26 How THE FARM PAYS. 



CHAPTEK II. 



MANURES AND THEIR MODES OF APPLICATION. 



("Manures and Their Modes of Application " is the title of an essay published by Peter 

 Henderson in 1882. Like all his other essays, this was written more to meet the wants of the 

 horticulturist, than the agriculturist, but the necessities of both are so near alike that we here 

 give it entire, following which will be the remarks of Mr. Henderson and Mr. Crozier on such 

 portions of the essay as may seem to require modification.) 



THE subject of manures is one of the greatest importance to every 

 operator in the soil, whether farmer, market gardener, florist, or such 

 as cultivate only for their own use, for under few conditions can crops 

 be long grown without the use of fertilizers. Although I have already 

 given general instructions about fertilizers in all my works on gar- 

 dening, yet I find, from the number of inquiries received from even 

 such as have my works, that the matter has not been there treated 

 sufficiently in detail to meet the wants of the varied conditions under 

 which the necessity for the use of fertilizers arises. The comparative 

 value of manures must be regulated by the cost. If rotted stable 

 manure, whether from horses or cows, can be delivered on the ground 

 at $3 per ton, it is about as valuable, for fertilizing purposes, as Peru- 

 vian guano at $65 per ton, or pure bone dust at $40 per ton. It is 

 better than either of these, or any other concentrated fertilizer, from 

 the fact of its mechanical action on the land that is, its effect, from its 

 light, porous nature, in aerating and pulverizing the soil. Guano, 

 bone dust, or other fine commercial fertilizers, act only as such, with- 

 out in any way assisting to improve what may be called the physical 

 condition of the soil. 



All experienced cultivators know that the first year that land is 

 broken up from sod, if proper culture has been given, by thorough 

 plowing and harrowing (provided the land is drained artificially or 

 naturally, so as to be free from water, and relieve it from "sourness"), 

 the land is in better condition for any crop than land that has been 

 continuously cropped without a rest. The market gardeners in the 

 vicinity of New York are now so well convinced of this, that when 

 twenty acres are under cultivation, at least five acres are continually 

 kept in grain, clover or grass, to be broken up successively, every 

 second or third year, so as to get the land in the condition that 

 nothing else but rotted, pulverized sod will accomplish. This is done 

 in cases where land is as valuable as $500 per acre, experience having 



