BARNYARD, STABLE, GREEN MANURES 111 



Station both fresh and rotted manure were applied before and after 

 plowing. For fresh manure the average of two crops of corn show i < I 

 a gain of 10.9 bushels per acre in favor of applying after plowing. For the 

 wheat which followed the corn the gain was two bushels per acre. Where 

 rotted manure was compared in the same way there was practically no 

 difference in the yield of corn, and about one bushel gain for wheat in 

 favor of applying after plowing. In this experiment the fresh manure 

 under both conditions and for both crops gave yields considerably above 

 that produced by the rotted manure. 



Another experiment in which the manure was plowed under in the 

 spring as compared with plowing under in the fall gave results with corn 

 and wheat favorable to plowing under in the spring. This is in harmony 

 with the preceding experiment, and suggests that manure applied to the 

 surface, and allowed to remain 'for some time in that position, benefits 

 the soil and results in a better growth of crops than when it is plowed 

 under immediately. The subject is one worthy of further consideration 

 and experimentation. It is not an uncommon opinion, however, among 

 practical farmers that top dressing with manure is more beneficial than 

 plowing it under, and it is quite a common practice to top dress grass 

 lands and wheat with manure. 



In the South, where manure is very scarce, it is frequently applied 

 in the hill or furrow at planting time. This entails a good deal of hand 

 labor, but it is probably justifiable where labor is as cheap as it is there. 

 The manner of applying small applications concentrates the manure in 

 the vicinity of the plants and stimulates growth during the early portions 

 of the season. 



The Parking System. — The cheapest possible way of getting manure 

 on the land is by pasturing the animals, or allowing them to gather their 

 own feed. This, of course, is an old and universal practice in case of 

 pastures, and is becoming more popular as indicated by the practice of 

 hogging off corn, and other annual crops. This is spoken of as the park- 

 ing system. It has a disadvantage that in certain classes of animals the 

 manure is not uniformly distributed. It is more applicable for sheep and 

 swine than it is for the larger animals. 



Distribution of Benefits. — The benefits of manure are distributed 

 over a number of years. This often gives rise to difficulty in case of the 

 tenant farmer who rents a farm for only one year and without assur- 

 ance that he will remain for more than that length of time. He hesi- 

 tates to haul and apply the manure, knowing that his successor will receive 

 a considerable part of its benefits. Under average conditions it is esti- 

 mated that the first crop after manure is applied will receive about 40 

 per cent of its benefits; the second crop 30 per cent; the third crop 20 

 per cent; and the fourth one the remaining 10 per cent. This distribution 

 of the benefits of manure is used in cost accounting in farm crops. The 

 accuracy of the distribution is doubtless crude, and would vary greatly 



