THE USE OF STABLE MANURE 



The manure should not be the dependence for 

 plant-food on a part of a field, or a single field of 

 the farm, under such circumstances. It is more 

 profitable to give a light dressing to a larger area. 

 The manure is needed to make a fertilizing crop 

 grow, and a very few tons per acre can assist 

 greatly, when rightly used. The manure is needed 

 to furnish bacteria to the soil, and a small amount 

 per acre is useful for this purpose. Always there 

 is temptation to use all the manure on a field 

 convenient to the barn, and to concentrate it on a 

 sufficiently small area to make a good yield sure. 

 The loss to the farm in this method is heavy. 

 The thin spots and the thin fields have first right 

 to the manure as a top-dressing, and 6 tons per 

 acre will bring larger returns per ton than 12 tons 

 per acre. At the Pennsylvania experiment station 

 the land receiving 10 tons of manure per acre in 

 the common four years' rotation of corn, oats, 

 wheat, and mixed clover and grass gives added 

 returns of $1.63 a ton, while an application of 

 8 tons pays $1.85 a ton, and a 6-ton application 

 brings the value per ton up to $2.41. These ap- 

 plications are made twice in the four years. 



Reenforcement with Minerals. A ton of 

 mixed manure in the stable contains about 10 

 L [ 145 ] 



