FERTILIZERS AND PLANT FOOD. 229 



both solid and liquid into the soil before fermentation takes place. 

 This may be accomplished by drawing and spreading the manure as 

 fast as it accumulates whether in summer or winter. In many places 

 this is practiced, but the deep snows of a New Hampshire winter 

 prevent this generally. It is also true that on steep hillsides the plant 

 food would be washed away to a certain extent, but on level land or 

 land of moderate slope I should never hesitate to spread manure at 

 any time when I could conveniently draw it to the field whether in 

 the fall, winter, spring or summpr. It is sometimes urged that 

 manure loses nitrogen by exposure to wind and snow, but if manure 

 is drawn out before fermentation commences there is little or no 

 ammonia in it, and as the nitrogen of manure, to be volatile must be 

 in the form of ammonia, the loss from this source must be very small 

 indeed ; manure spread on the surface in summer or early fall should 

 be harrowed in, for the reason that if left on the surface it dries in 

 hard lumps and is hard to break up and mix with the soil. Manure 

 applied in the late fall and before or after the freezing of the soil, 

 is probably in the best position possible, and I am satisfied not only 

 from general observation and the experience of the most observing 

 farmers, but from experiments in which the exact weight of products 

 has been determined, that if all the farm yard manure could be ap- 

 plied in November instead of April that the average yield would be 

 increased by more than ten per cent, from this change alone. 



The explanation of this is to be found in the even distribution of 

 the plant food in the surface soil. The fall rains and the melting 

 snow soften the manure and dissolves the available plant food, wash- 

 ing it into the soil where it is left in the best condition possible for 

 the young plant. 



The following experiments made on the Experiment Station farm 

 show the effects of manure applied in this way. Three acres of 

 land were set apart for the work, the strips being fifty-six rods long 

 and three rods wide. 



Each acre was divided into four sections, and each section con- 

 sisted of three rows of corn, space being left between ; these spaces 

 were planted but not included in the experiment. The three rows 

 had eight hundred hills, the hills and rows being three feet two 

 inches apart ; this would give three-fourths of an acre in each set of 

 four sections. The fifth acre had six cords of manure plowed in in 

 the fall, the sixth acre had six cords spread on the surface in the 



