ESSEX SOCIETY. 123 



apply his manure, so as to supply the growing corn with the 

 proper nutriment, at the right time. If the manure is well rot- 

 ted, and all put in the hill, it will produce too great a growth 

 of stalks, and fail of affording proper nourishment when the 

 corn is filling. 



If we use new manure, and spread all of it, the corn does 

 not start soon enough to get fully ripened. We have succeeded 

 well in some fields, by ploughing a part of the manure under 

 the sod, at the time of breaking up ; in other fields, we could 

 see but little advantage from green manure, thus ploughed un- 

 der. Why this difference ? The top soil was nearly alike, but 

 the subsoil was different. My view of this is, that where the 

 soil and subsoil are warm, so that a decomposition soon takes 

 place, it is well to plough under a part of the manure ; but if 

 the subsoil is cold, it is not best to plough it under. To illus- 

 trate my meaning, suppose two cooks preparing their dough for 

 a batch of bread, and both by the same rule. When they set 

 it away to rise, one puts it upon the cellar bottom, the other 

 upon the warm bricks of the hearth ; the latter has good bread, 

 but the former complains of the rule, as the bread will not 

 rise. 



Is it good economy, to spread green manure, and harrow it 



in, for a crop of corn ? Some farmers are of the opinion, that 



they can make a good compost in this way, and thus save the 



labor of forking it over. They say, if mixing manure with the 



soil, in the compost, will make good food for plants, so it will 



if we mix it in the field. Are we sure of this ? By mixing 



flour, water, and yeast together, we sometimes get good food 



for the human stomach ; but it is not always the case, when 



they are put together. Perhaps it may be offensive to the taste 



of some, to compare the kneading dish, in the farmer's kitchen, 



to his compost heap ; but they are both laboratories, where a 



chemical process is performed : in the one, to prepare food for 



the stomach ; in the other, for his plants. If, to save labor, the 



dough is not properly kneaded, the bread will be poor, and 



there will be a loss of material. So in harrowing in green 



manure. When we mix green manure and soil together, in the 



compost heap, the temperature is soon raised. This is not the 



