Note 12 — Chapter XIV · THE VALENCY AND SPECIFIC HEAT OF THE METALS. MAGNESIUM. CALCIUM, STRONTIUM, BARIUM, AND BERYLLIUM

The undoubted action of lime in increasing the fertility of soils—if not in every case, at all events, with ordinary soils which have long been under corn—is based not so much on the need of plants for the lime itself as on those chemical and physical changes which it produces in the soil, as a particularly powerful base which aids the alteration of the mineral and organic elements of the soil.