CHAPTEE VIII. 

 APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



IN this chapter the general principles to be observed in the use of 

 manures will be briefly discussed, but only those points in which a 

 knowledge of the chemistry and physics is involved, will be dealt with. 

 For details of the mechanical methods of spreading, ploughing, or 

 harrowing in, of manures, reference must be made to the authorities 

 on practical agriculture. 



GENERAL MANURES. Farm-yard Manure. The system of 

 manuring by means of the live stock of the farm, was, until the introduc- 

 tion of artificial manures, the only way in which the fertility of the land 

 was maintained, and even at the present day, in districts where farm- 

 ing has long been established, it is the mainstay of the farmer. 



It is true, that in this country the great changes in the relative 

 values of wheat and other cereals to those of fat stock and dairy cows, 

 have rendered the old farmer's aspect of cattle as being manure- 

 making machines chiefly valuable to him in producing farm-yard 

 manure to be used in the growth of corn no longer tenable. Farm- 

 yard manure indeed, is now to be i egarded rather as a bye-product 

 though an important one than as the main object of stock-feeding. 



This, however, does not in any degree lessen the importance of 

 giving every consideration and attention to its conservation and proper 

 utilisation on the farm, if the best results are to be achieved and the 

 fertility of the land maintained. 



In pastoral farms, the excreta are restored directly to the land 

 with little or no loss during the greater portion of the year, and if,, 

 during the period when stall feeding is necessary, the crops, grown on 

 the farm, are supplemented by purchased concentrated foods, e.g. f 

 cakes, the land on the whole, may suffer little loss of fertilising material, 

 provided the farmyard manure be carefully preserved and restored 

 to the soil. The losses in potash, nitrogen and phosphates carried off 

 the farm in the animal carcasses, milk, cheese, eggs, etc., sold, may 

 in such cases be counterbalanced by the supplies of these materials 

 provided by the purchased foods. 



Fresh, long, farm-yard manure, containing much little-altered litter 

 should be ploughed in, preferably in the autumn, on heavy compact 

 soil, so as to render the texture of the soil more open and porous. 

 Short, well-rotted dung should be used generally in the spring on open 

 porous soils, where its valuable ingredients, being in a readily available 



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