1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT— No. 4. 155 



because I have followed his work for the last twenty years. 

 He spoke about the application of manure to the surface all 

 through the winter if we could get it there, and he said there 

 was but little loss. Now, I wish he would explain to us 

 why there is comparatively little loss. I wish he would 

 explain the nitrification that is going on in the soil, which 

 transforms the organic matter of the manure into nitrates 

 which are taken up by plants. If he will explain that to the 

 audience, he will illustrate this matter of the application of 

 manure. 



Professor Roberts. In the first place, when green 

 manure, as we term it, is taken from the stable and spread 

 on the surface of the ground, comparatively little of the 

 plant food in it is soluble. We place it on the soil, and 

 immediately or very soon water is present. It leaches into 

 the soil, and the moment it can come in contact with the 

 earth or with a plant, it loses itself there. That is nature's 

 law. You may take urine and pour it through moderately 

 coarse sand, and what leaches out, if you pour it slowly, 

 will be fairly clear water. Now, the plant on the land grows 

 in the winter. Do not forget that. If you do not believe 

 it, take a section of a clover field, manure it now and rake 

 otf the manure before spring comes, and see if the roots 

 there are not more numerous and if the plant is not ready to 

 begin its summer work better than when no manure is 

 spread. The soil has a great affinity for all this plant food, 

 and so you cannot get it on the ground without its going 

 into the ground ; and that is why I object to that abominable 

 open barnyard. It is the ruin of farmers. The average 

 barnyard in our county in New York contains a quarter of 

 an acre ; that is, about one hundred by one hundred and ten 

 feet. In the State of New York thirty-two hundred tons of 

 water fall annually on an acre, so that eight hundred tons 

 fall on that quarter of an acre. You cannot get round it ; 

 that is the law. Now, is that eight hundred tons of water 

 carried out with the manure at the end of a pitchfork annually? 

 If so, can you afford it? Secondly, has not the manure that 

 is left there somehow been leached ? Many a farmer tells 

 me that the bottom of his barnyard is tight, his manure does 

 not leach, and then I say, " What becomes of the water?" 



