15 



ammonia from the air, receives it by rains and dews, 

 or acquires it by the decay of vegetable and animal 

 matter. Daily, too, ammonia wastes from the soil 

 by volatili/ation, accompanying the vapor of water 

 which almost unceasingly escapes into the atmos- 

 phere.'' How Crops Feed, p. 247. 



This is a revelation of scientific truth, which can- 

 not be misunderstood or explained away. Was .ever 



:ern necessity to do anything more clearly demon- 

 strated to the world *. We must keep the soil cov- 

 ered, to promote and retain its richness. But how 

 often do we strip the ground naked, and then bake 

 it in the ever- burn ing sun ! 



Col. Waring of Ogden Farm, says : " I had read 

 so much about top-dressing that it was determined 

 to try it on this apparently forlorn hope, and the land 

 was well covered before the heavy rains that fell 

 early in May. The result was almost magical, 

 while that portion which had looked so promising as 

 to seem not to need manure, did not yield 1,000 

 pounds per acre of poor hay, ox eye daisy and red 

 sorrel, this poorer part, solely as an effect of the top- 

 dressing, produced fully 4,000 pounds per acre of 

 very fair hay." 



SJ VKRSI 

 CHAPTER III. 



A .' 

 SURFACE MANURING. 



X..t many years ago it was the universal custom 

 to plovv iii manure the very day or hour that it was 

 spread upon the field. Fanners became irritable and 

 had but little to say if anything prevented irnme- 



