THE USE OF MANURES 163 



this cannot be obtained unless the crop is 

 approximately of like vigour over the whole 

 area. Where artificial manures are employed 

 on a considerable scale it will well repay a 

 farmer to make an effort to secure a horse 

 distributor of a thoroughly efficient type. 

 Where artificial manures are sown by hand 

 the work must be entrusted to a thoroughly 

 efficient worker. But even the best worker, 

 if he is asked to apply something like a 

 maximum dressing, is sure to attempt to 

 over-fill his hand, with the result that as 

 he removes the handful from the sowing 

 sheet or seed-lip he is sure to drop a certain 

 amount before he begins his " cast." Such 

 patchy work will subsequently become 

 evident in a series of over-luxuriant spots 

 directly along the line that the worker has 

 traversed, and one may depend upon it 

 that over luxuriance at these spots has been 

 secured at the cost of reduced production 

 on other parts of the ground. 



Not only does patchy distribution result 

 in over luxuriance at one place and reduced 

 luxuriance in another, but it is also to be 

 borne in mind that the heavier the dressing 

 of manure the greater is the chance of loss 

 by washing into the subsoil or into the 

 drains. The absorptive power of soil, that 



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