94 The Bulletin. 



If neither of these plans are practicable, haul the manure out as fast as it 

 accumulates to the fields where it is to be used. Scatter as soon as hauled. 

 Do not leave in piles. Always spread, if possible, on some winter cover crop 

 that is to be turned under in the spring for corn or cotton, because stable or 

 barnyard manure should be applied to such crops as corn or cotton, since they 

 are gross feeders and grow practically through the whole growing season, 

 thereby utilizing the plant-food elements as fast as they are liberated by 

 decay.' The small grain crops are not such gross feeders, mature earlier in 

 the season, and are shallow rooted. The residual effect of stable manures 

 gives much better results with these crops. 



Frequent light applications are much better than heavy applications at 

 longer intervals of time. The criticism I have of Mr. Cannon's eflCorts, cited 

 above, is that in all probability he would have obtained equally as good results 

 with half the amount. An application of one ton per acre every year is bet- 

 ter than an application of four tons every four years. With a heavy applica- 

 tion more plant-food elements will probably be liberated than the growing 

 crops can utilize and loss from leaching would result, especially on sandy soils. 

 Apply manures after the land has been turned. Bacterial life is much more 

 active "four or five inches below the surface than it is ten inches below. This 

 method does not call for any extra w-ork, for the ground has to be pulverized. 

 This discussion implies that one has used quantities of coarse materials for 

 bedding. The kind of bedding is very important from the standpoint of ma- 

 nure saving. The protection and comfort of the animal is the first consideration, 

 saving manure the second. The combination of perfection in both is the ideal 

 arrangement. For manure saving the bedding must be a good absorbent, for 

 the liquid manure is the more valuable part. In order of their absorbent qual- 

 ities we name peat, sawdust, fine cut straw, coarse uncut straw. You see peat 

 stands first and is good bedding. It is almost ideal. Any dry earth with plenty 

 of hunius in it is good, but it requires great amounts of it. Sawdust is a 

 first-class bedding and a good absorbent, but is itself a poor manure. It 

 does not decay readilv, and if from pine lumber may introduce substances in 

 hurtful amounts into "the soil. This last, however, is a remote possibility, and 

 sawdust in the absence of something better can and should be utilized. Straw, 

 as may be seen, is a good all-round bedding. Oak leaves are good— a poor 

 absorbent, but good bedding, and have a small manurial value of their own. 

 Pine needles is fairlv good. It is much better to utilize all these things on the 

 farm for stock bedding than to burn them. A farmer has no use for fire 

 except to cook his food and keep him warm in the winter-time. 



All stalls should have cement floors, so that every drop of the liquid and 

 every ounce of the solid manure may be saved. It is of too great a value to 

 be lost. 



Yet, after all the good things— and they are many — have been said in favor 

 of stable manure, the amount will always be inadequate. I will give $25, and 

 pay it when I get rich, to the man who feeds only what he raises on his own 

 farm to" live stock, returning the manure to the land, and thereby build up or 

 keep up the fertilitv of his farm without the growing of legumes. To the 

 dairyman or other live-stock man. who feeds the products of other farms, this 

 does' not apply. But the majority of farmers are always going to be grain 

 farmers. Here in the South the majority of our farmers are always going 

 to find cotton growing more profitable than live-stock farming. All these will 

 have to resort to something else than stable manure to maintain the fertility 

 of their lands. Commercial fertilizers as permanent soil improvers have 

 already proven a failure — good temporary crop producers, but poor permanent 

 soil iiuprovcrs. Of the three principal means of soil improvement, the grow- 

 ing and turning under of legumes, called green manuring, stable manures, and 

 commercial fertilisers, the first is fundamental and of universal application. 

 Here is the beginning of soil salvation. Three things are absolutely essential 

 to the building up and maintaining of southern soils— humus, nitrogen, and 

 winter cover crops to prevent leaching. Here we can kill three birds with one 

 stone. Sow a legume winter cover crop, turn it under in the spring for the 

 summer crop. Then you have humus, .ibsolutely essential to soil improvement : 

 the valuable nitrogen, absolutely essential to large crop production, gathered 

 from the air at small cost; and a winter cover crop, another absolute essential 

 in this southern climate to prevent waste by soil leaching. 



