No. 144.] 277 



manurial property of the raaterial thus thrown on the surface of 

 the ground. This is not true, the beneficial effect simply arises 

 from the action of this litter as a mulch, and might be produced 

 by much cheaper means. It will be remembered that the organic 

 portions of the manures thus placed are wasted during their de- 

 composition, while the inorganic portions alone find their way 

 into the soil, and these might be supplied at one-tenth the cost of 

 the cartage and handling of the manures so used. At least 90 

 per cent of the true value of such top dressings as manure is 

 wasted when so used. The same, or nearly the same results 

 would be attained by covering the ground with any other mulch. 

 This practice is well known among English farmers, where it 

 receives the name of Gurneyism^ from the name of the operator 

 who first applied it. We are far from disputing the value of a 

 mulch as such, but such valuable constituents as exist in the more 

 decomposable portions of stable manure should not be wasted, 

 while adding a very small portion of the inorganic constituents 

 to the soil. A coating of leaves from the woods, salt-marsh hay, 

 sedge, or any other substances, which would protect the surface 

 of the ground from sudden changes of atmosphere, and prevent 

 its freezing at so early a date in the fall, or losing its moisture 

 and heat by the too direct contact of winds, would answer all the 

 purposes to be derived from a top-dressing of stable manure. All 

 will recollect that if a board cover the grass during winter, and 

 be removed in early spring, that the growth of the grass on the 

 part so covered during the following summer will be much greater 

 than in any other parts of the field. Therefore, whatever top- 

 dressing may be used, mulching may still be appealed to by those 

 farmers who have cheap materials to use for such purposes. Ali 

 this, however, is but incidental to the true subject of top-dressing. 

 The use of top dressing may be thus stated : young plants are un- 

 able to avail of the inorganic matter of the subsoil during the 

 early stages of their growth. The surface soil may have become 

 denuded of these inorganic constituents, and without their pre- 

 sence and appropriation by the young plant, its organism may not 

 be sufficiently perfect, at an early stage, to secure a healthy growth . 

 In addition to this fact, the organic matter in the soil ceases late 

 in the season to decompose for want of sensible heat, and in early 



