WHAT CROPS SHOULD MANURE BE APPLIED TO. 265 





CHAPTER XXXII. 

 WHAT CROPS SHOULD MANURE BE APPLIED TO. 



" It will not do any harm on any crop," said the Deacon, " but 

 on my farm it seems to be most convenient to draw it out in the 

 winter or spring, and plow it under for corn. I do not know any 

 farmer except you who uses it on potatoes." 



My own rule is to apply manure to those crops which require 

 the most labor per acre. But I am well aware that this rule will 

 have many exceptions. For instance, it will often pay well to use 

 manure on barley, and yet barley requires far less labor than corn 

 or potatoes. 



People who let out, and those who work farms "on shares" 

 seldom understand this matter clearly. I knew a farmer, who last 

 year let out a field of good land, that had been in corn the previous 

 year, to a man to sow to barley, and afterwards to wheat on "the 

 halves." Another part of the farm was taken .by a man to plant 

 corn and potatoes on similar terms, and another man put in several 

 acres of cabbage, beets, carrots, and onions on halves. It never 

 seemed to occur to either of them that the conditions were un- 

 equal. The expense of digging and harvesting the potato-crop 

 alone was greater than the whole cost of the barley-crop ; while, 

 after the barley was off, the land was plowed once, harrowed, and 

 sowed to wintor wheat ; and nothing more has to be done to it 

 until the next harvest. With the garden crops, the difference is 

 even still more striking. The labor expended on one acre of 

 onions or carrots would put in and harvest a ten-acre field of 

 barley. If the tenant gets pay for his labor, the landlord would 

 get say $5 an acre for his barley land, and $50 for his carrot and 

 onion land. I am pretty sure the tenants did not see the matter 

 in this light, nor the farmer either. 



Crops which require a large amount of labor can only be grown 

 on very rich land. Our successful market-gardeners, seed-growers, 

 and nurserymen understand this matter. They must get great 

 crops or they cannot pay their labor bill. And the principle is ap- 

 plicable to ordinary farm crops. Some of them require much more 

 labor than others, and should never be grown unless the land is 

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