1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



17 



MANUKING OMT THE SURFACE. 



Surface manuring is no new idea ; yet if our 

 memory serves us, the practice is almost univer- 

 sally ignored by agricultural writers of the pres- 

 ent day, as a method of manuring. It is acknowl- 

 edged as a very good thing to preserve favorite 

 plants or newly set out trees from the effect of 

 drought, but very little beyond this. "Those who 

 imagine," says tile editor of the Working Farmer, 

 "they find good results from spreading of manure 

 on the surface, and leaving it for days, weeks or 

 months before it is plowed under, mistake the ac- 

 tion of the litter or longer portions of the manure 

 as a mulch, for the action of the manure on the 

 soil." We so far differ from this and kindred 

 opinions on the subject, that we think manuring 

 on the surface, for ninety-nine farmers in a hun- 

 dred the best general method of application. — 

 We except all cases where the drill application 

 of compost is found desirable, and garden and 

 lot culture. Nor do we maintain that there is 

 not a more perfect method of preserving and pre- 

 paring all the elements of the manure heap, by 

 its ca^-eful husbandry under sheds, an occasional 

 treatment with diluted sulphuric acid, or some 

 other "fixer," a cistei-n to catch the drainings, and 

 a pump to pump them back upon the heap, and 

 patience and perseverance and constant watchful- 

 ness. A more perfect method still is that of Mr. 

 Mechi, who applies his manure only in a liquid 

 state, and for this purpose has his farm traversed 

 ■with iron pipes, to convey the fluid to the differ- 

 ent fields. He says it pays in England, and it 

 may be so, though his neighbors doubt it very 

 much. But on a Virginia farm, Ave think sensible 

 men would account the Sheriff of London stark 

 mad. We maintain that this mode of manuring 

 (viz. : on the surface) is in itself so little inferior 

 to the most perfect methods, that taking into con- 

 sideration the circumstances of our farming pop- 

 'ulation, the extent of surface and high price of 

 labor, the attention, and time and management 

 that the mass of farmers can give to this branch 

 of their operations, it is for them the most econ- 

 omical and the best. It icillpay better. 



We ask now the reader's attention to the am- 

 monia theory. That ammonia is the element of 

 gi'eatest value in stable manures, we do not ques- 

 tion. That it is very volatile, flies off and escapes 

 by exposure to the atmosphere, everybody knows. 

 Upon these principles is based th° recommenda- 

 tion to plow under immediately, manures which 

 yield ammonia, that the earth may absorb and 

 preserve it. Now let it be distinctly borne in 

 mind, that fresh manure of any sort does not 

 contain this volatile ammonia, but only nitrogen, 

 which is not volatile, out of which the ammonia 

 is formed ; and that ammonia is generated only 

 as the nitrogen putrefies in the rotting manures. 

 If the manure accumulates in the stable, the 

 warmth and moisture of the daily additions soon 

 bring on active fermentation, and the pungent 

 ammonia which assails us, is the result of the pu- 

 trefaction thus caused. Until this process of rot- 

 ting commences, ammonia is not formed, and the 

 manure not liable to waste, and it ceases to be 

 generated when the rotting is checked. Now when 

 we are ready to remove our manure heaps in the 

 spring, we find them usually rotting to some ex- 

 tent. Let us follow, and observe the whole pro- 

 cess It is taken up first, forkful by forkful, and 



pitched into the cart, the ammonia, of course all 

 the time seeking its freedom ; it is hauled, reek 

 ing and .smoking, a long distance pei-haps, to the 

 field ; now it is dropped into small heaps, where 

 it remains a week or so, until you are ready to 

 plow the land. If you are ready, or when you 

 are ready, these heaps are carefully spread out on 

 the ground, the more perfectly the better, and 

 then plowed under, not immediately, even under 

 the most careful management, but as soon as it 

 can be done — with a delay, ordinarily, of an av- 

 erage of some hours. Now, with all this neces- 

 sary opening and forking, and tossing and spread- 

 ing, our impression is, that the free ammonia is 

 very much like the Frenchman's flea, which, when 

 he put his finger upon it, Avasn't there ; the point 

 of time when we are ready to lay hold of it, is 

 just when we may as well save ourselves the trou- 

 ble : it is not there. But let it be borne in mind, 

 that the ammonia we have been dealing with, is 

 that only which was generated in the rotting heap, 

 before its removah When the heap was opened 

 to the air, the process of rotting ceased, and am- 

 monia was no longer formed. Supposing, then, 

 this free ammonia is pretty well gone, at any rate, 

 Ave have the remainder of the manure, with its 

 unchanged nitrogen, (not ammonia) to deal with. 

 PloAv this under to the depth of eight inches, and 

 for want of the proper- temperature to cause its 

 putrefaction, it may remain unchanged and una- 

 vailable, until another ploAving shall bring it up 

 again to the influence of heat and moisture, which 

 Avill disengage the ammonia. It is a frequent ex- 

 perience, that Ave plow under deeply for a spring 

 crop, fresh stable manure, and receive no benefit 

 from it whatever, until it is brought up again ot 

 the surface, and the Avheat crop folloAving reaps 

 the advantage. 



But suppose, instead of making a week or tAvo 

 weeks' heavy labor of hauling out manure in the 

 spring, when the teams are at best not strong, and 

 there is a press of hard work on hand, you get 

 rid of this necessity of hauling out and plowing 

 under simultaneously ; and hauling at your con- 

 venience, you throw the manure upon the surface 

 of the grass field, what is the result ? At the 

 Avorst, as we have shown above, there is equal loss 

 of the free ammonia, when the manure is plowed 

 under. In both cases, that is about all gone, be- 

 fore it can be Avith certainty taken possession of, 

 by any process. The mass remaining on the sur- 

 face, however, the work of putrefaction, which 

 made the free ammonia, and Avhich Avas stopped 

 by the opening and exposure of the heaps, is now 

 recommenced and very slowly carried on by the 

 wannth and moisture at the surface. The ammo- 

 nia thus formed is absorbed by the litter above 

 it, and washed down by every shoAver into contact, 

 and combines chemically Avith the humus at the 

 sui-face, or with the soil itself. But bear in mind, 

 that Avhen these frequent removals are made, we 

 never find the heaps in such a state of putrefac- 

 tion as Avhen Ave postpone to some one allotted 

 time, and therefore never have so much free am- 

 monia to deal with. A very large proportion of 

 the manure never begins to rot before it is re- 

 moved. By this plan, moreover, we take favora- 

 ble opportunities for hauling, and may carry out 

 much of the manure in damp or moderately rainy 

 weather, when the shoAvers will Avash the ready 

 formed ammonia immediately into the soil. 



