SOIL MANAGEMENT 19 



tight stable floors and to tlie need for sufficient bedding to absorb 

 all of the liquid manure produced. 



Both dry muck and soil are effective in absorbing the liquid 

 and in preserving the valuable parts of the manure, but since 

 they have a tendency to foul the stock and the stable they should 

 be used under a thin la3'er of fibrous material like straw or 

 shavings. 



Manure always suffers appreciable loss if subject to leaching 

 by rain water. For this reason any of the methods of storage 

 that permits rain water to pass through the manure or to dis- 

 place a corresponding amount of liquid already absorbed, results 

 in serious losses. Small, thin piles are especially wasteful and 

 should be avoided both in the barn-lot and in the field. If manure 

 cannot be taken direct to the field from the stable and spread 

 evenly over the soil it should be stored either in a tight pit or in 

 large compact piles so deej) that the rain does not penetrate to 

 the bottom. 



Application of manure to the land.— For the general farmer 

 the best practice is to apply the manure to the land as rapidly 

 as it is made, spreading it in a thin, uniform layer and depend- 

 ing upon the absorptive capacity of the soil to reduce the losses 

 to a minimum. Truck farmers and gardeners store their manure 

 in large compost heaps from five to six feet deep and flat or 

 saucer-shaped on the top to absorb the rain and thus keep the 

 X^ile moist. A pile of this depth has sufficient capacity to absorb 

 any ordinary amount of rainfall. 



The place in the rotation where manure can be applied to the 

 best advantage is a difficult cpiestion to decide and must be deter- 

 mined by the character of the soil and the requirements of the 

 crops. In general forage and grass crops make a better use of 

 manure than do the small grains. In a rotation of corn, oats, 

 wheat, clover, the manure can usually be applied to best advan- 

 tage on the clover sod to be plowed doAvn for corn. In mixed 

 farming where grass is let stand for three or four years the use 

 of manure as a top dressing on the new seeding greatly increases 

 not only the grass crops but residue of manure together with the 

 grass sod and stubble has a marked effect upon the grain crops 

 following the grass. 



At "the Cornell Experiment Station the application of ten tons 

 of manure per acre to grass land for two years in three, 

 increased the average yield of hay two hundred and fifty per cent 

 and the value of the succeeding crops of corn, oats and Avheat to 

 the amount of $34.61. At the Ohio Experiment Station the 



