MANAGEMENT OF MANURES ON GRAIN-FARMS. 117 



vate tbeir soil thoroughly, can soon have productive farms. There 

 are very few of us in this section who can make manure enough 

 to give all our corn, potatoes, and roots, 25 loads of rotted manure 

 per acre, and have some to spare. 



In the spring of 1877, Mr. Harison wrote : " I have been hauling 

 out manure all winter as fast as made, and putting it on the land. 

 At first we spread it ; but when deep snows came, we put it in 

 small heaps. The field looks as if there had been a grain crop on 

 it left uncut." 



44 That last remark," said the Doctor, " indicates that the manure 

 looks more like straw than well-rotted dung, and is an argument 

 in favor of your plan of piling the manure in the yard or field, in- 

 stead of spreading it on the land, or putting it in small heaps." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



MANAGEMENT OF MANURES ON GRAIN-FARMS. 



" I am surprised to find," said the Deacon, " that Mr. Harison, 

 living as he does in the great grass and dairy district of this State, 

 should raise so much grain. He has nearly as large a proportion 

 of his land under the plow as some of the best wheat-growers of 

 Western New York." 



This remark of the Deacon is right to the point. The truth is, 

 thac some of our best wheat-growers are plowing less land, and 

 are raising more grass, and keeping more stock ; and some of the 

 dairymen, though not keeping less stock, are plowing more land. 

 The better farmers of both sections are approaching each other. 



At all events, it is certain that the wheat growers will keep 

 more stock. I wrote to the Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Onondaga Co., 

 N. Y., well known as a large wheat-grower, and as a life-long ad- 

 vocate of keeping up the fertility of our farms by growing clover. 

 He replies as follows : 



" I regret that I have not time to give your letter the consiclcri- 

 tion it deserves. The subject you have undertaken is truly a dif- 

 ficult one. The circumstances of a grain-raiser and a dairyman 

 are so unlike, that their views in regard to the treatment of the 

 manure produced on the farm would vary as greatly as the lines 

 of farming they follow. 



