the wheat culturist. 183 



Burying Manure Deep or Shallow for Wheat. 



Notwithstanding all that has been written on the sub- 

 ject of burying manure shallow, in preference to covering 

 it deep, there are still some farmers who will contend 

 that it is preferable to scatter the manure in a deep fur- 

 row, to simply covering it with a thin stratum of earth. 

 It is far better to cover manure only two inches deep, for 

 winter wheat, than to bury it in a furrow six inches 

 in depth. I may repeat what I have stated in another 

 part of this book : that manure for winter grain should 

 always be kept near the surface of the ground, so that 

 the coronal roots of the wheat plant (or the winter rye, 

 or winter barley plants) may spread out horizontally, 

 rather than strike downward nearly in a vertical direc- 

 tion, as horizontal roots will keep the young plants from 

 being lifted out by the freezing of the soil. (See the chapter 

 on Manures, in the second volume of my Young Farmer's 

 Manual.) 



For the purpose of testing the advantage of burying 

 manure shallow, some farmers in Pennsylvania tried an 

 experiment in applying manure to their wheat ground. 

 One farmer contended that manure should be turned 

 under deep with the first ploughing ; and the other that 

 it should be buried shallow, with the second ploughing. 

 To settle the point as near as possible, these two agreed 

 to try one-half of each of their fields each way, and let the 

 the rest judge by vote which was best. In both cases 

 one-half of the manure was hauled out as soon as the oats 

 were off, and ploughed under deep ; then the remainder 

 of the field was ploughed to the same depth, well harrow- 

 ed and rolled ; the balance of the manure was then 

 hauled out, spread, and a portion (about one-fourth) of 



