84 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



portion of a field intended for summer corn received 

 a liberal dressing of fertilisers which was intended 

 for another part of the same field just sown with 

 rape. 



EFFECT OF MANURIAL DRESSING 



The effect of the manurial dressing was most 

 striking. The part unman ured produced a sickly, 

 weakly growth, which " yellowed " in early winter, 

 looked miserable in spring, became very weedy, and, 

 to all intents and purposes, was a failure. The 

 manured portion — the crop was rye, sown on July 

 12th — gave a magnificent green fodder crop in 

 October, quite 10 tons to the acre, which was fed 

 to dairy cows, and a well-ripened full grain crop of 

 corn out on July 15th in the following year, and 

 yielding 45 bushels (56 lb. bushels) of grain and 2£ 

 tons of straw per statute acre. Yet this field sown 

 in the ordinary manner would have been considered 

 quite rich enough for a corn crop without fertilisers I 



The writer's theory as to why summer- sown corn, 

 even on land in good heart, requires artificial 

 manures is as follows: — Land upon which corn is 

 sown in spring-time has usually been ploughed 

 several months before seeding. Hence the turf has 

 an opportunity of decomposing, and being converted 

 into available plant food. In virtue of this the 

 weathering effect incident to winter or early spring 

 ploughing results in additional supply of soluble 

 fertilising elements. 



With summer-sown corn the seed is sown 

 immediately after ploughing, and before the turf has 

 had time to decompose, or any weathering effect has 

 taken place. It is, therefore, necessary in order to 



