ctorily than a
floury slaked lime.

_Farm-Slaked Lime._ Lime slaked on the farm must continue to be a
leading source of supply to land. If there is stone on the farm, and
labor in the winter is available, it is not a costly source of supply.
The chief drawback to the use of farm-slaked lime is the difficulty in
securing even distribution. The loss from spreading with shovels from
small piles slaked in the field is heavy. The quantity per acre must be
large to insure sufficient material for every square foot of surface.
The lime slaked in a large heap can be put through distributors only
after screening to remove pieces of stone, unless they are made with a
screening device, and the caustic character and floury condition make
handling disagreeable, but no other method is as economical when lime is
high in price.

_Use of the Manure Spreader._ The next best device is the manure
spreader. The makes on the market vary in ability to do satisfactory
work with lime, and none does even work with a small quantity per acre.
An addition to the bulk to be handled by placing a layer of other
material in the spreader before filling with lime helps, but some
spreaders do fair work in spreading as little as 3000 pounds of slaked
lime per acre, and certainly far better work than usually is done with
shovels from a wagon.

CHAPTER XVII

AMOUNT OF LIME PER ACRE

_Soils Vary in Requirement._ There is always the insistent question
respecting the amount of lime that should be used on a particular field.
Usually _no_ definite reply can be safely made. The requirement of the
present, and probably of the _next_ few years, should be met by one
application. The existing degree of acidity is an unknown quantity until
a careful test has been made. There are soils so sour that several tons
of fresh burned lime per acre would only meet present requirement, and
there are soils so soundly alkaline that they need none at all. This
uncertainty regarding amount required is responsible for much failure to
do anything, even when some acidity is indicated by general appearance.

_A Working Basis._ If land has once been productive and in later years
clover has ceased to grow and grass sods are thin, there is a strong
probability that liming will pay, and the experience of farmers on
normal soils, and the tests of experiment stations, justify the
estimate that two tons of fine stone, or one and a quarter tons of fresh
burned lime per acre, can