352 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



MANURING ON THE SURFACE. 



Surface manuring is no new idea ; yet if our 

 memory serves us, the practice is almost univer- 

 sally ignored by agricultural writers of the present 

 day, as a method of manuring. It is acknow- 

 ledged as a very good thing to preserve favourite 

 plants or newly-set-out trees from the effect o" 

 drought ; but very little beyond this. " Those who 

 imagine," says the editor of the Working Farmer, 

 "they find good results from spreading of manure 

 on the surface, and leaving it for days, weeks, or 

 months before it is ploughed under, mistake the 

 action of the litter or longer portions of the manure 

 as a mulch, for the action of the manure on the 

 soil." We so far differ from this and kindred 

 opinions on the subject, that we think manuring 

 on the surface, for ninety-nine farmers in a hun- 

 dred, the best general method of application. 

 We except all cases where the drill application 

 of compost is found desirable, and garden and 

 lot culture. Nor do we maintain that there is 

 not a more perfect method of preserving and pre- 

 paring all the elements of the manure heap, by 

 its careful husbandry under sheds, an occasional 

 treatment with diluted sulphuric acid, or some 

 other " fixer," a cistern to catch the draining?, and 

 a pump to pump them back upon the heap, and 

 patience and perseverance and constant watchful- 

 ness. A more perfect method still is that of Mr. 

 Mechi, who applies his manure only in a liquid 

 state, and for this purpose has his farm traversed 

 with iron pipes, to convey the fluid to the different 

 fields. He says it pays in England, and it may be 

 so, though his neighbours doubt it very much. 

 But on a Virginia farm, we think sensible men 

 would account the Sheriff of London stark mad, 

 We maintain that this mode of manuring (viz., on 

 the surface) is in itself so little inferior to the most 

 perfect methods, that taking into consideration the 

 circumstances of our farming popluation, the ex- 

 tent of surface and high price of labour, the atten- 

 tion, and time and management that the mass of 

 farmers can give to this branch of their operations, 

 it is for them the most economical and the best. 

 It will pay better. 



We ask now the reader's attention to the am- 

 monia theory. That ammonia is the element of 

 greatest value in stable manures, we do not ques- 

 tion. That it is very volatile, flies off and escapes 

 by exposure to the atmosphere, everybody knows. 

 Upon these principles is based the recommenda- 

 tion to plough under, immediately, manures which 

 yieid ammonia, that the earth may absorb and 

 preserve it. Now let it be distinctly borne in 

 mind, that fresh manure of any sort does not 

 contain this volatile ammonia, but only nitrogen, 

 which is not volatile, out of which the ammonia is 

 formed; and that ammonia is generated only as 

 the nitrogen putrefies in the rotting manures. If 

 the manure accumulates in the stable, the warmth 

 and moisture of the daily additions soon bring on 

 active fermentation, and the pungent ammonia 



which assails us is the result of the putrefaction 

 thus caused. Until this process of rotting com- 

 mences, ammonia is not formed, and the manure 

 not liable to waste, and it ceases to be generated 

 when the rotting is checked. Now, when we are 

 ready to remove our manure-heaps in the spring, 

 we find them usually rotting to some extent. Let 

 us follow, and observe the whole process. It is 

 taken up first, forkful by forkful, and pitched into 

 the cart ; the ammonia, of course, all the time seek- 

 ing its freedom ; it is hauled, reeking and smoking, 

 a long distance perhaps, to the field; now it is 

 dropped into small heaps, where it remains a week 

 or so, until you are ready to plough the land. It 

 you are ready, or when you are ready, these heaps 

 are carefully spread out on the ground, the more 

 perfectly the better, and then ploughed under— not 

 immediately, even under the most careful manage- 

 ment, but as soon as it can be done — with a delay, 

 ordinarily, of an average of some hours. Now, 

 with all this necessary opening and forking, and 

 tossing and spreading, our impression is that the 

 free ammonia is very much like the Frenchman's 

 flea, which when he put his finger upon it wasn't 

 there; the point of time when we are ready to lay 

 hold of it, is just when we may as well save our- 

 selves the trouble : it is not there. But let it be 

 borne in mind that the ammonia we have been 

 dealing with, is that only which was generated in 

 the rotting heap before its removal. When the 

 heap was opened to the air, the process of rotting 

 ceased, and ammonia was no longer formed. Sup- 

 posing, then, this free ammonia is pretty well gone, 

 at any rate we have the remainder of the manure, 

 with its unchanged nitrogen (not ammonia) to deal 

 with. Plough this under to the depth of eight 

 inches, and for want of the proper temperature to 

 cause its putrefaction, it may remain unchanged 

 and unavailable until another ploughing shall 

 bring it up again to the influence of heat and mois- 

 ture, which will disengage the ammonia. It is a 

 frequent experience, that we plough under deeply, 

 for a spring crop, fresh stable manure, and receive 

 no benefit from it whatever until it is brought up 

 again to the surface, and the wheat crop following 

 reaps the advantage. 



But suppose, instead of making a week or two 

 weeks' heavy labour of hauling out manure in the 

 spring, when the teams are at best not strong, and 

 there is a press of hard work on hand, you get rid 

 of this necessity of hauling cut and ploughing 

 under simultaneously, and hauling at your con- 

 venience, you throw the manure upon the surface 

 of the grass field, what is the result ? At the 

 worst, as we have shown above, there is equal loss 

 of the/ree ammonia when the manure is ploughed 

 under. In both cases, that is about all gone, be- 

 fore it can be with certainty taken possession of, 

 by any process. The mass remaining on the sur- 

 face, however, the work of putrefaction, which 

 made the free ammonia, and which was stopped by 



