MANURING IN THE FALL 143 



have never composted any of my manure, except, in some 

 cases, fish-pomace : I think that is the only material that 

 requires it. I always trust the earth to do the composting, 

 and, if I can get it near the surface, I feel satisfied that is 

 the better way. 



There is one thought in regard to my application of 

 manure in the fall, which Mr. Flint's remarks yesterday did 

 not exaiJtly touch. One of the reasons (I don't know that 

 it is a valid reason), but one of the reasons why I choose to 

 apply manure in the fall, ^.nd plough it in so shallow as I 

 mentioned, is, that there are soluble fertilizing properties in 

 it which readily wash out, and those are distributed through 

 the earth more readily than they are if the manure is not 

 put on the soil until spring. That is the idea I have, — 

 that it washes into the earth, and the crop of the next year 

 will more readily find it than when it is put on in the spring. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I do not think that it speaks well for 

 the activity of agricultural thought, that we can discuss the 

 question of the application of manure in the fall or in the 

 spring, and no one has taken the trouble, although we have so 

 many experimenters, and an agricultural college, to ascertain 

 whether one assumption or the other is true. One man saj's 

 there is no loss of manure if it is applied in the fall ; another 

 man says there is a loss. How can you account for such 

 discrepancies? The fact is, there is no loss, agriculturally 

 speaking, as we ordinarily apply it, whether we put it on at 

 one time or another, so far as we can reason from analogy, 

 so far as any fact indicates. If you apply certain chemicals in 

 the fall, you will find a loss under those conditions. If you 

 appl}^ manures in the form in which they are usually applied 

 in the fall, the loss is not appreciable ; and whether you get 

 a crop or not depends on something else besides the mere 

 fact whether any of the elements of that crop have gone out 

 of that soil, or have remained in it. You are only fighting a 

 single branch of the question, and not the whole question, as 

 you come to it in practice. I will ask if there is any one 

 here who has any fact which will show any loss of the fer- 

 tilizing elements through the application of farm-dung under 

 the ordinary processes of farming, — whether in the spring, 

 summer, fall, or winter. 



Mr. Perky. Why is it, that if you apply old, dry horse' 



