PO 41: Describe how purity, fineness, and Calcium Carbonate Equivalent (CCE) affect the neutralizing ability of liming materials.

Fineness is related to how small the lime particles are.  The finer a limestone is ground, the faster it will react in the soil.  Fineness is reported as a particle size distribution usually as the percentage of the material that will pass 20, 60, and 100-mesh screens.  An example of the size distribution for a typical good-quality limestone is: 95% passing 20 mesh; 60% passing 60 mesh; 50% passing 100 mesh.  A distribution such as the one above is a good compromise between cost and practical agronomic effectiveness.  Material larger than 20 mesh reacts too slow to be of much value as a liming material.  All very fine, less than 100 mesh material will react quickly but it will be much more expensive and may be difficult to handle.  Fineness does not increase the total neutralizing value of a limestone, just how fast it will react.