producing power.

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