534 NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF SOILS 

 Table CXXII 



INFLUENCE OF MANURE ON MAIZE, OATS, AND CLOVER. 



certain cases, to reserve most of the manure for other crops. 

 The top dressing of meadows is, however, always an allowable 

 practice, especially on new seeding or on hay land that is 

 soon to be plowed for maize. 



As a food producer, maize has no close rival. Where the 

 climate is favorable, a 75-bushel crop of maize is as easily 

 secured as 40 bushels of wheat or 300 bushels of potatoes to 

 the acre. Moreover, the maize stover may be made more valu- 

 able as roughage than the straw of oats, wheat, or rye. The 

 maize plant must have, however, for its successful growth 

 plenty of available nitrogen. In addition, its response to 

 abundant organic matter indicates the utilization of certain 

 organic compounds. These considerations argue for the use 

 of most of the farm manure on the maize when this crop is 

 important, especially if the supply of manure is limited. 

 Again the maize crop is ready for the manure in the spring 

 and is generally grown on land where the excreta may be 

 distributed during the previous winter and fall. 



Potatoes are a spring crop and where they are prominent 

 in the rotation may receive liberal applications of manure. 

 If potatoes are the money crop, this should by all means be 

 the practice. Oats, because of the tendency to lodge, gener- 

 ally follow maize or potatoes as a residual feeder, receiving, if 

 necessary, a dressing of commercial fertilizer. If manure is 



