APPLICATION OF LIQUID MANURE. 59 



because, if you did, you would surely fail. I have tried for 

 several years to bring up what I call dry, sandy, gravelly 

 loam, and I have never succeeded well with it. I have never 

 got my money's worth back in putting it on that kind of 

 land. If I had a stiff, clay soil, coldish land, or natural grass- 

 land, I would top-dress it, and keep the grass in for twenty 

 years, and never stir it with the plough. If you have had a 

 dry season, and your grass is worn out or dried out, you will 

 find that the best thing you can do is to plough it at once, 

 even if you seed it down immediately. 



Mr. J. T. Everett (of Princeton). My practice has agreed 

 with that of the gentleman who has just sat down. Top- 

 dressing on moist land, natural mowing, clay soil, is always 

 the best, as I think : that has been my practice. But any 

 land where corn will grow well, or crops of that kind, should 

 be ploughed as Mr. Whitaker has stated, as it seems to me. 

 It has always been my custom to top-dress only wet land, 

 that does not need ploughing at all. Such land it may be 

 profitable to top-dress about the time the gentleman has 

 stated, — in October or the first of November. 



Mr. Gray. Mr, Slade recommended the use of liquid 

 manure. I would like to ask if there is any one here who 

 has had experience, whether it is most economical to keep 

 the two kinds separate, or to draw in an absorbent, and cart 

 it all out as solid. 



Mr. Whitaker. I think that drawing in absorbents and 

 drawing them out again is about as foolish a business as a 

 man can be engaged in. If you can think of any thing more 

 ridiculous than drawing in a load of sand for the purpose 

 of getting it wet with water, and then drawing it out again, 

 I cannot. All that makes the liquid is water : the solid part 

 is the fertilizing part. I cart them out at the same time to- 

 gether. I recollect one day when I was loading up a team, 

 and was going to spread the manure on some grassland, the 

 man who was working for me said, " If this had some sand 

 in it, we could get it out, and spread it a great deal quick- 

 er." — "I know it," I said. "But look here! I heard you 

 say something about whiskey the other day, and you said 

 you liked it. Now, supposing I should put a teaspoonful of 

 whiskey into a pint of water, how would you like it ? " He 

 said he wouldn't like it at all. " Well," I said, " that is just 



