This is the knowledge that our ancestors had. It was much more important than reading and writing. LIME 101 - There are two kinds of lime - lime stone, or calcium carbonate, which when it is crushed real fine is called agriculture lime. This is the usual lime put on fields. It is slowly dissolved by the carbonic acid that rain makes as it passes through the carbon dioxide in the air. This carbonic acid releases carbon dioxide from the lime stone into the air, and calcium and magnesium into the soil. This process takes three years, and will go on for a half dozen or so years. It neutralizes the acid in the soil and raises the pH so that sage grass will die, and desirable species will grow. My father always turned up his nose at any farmer who had sage grass in his field, as he was too degenerate to lime it. Fescue is the only grass that will grow on acid shale without lime, and it isn’t very nutritious. If you kiln lime stone it becomes calcium oxide monohydrate. It is called quick lime, or hydrated lime, and is much more alkali and will eat up organic material much like lye. In fact, the early settlers called it lye, just as they also called leachate of wood ashes, which was potassium hydroxide, lye. Lye to us of course is sodium hydroxide. Quick lime is used sparingly on gardens, and works immediately, hence the name Quick lime. It is too expensive to use in fields.