88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



diately. But I have learned, I think, by experience, better 

 than that. As the gentleman from Worcester (Mr. Had- 

 wen) says, there is no time when the manure is so valuable 

 as it is immediately on coming from the animal. If that is 

 so, then, the sooner you can get this manure into the ground 

 or on to the ground, the better. It has been stated here, 

 and I have no doubt of it, that there is a great tendency 

 in the land to take the fertilizing elements of the manure 

 down ; that it has an affinity for them, and will take them. 

 Now, my experience has been this. Since I lost my fears 

 of evaporation and leaching, I have spread my manure in 

 winter, sometimes without ploughing, and sometimes with; 

 but I am satisfied that it is better to put it on at that time 

 than it is to put it on in the spring of the year, because you 

 get just as much benefit from it, and you ha^e the economy 

 in your favor. You do it at a time when you can do it a 

 great deal cheaper than you can in the spring when you are 

 hurried. It seems to me there can be no question, that, on 

 an inclined plane, a steep side-hill, there is liability to wash. 

 I can believe that, although I cannot believe that the gentle- 

 man's statement, that the crop was just as good where the 

 manure was washed off as it was where it did not wash, was 

 precisely true. It seems to me, that, where you have a side- 

 hill so steep that you must have washing, you must lose 

 some of your manure. My experience is, that, when I 

 manure a side-hill, the ground below, although there is no 

 manure put there, will show the effects of the manure ap- 

 plied to the land above, plainly showing that it has gone 

 down. 



Mr. Hadwen. For how great a distance ? 



Dr. Wakefield. I cannot say by rods; but you can see 

 traces of it for some distance. 



Mr. Hadwen. As far as the water flows ? 



Dr. Wakefield. I don't know about that. If it flowed 

 a great distance, I am inclined to think it would lose its 

 effect. My idea is, that manure should be put on at the time 

 when it is most convenient, and when, under all the circum- 

 stances (if it is early in the summer), we think it is as good 

 a time as we shall have in the course of the year. I believe 

 there is such an affinity of the earth for the manure, for 

 those fertilizers which go to make up plants, that it will take 



