WHAT MANURES TO APPLY. 267 



and sheep with cotton cake on grass land. By no means allow 

 sheep to pasture newly seeded grass land. 



What Manures to Apply. — This is a very puzzling question 

 — one difficult to answer. In most cases no one can tell what 

 would be best till experiments are made, but an intelligent per- 

 son of experience can usually tell approximately what is for the 

 best. 



The substances most generally needed in manures for increas- 

 ing a crop are those containing available nitrogen, potash and 

 phosphoric acid. The influence of the weather, the moisture on 

 grasses and clovers is much more marked than that caused by 

 the richness or barrenness of the soil. 



" The tendency of modern jDractice in manuring is to use 

 readily soluble and quick acting manures, but to use them 

 sparingly at each time. Little and often is the rule. It is not 

 good j)olicy to bury any manure very deeply, but apply it on or 

 near the surface." — [Crops of the Farm.] 



It is better to apply nitrogenous manures in spring when 

 plants are beginning to grow. In what follows the reader will 

 learn from the experience of others who have made many ex- 

 periments with various kinds of fertilizers applied to grass 

 land. For these we are compelled to cross the Atlantic, as but 

 few reliable results have been published in America. 



The following is gathered from J. Julie in Jour. Koy. Ag. Soc. : 

 *' If the leguminous plants are well developed and prominent we 

 should diminish the dose of potash and increase the nitrogen. 

 If, on the contrary, the true grasses stifle the Leguminosfe, it is 

 better to reduce the dose of nitrogen and increase that of potash. 

 Farmyard manure contains a large amount of nitrogen, but very 

 little in a soluble state, unless it is well decomposed. There is 

 a marked advantage in using a chemical manure, as farmyard 

 manure contains an excess of several elements which will of ne- 

 cessity remain unemployed. Farmyard manure is far more suit- 



