270 WHAT MANURES TO APPLY. 



a top dressing of guano, or by artificial manuring mixtures com- 

 posed of ammonia salts or nitrate of soda and sulphate of lime. 

 Unfortunately the application of artificial manures to permanent 

 pasture is often disappointing in an economical point of view. 

 As a rule, no artificial manuring gives so favorable a return as 

 good farmyard manure, and I cannot help thinking that it 

 would be more profitable for a farmer to apply the larger portion 

 of his yard manure rather to his pasture land than to the arable 

 land ; for there is no difficulty in growing roots and cereal crops 

 economically with artificial manures." 



A few of our best Northern farmers, such as A. C. Glidden, of 

 Michigan, think that a much greater benefit would be derived 

 from manures by spreading them on the pastures or meadows 

 that were intended for corn a year hence. 



A sod is the great basis for a corn crop, and the better the sod 

 the better the crop of corn. 



In many portions of the Northern States it is the custom to 

 use most of the manure for the corn crop, with occasionally a top 

 dressing for wheat. 



Joseph Harris, of Eochester, New York, says : ' e The cheap- 

 est and best manure to apply to a permanent pasture is rich, 

 well-decomposed farmyard or stable manure, and if it is not rich 

 apply 200 Ibs. of nitrate of soda per acre in addition." 



We will read from still another, J. Dixon, in Jour. Roy. Ag. 

 Soc., p. 204, 1858: "I have no hesitation, after an extensive 

 experience, in pronouncing bones pre-eminent above all other 

 manures for the improvement of grass lands, when permanency 

 as well as cost are considered. I prefer them raw and ground 

 fine. On a high varied soil in England, within two years, the 

 value of the land was raised more than from 30 s. to 3 1. per 

 acre." 



Here are notes from a prize essay by C. Cadle in Jour. Roy. 



