Lime Kilns Still Burning in the Cove

As certain as warm breezes will move through Morrisons Cove this month drying excess moisture brought by winter snow and spring rain, farmers soon will begin preparing thousands of acres of fields and pondering the condition of the earth they depend upon.

Following the practice of generations of farmers who have gone before, these soil jockeys will be on the look out for evidence their fields are too acrid, lacking magnesium and trace minerals needed to help sweeten the manure and adjust commercial fertilizers needed to grow tall corn, soybeans, alfalfa and a host of smaller crops.

The far...