SECRETARY'S REPORT. 203 



2(1. To what crops shall we apply it ? 



3d. At what season or seasons of the year ? 



4th. Whether upon the surface or at what depth beneath 

 shall it be placed ? And, 



5th. Shall the application be direct^ as in the hill for 

 corn ? 



It is doubtless true in regard to each of these, as in most that 

 relate to agriculture, that whatever rules may be adopted, they 

 must necessarily be subject to many exceptions and modifica- 

 tions in practice, owing to difference in soils, seasons, location 

 and other contingencies. Hence the necessity of careful obser- 

 vation, and also the importance of subjecting even scientific 

 conclusions to the test of thorough and repeated practical 

 experiment. 



Believing that the main reliance for fertilizers should be the 

 cattle-droppings, and other accumulations upon the farm 

 premises, it is of these only that I speak. 



I assume that farm-yard manure never possesses more of the 

 elements of plant food than in its original, unfermented state ; 

 and that there is no laboratory so suitable and economical for its 

 decomposition as the soil upon which it is used. 



One reason for this appears in the fact, that if left exposed, 

 and to decompose in the yard, much of its value is lost, being 

 dissolved and carried away by rain, or in a gaseous form escaping 

 in the atmosphere. 



Another argument in favor of the use of unfermented manure, 

 is found in its mechanical action upon the soil. We know, by 

 experience and observation, that the decomposition of manure 

 in the soil imparts to it a genial warmth, and renders it more 

 susceptible of receiving the salutary influence of the sun and 

 atmosphere. We should, therefore, reject the teaching of the 

 self-styled professor of agriculture, who affirms that we need 

 apply as manure only a limited quantity of mineral matter, in its 

 most simple form ; or that by burning farm-yard manure, either 

 in the compost pile or in the stove, and then applying the ashes, 

 we lose nothing that is of any value to the growing crop. With 

 precisely the same show of reason might we reduce all the sub- 

 stances constituting our own food, to their chemical elements, 

 and attempt to subsist upon those elements. On the manage- 

 ment of organic manures depends much of their value. A slight 



