

THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH AGPvICULTURE. 119 



I am going to recommend that the manure produced in the 

 yards should not be treated except by taking it fresh from 

 the place where it was made, in what is called the long, green, 

 or fresh state, spreading it upon the surface, and ploughing it 

 in, so that any fermentation or any alteration in its bulk may 

 take place within the recesses of the soil, thereby assisting to 

 break down and pulverize the ground, to liberate its carbonic 

 acid and other gaseous matter, and to add to the bulk of 

 organic matter within it, and thus to mitigate and improve 

 its quality. 



With further reference to the principles involved in the 

 tillages of clay land, as far as possible the tillages upon clay 

 land ought to be done in harmony with atmospheric changes. 

 We must work in harmony with the forces of nature, and 

 certainly not contrary to them. Anything like a forced tilth 

 or an effort to grind or grate down the soil into a powdery 

 condition is to be avoided. There is no greater mistake than 

 to endeavour to pulverize clay lands by the use of heavy 

 Crosskill clod-crushers, Norwegian harrows, or other imple- 

 ments designed to cut and pulverize clods. You cannot force 

 a tilth without vast expense : without sacrificing moisture, or 

 producing a condition of soil too dry for the germination of 

 seed, and without consolidating the tinder section to an 

 injurious extent. While you may obtain perforce a fine 

 surface, you are very liable to produce a stiff, leathery con- 

 dition of soil within three or four inches of the surface 

 that is, you lose depth of tilth. 



All of these evil consequences are to be avoided by timing 

 tillages judiciously. Hence once more we are brought face to 

 face with the advantage of autumn cultivation, and the utility 

 of frost, changes of temperature, and changes of condition 

 and of temperature during the winter months. Equally true 

 is it that we may use the changes of temperature in the 

 ummer as well as in the winter, a fact frequently over- 



