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Some soils of the Southern Island of New Zealand with special reference to their lime requirements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

Leonard John Wild
Affiliation:
(Lecturer in Chemistry, Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, N.Z.)

Extract

1. The Hutchinson-MacLennan method for determining the lime requirements of soils, when practised under suitable standard conditions, gives more reliable indications than are obtainable by the ordinary methods of chemical analysis.

2. The method gives indications which appear to be uniformly in excess of the actual requirement of the soil for lime as judged by economic standards: hence a correcting value seems advisable.

3. The correcting value for the soils of Canterbury Plains is about 0·10%.

4. The greater acidity and higher lime requirement of soils of the Southland Plains appears to be due to a combination of lack of natural under-drainage and high rainfall, which prevents aeration and oxidation of organic matter, so that “sour” humus accumulates in the soil.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1917

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References

Page 154 note 1 “Studies on the Lime Requirements of Certain Soils,” Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. VII, Part I (03, 1915), p. 75.Google Scholar

Page 155 note 1 All fields mentioned herein are those of the Canterbury Agricultural College Farm.

Page 156 note 1 This observation is confirmed by MacIntire, H. W.. See American Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. VII, No. 10 (1915), page 866.Google Scholar

Page 164 note 1 See Formation of the Canterbury Plains” by CaptHutton, F. W. F.R.S., in Trans. N. Z. Institute, Vol. XXXVII, 645.Google Scholar

Page 165 note 1 Hilgendorf, F. W.: “Influence of the Earth's Rotation on the Course of the Rivers on the Canterbury Plains,” Trans. N. Z. Institute, Vol. XXXIX, 206.Google Scholar

Page 168 note 1 Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, DrRussell, E. J., 2nd ed. (1915), p. 90.Google Scholar

Page 168 note 2 It must be remembered that the method indicates a small lime requirement even for neutral soils.

Page 170 note 1 N. Z. Journal of Agriculture, Jan. 1916, Vol. XII, No. 1, p. 47.Google Scholar

Page 171 note 1 For a summary see The Plant World, Apl. 1916, p. 83, et seq.

Page 171 note 2 Aston, B. C., N. Z. Journal of Agriculture, Vol. XI, No. 6.Google Scholar

Page 171 note 3 Russell, E. J., Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, 2nd ed. (1915), p.165.Google Scholar

Page 173 note 1 Collected from various Divisional Reports and Journals of N. Z. Dept. of Agriculture.

Page 176 note 1 In this connection it is important to note that the only localities in Southland where wheat can be grown successfully are Bayswater in the basin of the Aparima river and the Dipton Flat of the Oreti river valley. In other parts the wheat is almost always destroyed by frost. That this is due to differences in temperature of soil and overlying air, there can be little doubt. Damage to wheat by frost is very rare in Canterbury, but last season a severe frost (10 to 14 degrees) caught the plants just when they were ready for fertilisation and totally ruined crops over areas estimated at 12,000 acres (see N. Z. Journal of Agriculture, January, 1916).