MANURES. 79 



profit, for I shall not only save much labor when I do draw it to 

 the fields, but I shall have the manure in a condition to go fur- 

 ther, and to be at once available to the crop. My experience 

 teaches that a small amount of manure in good condition, applied 

 at the right time and place, is worth more than three times 

 as much in bad condition and unwisely applied. 



Every experiment which I have ever made in this line has 

 confirmed me more and more in the belief that to get the best 

 results from manure it must be pulverized. In the fall of 1882 

 I sowed a number of experimental plots of wheat. Each plot 

 contained exactly four square rods or one-fortieth of an acre, and 

 as I could not well drill so small an amount, I sowed broadcast. 

 Adjoining plots were sown at the same time and with the same 

 amount of seed per acre. One had no manure and on the other 

 I scattered just four bushels of fine manure one bushel to the 

 square rod or at the rate of four moderate loads per acre. The 

 unmanured plot was entirely killed by the severe winter that 

 followed, while the manured plot came through in fair condition. 



The value of pulverization in making fertilizers promptly 

 available may be illustrated thus : Two hundred pounds of finely 

 ground bones, applied to an acre, will often make an increase that 

 year of a ton of hay or ten bushels of wheat, while a ton of 

 whole bones would have no visible effect, though containing ten 

 times the amount of plant food. Our State Boards of Agricul- 

 ture appreciate so highly the influence of pulverization in ren- 

 dering plant food in manures available, that they have adopted a 

 higher rate of valuation for phosphate contained in finely ground 

 bones than for that in bones ground coarsely. I think this par- 

 ticularly true when we use manure on the wheat crop. 



The period of growth in autumn being short, it is important 

 that the plant shall make sufficient growth to cover the ground, 

 furnish protection to the roots for the winter, get well rooted so 

 as to be ready to make a vigorous start in the spring and also 

 be able to resist the enemies that seek to destroy it. A little 

 manure, finely pulverized and thoroughly incorporated with the 

 soil at the surface, will do this, and for many years I have there- 

 fore used the manure for a wheat crop as a top dressing. An- 



