CEREAL CULTIVATION EASTERN AREA 313 



nitrates, that is, about two months before harvest time. 

 The lumps should be carefully crushed and the fertilizer 

 sown broadcast as a top dressing. 



Acid phosphate may be run through the fertilizer at- 

 tachment of the grain drill. Contact with the seed will 

 not affect germination. It is not safe, however, to use the 

 grain drill for sowing cottonseed meal or other nitrog- 

 enous fertilizers or potash salts, because of then- inter- 

 ference with germination. 



339. Barnyard manure would seem to be the most 

 natural fertilizer for cereal crops, but it is usually im- 

 possible to obtain it in sufficient quantity, and besides it 

 is not a complete fertilizer, being specially deficient in 

 phosphorus. It is, however, of great benefit when applied 

 to cereal soils. If 40 to 50 pounds of some form of phos-l 

 phate are added to each ton of such manure as it is being ; 

 made in the stable or before hauling to the field, probably 

 no better form of fertilizer can be found. About 8 tons 

 to the acre of this treated manure should be applied 

 once in four years. 



In any case of the use of barnyard manure for cereals, 

 it is better not to apply it directly to the cereal crop, but 

 previously to growing some other crop in the rotation 

 such as corn. The cereal will then get the benefit of the 

 added humus in the soil, with less danger of lodging, 

 fungous diseases, and a rank growth of straw, at the 

 expense of grain production. 



At the Ohio Experiment Station, a corn-oats-wheat-clover rota- 

 tion on a scale of 10 acres to each crop, has been established, with 

 a plan of fertilizing, involving the use of all stable manure, that is 

 remarkably successful and should be applicable to a large part of 

 the Eastern area. The manure, after being reenforced with acid 

 phosphate or raw rock phosphate (ground) dusted in the stable at 



