The Question Box. 127 



does not spread it until he gets ready to plow the ground. The 

 result is an increase of fertility of the soil under each pile. The 

 man who draws the manure from his barn and spreads it every 

 day gets most benefit from it. 



Mr. Lillie. — We draw the manure every day in winter and 

 spread it on our clover sod where we will plant corn next year. 

 As a rule, we do no fall plowing. There are several reasons for 

 not doing it. One is that we cannot draw manure on to fall plowed 

 land in winter, particularly, when the ground is covered with snow. 



Dr. Smead. — Draw it directly to the field every day. It does 

 not improve by being left in the stable, and there will be no loss 

 unless the temperature reaches 70°. If you can't draw it out be- 

 cause of snow, keep it under cover. It will pay to build a manure 

 shed to keep off rain. It may freeze badly and give you some extra 

 work to get it out. 



A Farmer. — I prefer to draw it out and pile it. 



Mr. Chapman. — Why not spread it if you can draw it out and 

 pile it? There will be more loss from piled than spread manure. 



Question. — Will fertilizers lose any value by being kept one 

 year, if kept in a dry place ? 



Mr. Chapman. — I think not. 



Question. — Will it injure barn manure to draw it out when 

 frozen hard? 



Mr. Woodward. — No, sir; not at all. The best thing to do with 

 barn manure is to put it on the land just as soon as made. Two 

 loads of such manure is worth three kept and applied in the usual 

 way. 



Question. — How can we save our horse manure all summer, to 

 apply on wheat land, and retain its full value? 



Mr. Witter. — I don't know. 



Mr. Smith. — If horse manure is kept piled and land plaster is 

 mixed in it, if the pile is kept solid, there will not be much loss 

 of nitrogen caused by fermentation. 



Mr. Gould. — It will require lots of land plaster and road dust 

 to hold the nitrogen in such manure, which gets away in the form 

 of ammonia. 



Question. — If manure is plowed under, does it do as much 

 good as if spread on top? If not, why not? 



Mr. Smith. — If you have fine manure and want to get an 

 immediate return, putting it on top and harrowing it in will give 

 most present benefit. If you want later results, that is, to per- 

 manently enrich the land, plow it under. 



