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Mules hitched to a lime wagon, Berks County, PA, circa 1890.
Credit: Courtesy of Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
Farmers used lime for fertilizer, mortar, plaster, whitewash, and a privy disinfectant. Often hauled from great distances, limestone was converted to lime by burning it in limekilns, the ruins of which still dot the Pennsylvania countryside.