80 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



other reason why I prefer to keep the manure at the surface is 

 that we wish it to help the grass or clover, and if plowed under 

 deeply it will not be immediately available for them. 



There are two other points in the influence which manure has 

 upon plants worthy of notice ; one that it causes early maturity, 

 the other that it enables the plant to resist enemies. The first 

 of these is of especial importance to the market gardener, as a 

 difference of two or three days in getting a crop into market 

 will often change the profits materially. I remember planting 

 an acre in sweet potatoes in 1862 and had only manure sufficient 

 for half the plot. The manured part was marketed in August 

 and early September, and yielded one bushel to the square rod, 

 and sold for one dollar and sixty cents per bushel. The unmanured 

 part came into market later, when the price was but one dollar 

 per bushel, and yielded but one bushel of merchantable tubers to 

 four square rods. The first half acre was very profitable, the last 

 paid but little more than the expense of growing and marketing. 



Every farmer has noticed how a little manure enables a 

 wheat crop to resist enemies. The manured land in the wheat 

 field makes a good crop, though the remainder may be eaten up 

 by the fly or chinch-bug, frozen out by the winter, or shrunken 

 by rust. 



Still another advantage from the use of manure is that it im- 

 proves the quality of the product. This is more noticeable with 

 some crops than with others. I have, in experimenting with 

 potatoes, manured alternate rows and found the manured rows 

 to be nearly all merchantable, while the unmanured rows would 

 have from twenty-five to forty per cent of small, unsalable tubers. 



Next to applying manure to the wheat crop, I think the best 

 use we can make of it is on grass land ; for this purpose it may 

 be taken out and spread in winter while the ground is frozen, 

 and this I think is the best time to apply it to this crop. It 

 should be spread evenly from the wagon, for if dropped in piles 

 it would kill out the grass. When the manure is applied to 

 pasture land some coarse litter with it will not be objection- 

 able as it will protect the grass and make it start earlier in the 

 spring, but when applied to meadows it should be well rotted. 



