Lime cannot take the place of nitrogen, nor phosphorus, nor any other of the essential plant foods. It is not a substitute for any other essential factor in plant growth. It would be folly to try to depend upon lime as a sole source of soil fertility. On the other hand, we have learned very definitely within the last quarter of a century that it is foolish to depend upon commercial fertilizers and tillage and good seeds for full production of most crops from great areas of our farming country that have a marked lime deficiency. The obvious need of our soils is the rich organic matter that clover and grass sods could furnish, and their fundamental need is lime. Most farms cannot possibly make full returns to their owners until the land's hunger for lime has been met. The only question is that regarding the best way of meeting it. CHAPTER II THE LIME IN SOILS _Limestone Land._ Soil analyses are serviceable only within certain limits, and in the case of the normal soils that comprise the very great part of the entire humid region of the United States the practical man gives little heed to what special analyses might show him when deciding upon the purchase of a farm. He does know, however, that a limestone soil has great natural strength, and recovers from mistreatment more readily than land low in lime. It has staying powers, and is dependable, unless through natural processes the lime leaches out or loses availability. All limestone areas have gained reputation for themselves as producers of grain and grass. _Other Calcareous Soils._ It is not only the limestone areas that stand high in esteem. There are types of soil with every varying percentage of lime down to clear sand or to peat, and some of the types are finely calcareous, containing such a high percentage of lime that nothing more could be desired. The actual percentage is not the determining factor, a clay soil needing greater richness in this material than a loam, and a sandy soil giving a good account of itself with an even less total content of lime, but in its way the particular soil type must be well supplied by nature with lime if its trees and other vegetation bear evidences of its strength and good agricultural value. _Natural Deficiency._ It is interesting to note the differences in evidences of prosperity that are associated with lime percentages. The areas that are able to produce the vegetation characteristic of calcareous soils are obviously the most prosperous. The decidedly lime-deficient sections, advertising their state by the kind of original timber, and later by unfriendliness to the clovers, do not attract buyers except through relatively low prices for farms. Such areas are extensive and have well marked boundaries in places.