imestone of
the locality will be made available more and more by means of this type
of machine, and the inducement to correct the acidity of soils will be
given to tens of thousands of land-owners who would not find it feasible
to pay freight and cartage on supplies coming a long distance. There
should be a market many times greater than now exists for the product
of all large plants, while the number of small pulverizers multiplies
rapidly. The very large areas that have no limestone at hand must
continue to buy from manufacturers equipped to supply them, and farmers
within a zone of small freight charges should be able to buy from such
manufacturers more cheaply than they could pulverize stone on their own
farms.

An individual, or a group of farmers, will buy a machine for pulverizing
limestone at a cost of a few hundred dollars when costly equipment would
be out of the question. If he has a bed of limestone of fair quality,
and the soil of the region is lacking in lime, an efficient grinder or
pulverizer solves the problem and makes prosperity possible to the
region. Within the last few years much headway has been made in
perfecting such machines, and their manufacturers have them on the
market. Any type should be bought only after a test that shows capacity
per hour and degree of fineness of the product. As a high degree of
fineness is at the expense of power or time, and as the transportation
charge on the product to the farm is small, there is no requirement for
the fineness wanted in a high-priced article that must be used
sparingly.

The aim should be to store in the soil for a term of years, and the
coarse portion is preferable to the fine for this purpose because it
will not leach out. The heavy application will furnish enough fine stuff
to take care of present acidity. If nearly all the product of such a
pulverizer will pass through a 10-mesh screen, and the amount applied is
double that of very fine limestone, it should give immediate results and
continue effective nearly twice as long as the half amount of finer
material. There could hardly be a practical solution of the liming
problem for many regions without the development of such devices for
preparing limestone for distribution, and it is a matter of
congratulation that some manufacturers have awakened to the market
possibilities our country affords.

CHAPTER IX

STORING LIME IN THE SOIL

_Liberal Use of Limestone._ Land never does its b