214 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



point, and its real effects any one can see by simply 

 keeping this crust broken every day with a hoe, on 

 one row of cabbages or other plants in a garden, 

 and allowing another to stand glazed over week 

 after week. 



But, on the opposite extreme, the upper surface 

 may be too rough. In this case there is the same 

 or even a greater loss of heat, especially in the 

 spring, than before, while all the other processes 

 are. interrupted from an opposite cause. The sun's 

 rays are caught in great clods by day, blown away 

 at night, wh:le the .interior heat of the earth is 

 fearfully wasted by the more rapid radiation from 

 the rough, uneven surfaces. All are aware how a 

 light snow will melt sometimes from a smooth or 

 rolled field in a single day, while it remains for 

 weeks on an adjacent uneven or cloddy Held. This 

 shows us how much heat is wasted by leaving the 

 field rough and full of clods, in the spring months, 

 which would otherwise be absorbed into the soil 

 and laid up to push the young corn into an early 

 maturity of growth. For the best manure heap any 

 corn raiser has is the sun, the next best the air 

 with its gasses, and the rest he may find in Ids field 

 below, or in his farmyard, or wherever he pleases ; 

 but if he so cultivates as to constantly waste the 

 power of the sun and the air, he can not raise a 

 first rate crop of corn, manure it as he will. 



Since our spring climate usually has too little 

 heat for corn and too much for wheat, we should 

 keep our corn surfaces smooth so as to save as 

 much heat as possible, and wheat surfaces rough or 

 rigid so as to avoid it as much as possible. So, in 

 all cases, we save heat by smooth surlaces, if they 

 are not glazed or glassy — and dissipate it rapidly 

 by rough ones: both that which comes from the 

 sun above and from the centre of the earth below. 

 Water also stands and lodges upon rough, cloddy 

 surfaces, aud thus again dissipates, in its evapora- 

 tion, an immense amount of this vital element of 

 the corn crop, for it wastes the same amount of heat 

 to boil away or evaporate a quart of water in the 

 field that it does in a kettle over the fire. Such 

 rough surfaces also retard the deposit of moisture 

 and gasses from the air above, and to the same ex- 

 tent interfere with the capillary attraction from 

 below, much as too much frizzling the top of the 

 lamp wick arrests all its proper modes of burning. 

 The free and proper access of the air to the soil 

 below is everywhere interrupted by dry clods and 

 inequalities, which it can not penetrate, or if so, 

 only to have its deposits blown away again by the 

 winds; and, while the natural action is thus inter- 

 fered with at the surface, that from below must be 

 correspondingly impeded, and the whole process, 

 either of recuperation or growth, in like manner 

 retarded. 



Don't Let the Grain get too Ripe. — The 

 analyses of De. Voelcker show that the straw of 

 grain cut before it is fully ripe is fully twice as 

 nutritious as that allowed to get over-ripe. It is 

 also certain that so far as the quality of the grain 

 is concerned, (especially of wheat,) early cutting is 

 advantageous. Gut as soon as the berry, on being 

 pressed between the thumb and finger, shows no 

 milk. The circulation has then ceased, and the 

 grain derives no more nutriment from the soil. 



APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



Few questions have been more frequently dis- 

 cussed by farmers, than the depth to which manure 

 should be buried. Theory as well as practice in 

 relation to this point has varied widely. One man 

 holds that the great point is to guard against the 

 waste of manures by exposure to the atmosphere, 

 and that there is no danger of loss by leaching. 

 In a discussion at the State House last winter one 

 speaker went so far as to say that no fertilizing 

 element could be carried away by water through 

 six inches of sand. Others take the position that 

 manures lose nothing by exposure to the air, aud 

 that they may be simply spread on the surface of 

 the ground, with a certainty that the toil and 

 crops will ultimately receive the full benefit of 

 them. 



Heretofore we have had but little positive evi- 

 dence in regard to these points — the advocates of 

 the different theories and methods reasoning rather 

 from general observation than from the actual re- 

 sults of experience. As a means of settling some 

 of the questions in which the subject is involved, 

 the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agricul- 

 ture offered, in 1859, premiums for a series of ex- 

 periments, the programme of which was published 

 in many of the agricultural papers. The list has 

 since been continued from year to year. The basis 

 laid down for the experiments wa3 this : 



Five lots of land of equal quantity and quality 

 were to be selected ; each of the five lots were to 

 receive a deep plowing, a shallow plowing, and a 

 harrowing; the only difference being that, on lot 

 No. 1 , the manure was to be plowed in deep — 

 which is understood to mean as deep as it could 

 be conveniently done by the plow; on lot No. 2, 

 plowed in shallow; on lot No. 3, buried only 

 slightly — say by harrowing; on lot No. 4, left on 

 the surface. An equal quantity and quality of ma- 

 nure was to be applied to each of these four lots, 

 but lot No. 5 was to be left without any manure. 

 Common barn-yard manure was to be used, and 

 the different lots planted to Indian corn. The 

 character of the weather as to moisture, was to be 

 noted. 



In the Transactions of the Society for the past 

 year, we have a summary of the general results of 

 the experiments the first year — the number of en- 

 tries being thirteen. It appears that the plots 

 deeply manured produced the 



Second 

 Third 

 Fourth 

 Fifth 



Best Crop in 2 experiments. 

 " " 1 « 



" 3 " 



Second 



Third 



Fourth 



MANURED SHALLOW. 



Best Crop in 4 experiments. 



7 " 



" " 1 " 



" " 1 '• 



HARROWED IN. 



Best Crop in 6 experiments. 

 Second " " 4 " 



Third ' " 2 " 



Fourth " " 1 « 



LEFT ON THE SURFACE. 



Best Crop in 1 experiment. 

 Second " " 2 " 



Third " •' r " 



Fourth ', " 8 " 



The inference from these results is, that manure 

 slightly buried produced the best crops; the re- 



