162 ESSAY ON TOP DRESSINGS 



Let the sty Le supplied, at intervals, with mud, loam, and oth- 

 er vegetable matter, and farmers will not complain of the cost 

 of these animals. 



Liquid manures are highly useful to grasses. Care should 

 be taken to apply them, also, to the compost heap. The rich- 

 ness of manure from the sty, is owing mostly to the great quan- 

 tity of liquid matter. Hence the importance of adding a great 

 variety of vegetable substances, loam, and mud. In a word, it 

 may be said that all liquid manures contain a large amount of 

 nitrogen, which is one principal ingredient of ammonia, to 

 Avhicli we have alluded. The importance of saving the liquid 

 of the stables, either with the compost, or to be applied by it- 

 self, may be seen, also, in the fact that the exceeding richness 

 of guano^ and the ordure of all fowls and birds, is due to the 

 union of the liquids and solids. Spent ley from the soap boil- 

 er, is also a powerful liquid application. It shows its good ef- 

 fects for years, when properly applied. 



After fermentation has taken place in animal manures, in the 

 compost or elsewhere, they may be spread without much loss 

 by evaporation, and hence it matters not whether the top dress- 

 ing is applied in the autumn or in the spring. Plaster is bet- 

 ter spread in the spring, when the moisture of the earth makes 

 it immediately available. Not so with other manures. Some 

 prefer the autumn for spreading these, while others prefer the 

 spring, just before the thick grass surrounds and protects them 

 from the sun and wind. The soil, in autumn, is not injured 

 by the loaded cart, as is apt to be the case in spring. Others 

 still, apply them after the first mowing, and before the summer 

 rains. The new crop preserves the manure from drying up 

 and wasting. This, however, is ordinarily too busy a season 

 to attend to it with convenience. 



There is no objection, as many have supposed, to feeding off 

 mowing lands in the autumn. In spring the ground is injured, 

 and the roots started from the soil too easily. Not so in the 

 autumn, when the soil is dry and firm. The grass is benefit- 

 ed, rather than injured by it. On pasture lands in which the 

 grass is run out, seed may be sown just before the top dress- 

 ing. Thus the old roots will be assisted, while new ones will 

 come in to improve and increase the food for cattle. 



