REARING AND FEEDING FARM STOCK. 153 



Another fault among farmers is, in the making and care of 

 manure, and its application to the soil. In the first place on the 

 average they do not make more than half the quantity they might 

 with the means they have, then a very large per cent, of it goes 

 to waste for the want of a cellar or shed to protect it from the 

 storms and from being washed away. Then what is left is usually 

 put upon double the land it should be, and often ploughed under 

 so deep as to be entirely lost, or so that it is worth but a mere 

 trifle to future crops. Again, it is put upon wet land, or ground 

 that is full of water, which in my judgment, is making a very poor 

 use of it; it is not worth anything like as much on such land as 

 upon dry land ; or as upon the same land after it has been under- 

 drained and thereby put in condition for crop. Manure costs 

 enough and there is necessity enough for it, not to throw it away, 

 or to make any other than the best possible use of it. In the use 

 of our manures we pursue too much the same course as we do 

 with our fodder, give just enough so that everything we feed 

 barely lives. If our farmers could be made to believe that they 

 can raise as much corn, as much wheat, and as much hay upon 

 one acre as they now do upon two, very likely mo're of them would 

 try the experiment. I have no doubt that by putting the same 

 amount of barn manure and the same amount of commercial fertil- 

 izers now used by farmers in the State of Maine, upon one acre 

 that is ordinarily put upon two, that more than double the crop 

 would be raised, and with great saving of labor, and it would hold 

 out to grass much longer. My method is, to haul out the manure 

 in the spring and put it upon the surface of plowed ground and 

 harrow it thoroughly, so as to incorporate it with the surface soil ; 

 it is not exposed to the sun by itself, but is subject to the heat of 

 the sun and to the influence of rains the same as the soil, and 

 although it may not be worth as much for the immediate crop as 

 old pulverised manure, yet for a succession of crops I am of the 

 opinion that it is worth more than in any other way. It is all 

 there, and by thorough working of the soil it becomes a part of it. 

 There is no loss nor way of escape if the land is dry and fit to 

 cultivate. 



Underdratxixi;. I remarked at our meeting at Lincoln that the 

 necessity for underdraiuing was conceded by everybody, or to such 

 an extent that it was not worth our time to discuss its need after 

 an able paper upon the subject had been read. Others thought 

 different!}' in relation to public opinion upon the subject, but con- 



