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think one load used flint way is worth far more than 

 two plowed under on our stiff land " 



:fly ten years alter tliis was written, he speaks, 

 it' pns.xihle, with even a stronger faith than ever in 

 delence of his favorite practice. 



Harris writes in Walks and Talks, No. 112, that 

 ""John Johnston who has a far heavier clay soil than 

 the Deacon, says he has found by actual trial that 

 one load of rotted manure applied as a top-dressing 

 to grass land in the autumn, and the land plowed 

 up and planted to corn in the Spring, is worth as 

 much as three loads of fresh manure plowed under." 



Major Dickinson, another able and extensive 

 farmer, declares : " I hold that one load of manure 

 on the surface is worth two loads plowed in." 



Charles B. Calvert, a distinguished larmer of 

 Maryland : '* Is a strong advocate of the application 

 of stable manures upon the surface, instead of plow- 

 ing them in/' Cultivator. 



Mr. Bright writes in the Gardeners Monthly : 

 ' The practice of top-dressing, or of surface manur- 

 ing, has long been the favorite method employed by 

 all intelligent gardeners within the circle of my 

 acquaintance. A piece of soil heavily shaded by 

 surface manuring, actually decomposes like a manure 

 heap that is, it undergoes a sort of putrefaction or 

 chemical change which sets free its chemical con- 

 stituents, unlocks, as it were, its locked up manurial 

 ures, and fits its natural elements to become the 

 food of plants Manure then, I say, chiefly upon 

 iirfaee. Do not waste your manures by mixing 

 them deeply with the soil. Surface manuring and 

 mulching are the true doctrines. I am sure oi it." 



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