256 



Toj)- Dressing. 



Vol. VL 



state of the land ; a hoeing of the crop of tur- 

 nips or beets will, I presume, be found requi- 

 site, while a sprinkling of plaster would be 

 likely to pay cent per cent the cost. 



The top-dressing of clover early in the 

 spring I consider the " prirnum mobile" of the 

 new husbandrj', and have never found that 

 cattle do not so readily eat hay made of grass 

 cut after dressing with barn-yard manure, 

 but the contrary; for the growth of grass 

 which is caused by it, does not proceed from 

 the putricity of the manure, as "Subscriber" 

 seems to imagine; the influence of air, light 

 and heat, bringing on a stale of fermentation, 

 when the impure gases escape by their levity 

 and leave the heavier or pure gases — carbo- 

 nic gas for instance — to be taken up by the 

 leaves of the plants in respiration, or to be 

 conveyed to their roots in a state of solution, 

 purified and made fit for being taken into cir- 

 culation. But all this beautiful arrangement 

 of nature is reversed, vihen fresh dung is bu- 

 ried so deep in the earth as that the process 

 of fermentation is prevented or retarded ; then 

 it is that the plants are compelled to take into 

 their circulation an impure food, which would 

 no doubt cause the cattle to reject or loathe 

 it; the evil is however remedied, and notliing 

 but good can arise from the application of 

 manure to the surface in top-dressing, whe- 

 ther the dung for that purpose be fresh, part- 

 ly fermented, or perfectly rotted ; but as the 

 old proverb says, " in medio tutissimus ibis" 

 (the middle way is best), I must prefer the 

 middle course, and apply the manure from the 

 compost-heap, after it has undergone a partial 

 fermentation ; it would then be fit for imme- 

 diate operation, and I am convinced that no 

 kind of dressing whatever can be of service 

 to vegetation until fermentation has taken 

 place, by which process the wholesome and 

 injurious gases are separated, and rendered 

 subservient to the laws of nature. The ob- 

 servation of the old farmer, that " no good 

 can come of dung that smells disgustingly," 

 is perfectly correct, for it is a great mistake 

 to suppose that plants would imbibe the nau- 

 seous matter if they could avoid it. There is 

 an article on this subject, page 270 of Cab., 

 vol. 5, which goes very fully into the matter; 

 it is there said, " Then conies the question as 

 to the propriety of applying manure to the 

 surface of the earth only, and I am strongly 

 of opinion that it is the carbonic gas which is 

 of service to vegetation, and is destined by its 

 weight to descend and perform that office, 

 while the hydrogen, which has possibly been 

 employed in the formation of that or some 

 other necessary ingredient, passes off by its 

 levity, after its presence is no longer required, 

 escaping into the atmosphere to perform 

 again the destined round. And it would in 

 all probability be found injurious rather than 



otherwise, were any attempt made to confine 

 it ill contact with the plant, after its necessa- 

 ry office had been fulfilled — according to the 

 tlieory contained in a paper at p. 134 of the 

 5th vol. of the Cabinet," as well as in an- 

 other at p. H6 of the same volume, " and I am 

 led to think very seriously on this theory, 

 from the circumstance of the necessity of 

 waiting until the poisonous gas has escaped 

 from a newly-made hot-bed, before any plants 

 or seeds can with safety be consigned to it; 

 and the very observable diflTerence there al- 

 ways is between the smell of the gas which 

 rises from a fresh-made hot-bed and that 

 which is evolved after it has become sweet, 

 as it is termed, by evaporation," emitting the 

 smell of mushroom, "goes strongly to corro- 

 borate the truth of the theory." The paper 

 last mentioned, p. 66, is strikingly in point, 

 accounting at once for the death of the trees 

 in the cherry-orchard in Kent, England, to 

 soon as their roots had penetrated to the dung 

 at the bottom of the trench, where it had been 

 buried so deep as to be out of the influence of 

 nir, light and heat, by which the purifying 

 process of fermentation had been prevented 

 altogether, and where it therefore lay a poi- 

 sonous and destructive mass of corruption. 



My proposal therefore is, to remove occa- 

 sionally during the winter the dung from the 

 cattle-yard, placing it in those fields where 

 it may be required ; the very act of removal 

 will bring on a state of fermentation just suf- 

 ficient to purify and render it fit for use ; and 

 I have in view at the present moment two 

 heaps of about 500 loads each, which have 

 thus been accumulated during the leisure of 

 winter, convenient for carrying abroad, both 

 as top and corn-dressing, by a person who is 

 setting an example worthy imitation — and 

 all his information has been derived from 

 book-learning ! his corn-crib exhibiting clear- 

 ly the value of such kind of knowledge, for 

 nowhere do I see ears so well filled towards 

 the ends — a mark of good management which 

 I always seek for. T. Mellar. 



Fob. 22, 184-2. 



P. S. It would give me sincere pleasure to 

 come into personal contact with " Subscriber" 

 — judging from his hand-writing, such a man 

 would be worth knowing. 



Wood and Water. — It is estimated that a 

 cord of wood contains, when green, 1,443 lbs. 

 of water. So that a farmer who brings into 

 market a cord of trreen wood, has no less 

 load for his team, than another who should 

 put on the top of his cord of dry white-oak, 

 three-quarters of a cord of seasoned pine, or 

 one hogshead and two barrels of water.— I 

 Brown's Sylva Americana. 



