300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr, Lucas. I will break up an acre of ground this month that 

 bore a ton of hay this year ; next spring I will apply twenty-six 

 loads of green manure to that ground, and put fourteen loads in 

 the hill, plant it with corn, and raise fifty bushels ; next spring plow 

 it and sow it with wheat, seed it, and raise twenty bushels. I have 

 then expended forty loads of manure upon that ground. It bore 

 a ton to the acre before I plowed it, and two tons afterwards. I 

 want to know how much of the value of the manure have I lost in 

 the crops raised ? In other words, how much grass or hay would 

 that have produced if I applied it to the surface instead of plowing 

 the ground ? 



Mr. Gold. That will depend entirely upon the character of your 

 soil. If your soil is a gravelly, sandy, quick soil, your manure 

 will be almost exhausted in two years' cropping. If your soil is 

 of a mucky, loamy, somewhat clayey nature, as much of ours is, 

 the effects of that manure will show for ten years. I have seen 

 the effects of the application of manure for that length of time, 

 and more, where there was only a small portion of a field highly 

 manured. 



Question. How would it bo if it was not plowed at all ? How 

 long could you see the effects of the application of say five cords 

 to the acre on the surface ? 



Mr. Gold. Well, sir, on a soil that contains carbonaceous mat- 

 ter in considerable quantity, and clay, there will not be much 

 manure wasted ; it will remain there until taken up by the crops, 

 and will continue to benefit the land for several years. But upon 

 a hungry, gravelly, sandy soil you must look for the returns from 

 your manure very soon. I cannot answer such a question any 

 more definitely than that. It will depend entirelyupon the charac- 

 ter of the land how long you may expect the manure to show its 

 influence upon it. 



Question. Here is the grass crop, the staple crop of the coun- 

 try. One great object is to ascertain what application to make of 

 our manure to make the most of it ; whether we shall put it upon 

 the surface, or whether we shall plow and take crops as we do, 

 and then take the grass that follows ? 



Mr. Gold. In my immediate vicinity, and on my soil, top- 

 dressing has been the favorite method of applying manure ; but 

 there are other sections, with somewhat different soil, where 

 they consider top-dressing of very little taIuc, and plow in 



