198 On Manures. 



2. Manuring in drills This mode is used in the culture 

 of particular crops, as potatoes, turnips, and the like, and 

 its advantages, in such cases, have been decidedly ascertain- 

 ed. The plants sown upon the manure applied in this man- 

 ner, receive the whole benefit of that substance, in all the 

 stages of its growth ; and if the land is afterwards ploughed 

 cross- ways, and well harrowed, what remains of its strength 

 and substance, is incorporated with the soil, for the benefit 

 of future crops. It is asserted by some friends to this sys- 

 tem, that the quantity of turnips and potatoes produced by fol- 

 lowing this plan, on very indifferent soils, and with a small 

 quantity of manure, will sometimes equal what a rich soil, 

 with a great quantity of dung, will yield. 



3. Top-dressing. This mode of application is chiefly in- 

 tended to promote the growth of vegetables, and not with 

 a view to improve the soil. It is principally confined to ma- 

 nures distinguished by the smallness of their bulk, as soot, 

 rape-cake, pigeons'-dung, peat-ashes, &c. Top-dressings 

 are used with great effect, when crops are sickly, and back- 

 ward in the spring, occasioned by a bad seed time, frost, or 

 other causes. The crops are thus enabled to vegetate quick- 

 ly, to spread out new roots, or tiller, and to protect the soil, 

 on which they grow, from the ensuing droughts of summer. 



In favour of top-dressings, it is contended, that when a 

 considerable quantity of any manure is mixed with the soil, 

 a great proportion of its richest salts, and other proper- 

 ties, will be carried down by the rains, and by that means, 

 will not only be lost to the present crop, but if the subsoil 

 be of a loose and porous nature, will very soon escape 

 beneath the reach of the plough ; whereas, if manures 

 were strewed on the surface, they would sink by slow 

 degrees, their beneficial effects would be exerted upon 

 the roots of the plants, in their passage downwards, and 

 very little, if any of them, would penetrate deeper than they 

 could be useful. These arguments are used, in favour of 

 applying a top-dressing in the shape of fermented dung to 

 grass-land, both for pasture or hay, though a considerable 

 portion of its value is apt to be lost by evaporation, unless 

 the season is rainy. 



The practice of top-dressing is adopted by many of the 

 most intelligent farmers in the island, particularly those of 

 Berkshire, Bedfordshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, 

 &c., arid experience has fully convinced them, that no other 

 mode of applying manure is equally profitable. In Hert- 

 fordshire, the plan is practised with peculiar attention and 



