m 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



manure are supplied, the surplus is put on the seeds ; hut, of 

 course, there is not sufficient to go all over them. From 

 October till March affords ample opportunity to make up the 

 lequired quantity ; and this is done partly by carting that 

 which is too long for immediate application to the land into 

 heaps until it is ready, mixing salt with the heap as carted, 

 and covering with soil ; and partly with manure taken directly 

 from boxes or yards, where it has been so thoroughly trodden 

 and prepared as not to require the heaping process. The re- 

 mainder of the manure, when the beasts have left the yards, 

 is carted, and preserved in a similar manner, in convenient 

 spots, for autumn use. If leakage occurs, a small tank is dug, 

 the drainings into which are carefully returned over the heap 

 every morning ; or this waste of invaluable matter may be 

 prevented by simply shooting down a sufficient quantity of 

 ashes to absorb the escaping liquor. With these precautions, 

 I believe there is no fear of loss from fermentation ; for che- 

 mistry has proved to us that ammonia is not given off from 

 the surface of well-compressed dung-heaps, but in their inte- 

 rior and heated portions, and that, in passing into the colder 

 and external layers, it is retained. Neither have I the slight- 

 est objection to allow farmyard manure to be spread and ex- 

 posed on the surface during the winter, but rather prefer it, 

 I remember, in October, 1858, dressing twelve acres of seeds, 

 immediately after the lambs had been taken off them and put 

 to turnips, with sixteen loads of good manure per acre. It 

 was rotten, and immediately finely spread on the surface. The 

 seeds were red clover and Italian ryegrass, which had been 

 once mown. Two acres were left undressed. The field was 

 then rested until the end of January, when, with the exception 

 of the neglected two acres, tUe dressing had so entirely revived 

 the Italian ryegrass as to have produced most luxuriant 

 keeping far the ewes, and the same comparative difference 

 was observable in the oats, very plainly showing that, though 

 the manure had been spread, and lay on the surface from 

 October to March, yet its virtue had been held by the soil 

 (which was not clay, but deep, light loam), and was abundantly 

 found in the oat crop the following harvest. Such having 

 been my satisfactory custom in the application of farmyard 

 manure to the land for many years, I was well pleased to read 

 in a late number of the Journal the following remarks by Dr. 

 Augustus Voelcker : "It appears to me," he writes, "a matter 

 of the greatest importance to regulate the application of ma- 

 nure to our fields so that its constituents may become pro- 

 perly diluted, and uniformly distributed amongst a large mass 

 of soil. By ploughing in the manure at once, it appears to 

 me, this desirable end cannot be reached so perfectly as by 

 allowing the rain to wash in gradually the manure, evenly 

 spread on the surface of the field. By adopting such a course, 

 in case practical experience should confirm my theoretical 

 reasoning, the objection could no longer be maintained, that 

 the land is not ready for carting manure upon it. I am much 

 inclined to recommeud as a general rule : Cart the manure on 

 the field, spread it at once, and wait for a favourable oppor- 

 tunity to plough it in. In the case of clay soils, I have no 

 hesitation to say the manure may be spread even six months 

 before it is ploughed in, without losing any appreciable quan- 

 tity of manuring matters." * 



It may be said, is it not considered wrong to apply farm- 

 yard manure to white grain crops ? Certainly, I have not 

 found it so for oats. They stand high condition of soil better 

 than any other white straw crop. I find the practice justifies 

 the course, having grown oats on this system for many years 

 of a heavy weight per bushel, and a large yield per acre. 



* Journal R.E.A.S:, vol. xvii,, p. 257, 



And after the oat crop, the land ploughs with a beautiful 

 mellow tilth for wheat ; the farm-yard manure which is turned 

 up becomes by harrowing thoroughly incorporated with the 

 soil, and the land is brought just to that state calculated 

 to give a satisfactory return, both in the quality and yield 

 of wheat. 



And again, it may be said, can it be right to apply a heavy 

 dressing of farm-yard manure on thin land, even for mangold 

 wurtzel, in the autumn ? On the very thinnest soils it may be 

 more prudent to wait till spring before manuring; but I have 

 some very thin soils, and I prefer autumnal manuring for 

 them. This is my plan : and again, I may say very heavy 

 crops seem abundantly to justify it. The manure being 

 spread, I throw the land at once into 27-inch ridges, leaving, 

 of course, that soil underneath the ridge unploughed, and the 

 manure covered up over it. Having lain for the action of the 

 weather, till perhaps the end of January, the ridges are re- 

 versed, the remainder of the land gets ploughed and exposed- 

 The manure now become tolerably well incorporated with the 

 soil. Before sowing the mangolds look over the ridges, and 

 remove all strong-rooted weeds : slightly mould up the 

 crumbled soil with a ridge-plough, and drill the seed. I pre- 

 fer sowing 3 cwt. superphosphate broadcast before moulding up 

 the ridges, and drilling 3 cwt. with the seed. In this way 

 heavy crops of mangolds may be grown on very thin soils with 

 autumnal manuring. 



The importance of a healthy and well-prepared seed-Ved for 

 all crops is a matter becoming more duly appreciated, and as 

 we have not yet got a " guide-way system" in all our fields, 

 the mechanical force requisite for conveying 20 tons of farm- 

 yard manure per acre over a field, say for swedes, and in a 

 watery month of Maj', must often have a most baneful in- 

 fluence on the physical properties of the soil, independently of 

 the fact that by its very slight incorporation, the young plant 

 gets not that forcing, but healthy growth, which a soil im- 

 parts in which the manure has been long previously amalga- 

 mated : and no doubt by such commixture and amalgamation 

 a really fertilizing compost is created, well indeed adapted for 

 the early nutrition of phnts, as well as their subsequent and 

 gradual development. 



It has often occurred to me, from remarking different sys- 

 tems of management, as highly probable, that in applying 

 farm-yard manure to my seeds in the autumn, by its minute 

 subdivision on the surface, then by the gradual washing into 

 the soil of the finer particles by rain, and the subsequent til- 

 lages, that the land is really in as good a state for the turnip 

 crop when that rotation returns, as similar land not so 

 treated is after receiving its heavy dressing of dung just pre- 

 vious to sowing the turnips. Another important advantage 

 is gained in the extra time permitted in the spring for clean- 

 ing the land, or for allowing it to rest [and grow successive 

 crops of annual weeds, each crop destroyed by harrowing, and 

 also the additional retention of moisture in a dry season, by 

 allowing longer rests between the tilths„ 



The autumn and winter, I contend, are the best seasons 

 for applying the manure of the farm to the land. On the one- 

 year seeds you are able to work your staff of men and horses, 

 and that without injury, when land is either too wet or too 

 frozen to do anythiug else upon it. And if you persist in 

 applying this manure to turnip fallows in the spring because 

 you are not able to get on your wet fallows with the manure- 

 carts, you are compelled to let your time of sowing he driven 

 on too late in the season ; or if postponed, the soil, by being 

 worked at an unfit time, becomes converted into a state of 

 semi-mortar, in which turnips never thrive ; and thus the 

 whole of the economy of the farm suffers, You have done 



