IMPKOVEMENT OF SOIL BY MANURING. 57 



In very many cases, the best practice is to draw the 

 manure direct from the stables and spread it on the 

 land. Top-dressing grass lands is a practice deserv- 

 edly growing in favor. Applying the manure to land 

 which is to be plowed later, even if it be stubble- 

 land, is often good practice. Some nitrogen passes 

 into the air, but there is a great saving of labor, and 

 the loss is believed to be less than was formerly sup- 

 posed. The laborious methods formerly much recom- 

 mended, of frequent stirring the manure; of drawing 

 it to the field and there putting it in heaps, etc., are 

 less in favor than formerly aid not adapted to the con- 

 ditions under which most American farmers work. 



Comparatively fresh and unfermented manure may 

 more advisably be applied on stubble-land some con- 

 siderable time before it is to be plowed, than well- 

 rotted manure. 



Barn-yard manure, unless very thoroughly rotted, 

 is bulky and heavy in proportion to the quantity of 

 plaot food it contains. Often three-fourths of its 

 weight is made up of water. But it will probably 

 .long remain the most gengral reliance of farmers in 

 this country, and in most cases it is, especially when 

 produced on the farm where it is to be applied, the 

 cheapest and best manure that can be used. Its value 

 in keeping the soil in good physical condition is to be 

 considered as well as its value in supplying plant food. 



liime is an essential element of all soils and of all 

 plants. Most soils in the United States have suffi- 

 ci 3nt lime to supply crops with all they need. When 

 used as manure the chief value of lime, as a rule, is 

 probably in its indirect effects in hastening decompo- 

 sition of vegetable matter in the soil and in correcting 



