BULLETIN ]^o. 196. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE. 



BY WM. P. BROOKS. 



Introduction, 



The question as to the best system of handling and applying manures 

 is one which has always excited a great deal of interest, and is of very 

 special importance at this time. The reasons which have given the 

 question exceptional importance in recent years are several. Among 

 the more prominent are these : — 



1. The increasing insistence, on the part of those using the product of 

 our dairy stock, not only that manure shall not be stored, as was formerly 

 the custom, in a cellar beneath the stable, but that it shall be promptly 

 taken away from the vicinity of the stable. 



2. The increasing cost of the labor of taking manure from the stable 

 to the fields where it is to be used. 



There are, of course, great possibilities of variation in methods 

 adopted, but one of the most prominent in the minds of those making 

 use of manure has been the question as to whether, when removed from 

 stable or other place where it has accumulated, it is advisable to spread 

 it at once upon the land, iiTespective of the season of the year when it 

 must be so removed, or whether provision should be made to store it 

 in some manner and hold it until it can be incorporated with the soil. 

 This has always been a question upon which there has been a great dif- 

 ference of opinion, both plans having earnest advocates, especially the 

 plan of spreading manure as fast as it must be moved, on account of 

 reduced cost of labor connected with its appHcation under that system, 

 and reduction of the pressure of farm work in the spring. The experi- 

 ment described in the following pages was planned with a view to throw- 

 ing light upon tliis question. 



The experiment began in 1900. The land available for use in the ex- 

 periment lay on a moderate slope from the east toward the west, which 

 was fairly uniform, though not quite ideal in respect to uniformity, and 

 which lay at an angle with horizontal of about 4^ degrees. The location 



