]\Iaiiuriiig for Green Crops 



429 



experiment over a series of years (say ten), we 

 most unhesitatingly say that nine times at least 

 he will find the drill -manured potatoes the 

 best. In a very dry season like the present, 

 it yields a large increase of moisture, in a 

 cold wet spring it prevents cut sets of 

 potatoes from rotting by excess of cold mois- 

 ture. We have made the experiment re- 

 peatedly on a large scale, and invariably 

 found the drill - manured potatoes the best. 

 The manure applied in autumn is frequendy 

 much better than manure made in winter, 

 especially if the season has been wet. The 

 manured stubble is generally first ploughed, 

 and ploughed when the land is dry (an im- 

 mense advantage for drill-husbandryin spring), 

 and the manure being ploughed into the soil 

 keeps the land open and porous, which, 

 during a cold wet winter, must benefit the soil; 

 but for all these advantages experience 

 has taught us that drill-manuring is best. 

 Potatoes are not benefited by having the 

 manure too well made ; but it should all be 



plied in the drill (which certainly shews a 

 little on the surface after the potatoes are 

 lifted), will not still l)e of the same or pos- 

 sibly greater benefit ? It is ploughed in 

 by the seed furrow for the wheat ; it 

 has been perhaps six months less time 

 in the soil, and must be there with 

 even a greater stimulating influence than 

 manure which has lain in the soil all the 

 previous winter. In the writer's experience 

 he never could trace any distinctvariation in the 

 wheat crop after drill or stubble manuring. 

 The seed furrow should always be made across 

 the drills, in order to spread the manure and 

 obliterate their track. Lest we should be mis- 

 understood, we repeat that autumn-manuring 

 of stubbles is a necessary and admirable system 

 of farm management. The aim of our paper 

 is directed more to give an opinion on 

 which system will grow the best crop. We 

 have given a few of the reasons why it is 

 quite possible that occasionally autumn- 

 manured land may give the best crop. One 



middened and turned, ajid, to prei'cnt too rapid cause we omitted to state. The stubble- 

 manured land is always first planted, and in 

 most seasons the first planted Regent potatoes- 

 are best. However, it is impossible to lay 

 down any rules, as the variations of sea- 

 sons makes perfect accuracy of judgment, or 

 perhaps rather a bigoted opinion, and the 

 determination to stick to or uphold one system — 

 one of those errors that farmers, equally with 

 those in all professions or trades, would do 

 well to guard against. Let us do all in our 

 power to assist those scientific agricultural 

 chemists which our age has produced, by 

 careful field practice, and we have no doubt 

 the agricultural resources of our soil will be 

 increased many fold, and the expense of high 

 farming very much lessened. Nothing in 

 visible creation is more generous than the 

 soil or more truthful — what a tale is told by a 

 spilt guano bag — and it is only by putting- 

 plenty in we can expect a plentiful return, 

 remembering always the golden rule of Scrip- 

 ture, applicable alike to the natural as to the 

 spiritual world — " For whatsoever a man 

 soweth that shall he also reap." 



or too much decay, salt should be sprinkled 

 over every course as the heap is bang 

 turned, and both the top and sides covered 

 at least 6 inches unth soil to keep in the 

 ammonia, and prevent the drying winds in 

 spring making the heaps too dry. The 

 manure applied on the stubble should also be 

 middened before being put on the land. 

 When there is not sufficient time for this, the 

 manure can be thrown up in a heap from the 

 carts. This process hastens fermentation, 

 and it can be applied in a few days. 

 Where a large breadth of stubble is 

 manured there is no harm done by the 

 manure being allowed to lie for weeks with- 

 out being ploughed in, but it cannot be too 

 soon spread, and so little damage is sustained 

 by the manure being exposed on the sur- 

 face, after repeated trials, we are rather 

 disposed to consider it an advantage. Some 

 farmers assert that drill-manuring is disad- 

 vantageous for the wheat crop, because you 

 cannot bury dung too deep. The deep culti- 

 vation will benefit the land. But will it 

 stand to reason to suppose that manure ap- 



