VALUE OF LITTER FOR AGRICULTURE. 785 



It is also of great importance when the litter is removed, 

 whether only the uppermost layer of undecomposed leaves, etc., 

 is raked together, or the humus and mineral soil below is 

 also affected. The deeper the raking the more injurious it is. 



Whenever deep raking is repeated frequently, the soil 

 becomes dry ; it may become so firm and hard that the next 

 year's dead leaves, either are blown away by the wind, or do not 

 coalesce with the soil for several years. Therefore, only the 

 upper and undecomposed, or slightly decomposed, layer should 

 be removed, and the moss removed only in strips. 



8. Season for the Usage. 



The removal of litter is more prejudicial during spring and 

 summer ; less so in autumn before the leaves fall, and least of 

 all after the fall of the leaves. 



Baking, before the leaves have fallen, removes dead foliage 

 that has lain for a year on the ground, so that in order to 

 secure a given quantity of litter the rake must go deeper 

 into the decomposed humus. When raking is done after 

 leaf-fall, some of the freshly fallen leaves remain on the 

 ground. 



SECTION IX. VALUE OF FOREST-LITTER FOR AGRICULTURE. 



The very existence of agriculture depends on a sufficient 

 supply of manure. Both agricultural and forest land require 

 that all soil-constituents which the crops have taken from them 

 in fact their own ash-constituents should be restored, or 

 they will become sterile. In order to meet the constantly 

 increasing demands on the soil made by agricultural crops, 

 every farmer besides using imported artificial manure, endea- 

 vours as much as possible to increase the supply from his own 

 farmyard. In order, however, to obtain more farmyard manure, 

 more fodder-crops must be grown, and any scarcity of hay, 

 clover, etc., must be met by using straw. But stalled cattle 

 require litter partly to afford them dry bedding, and partly 

 for the absorption of their excreta ; when therefore there is 

 not sufficient straw for this purpose, a substitute may be found 



F.U. 3 E 



