MANURES. 69 



wliicli sow or plant the whole, evenly, with any crop preferred. 

 Fmally, spread the remaining quarter part of the manure upon 

 plot No. 4." No. 5 was to be cultivated without manure. As 

 to the points at issue, No. 5 would seem to have been about as 

 useless an appendage to the others as would be the fifth wheel 

 to a coach. Fertilizers are as much a recognized necessity for 

 our soils, under tillage, as is provender for our cattle. In 

 experiments to determine the best method of feeding domestic 

 animals, it would hardly be deemed necessary that one indi- 

 vidual should be kept famishing. That^our soils are rendered 

 more productive by the application of manure, is beyond dis- 

 pute. The cases in which they can be economically, or even 

 safely cultivated without it, are exceedingly rare. The question 

 is, Which of the four prescribed methods of applying manure 

 will insure the greatest returns? The theoretical answer is, 

 that method which will most thoroughly incorporate it with that 

 portion of the soil usually penetrated by the roots of the plants 

 to be cultivated. 



This thorough incorporation cannot be effected by leaving the 

 manure upon the surface, as in No. 4, nor, usually, by burying 

 it beneath an eight-inch furrow, as in No. 1, or, by a single 

 harrowing, as in No. 3. Although no one method of applying 

 manure is precisely suited to all soils and all seasons, that of 

 cross-ploughing in, as in No. 2, most nearly answers the condi- 

 tions of thorough incorporation and reasonable protection from 

 the waste consequent on free exposure to the sun and winds. 

 Ill cross-ploughing land, the furrow, haviiVg no adhesiveness, is 

 partly pushed aside, and but partly inverted, so that by a cross- 

 furrow four inches deep, but a small portion of the manure can 

 be buried to that depth ; it will, especially, after a subsequent 

 harrowing, be pretty evenly distributed through the soil, from 

 the surface down to the depth of the cross-furrow. In most 

 soils, suitable for tillage, the roots of • cultivated plants are 

 most numerous at some distance not greater than four or five 

 inches below the surface, and wherever the roots are most 

 numerous and most vigorous, manure will be [kept sufficiently 

 moist to insure its assimilation by the planjfc. 



In an extremely wet season, manure from the surface may 

 reach the roots of plants through the percolation of water ; in 

 an extremely dry one, the roots may reach the manure at the 



