402 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



wifh manure ; but it often occurs that a man has no manure, or 

 not enough to make it worth the trouble of composting it with a 

 large quantity of muck ; and in such a case we would apply the 

 muck (fresh, not salt) directly to the surface of our land, and, if 

 it is a friable kind, harrow it over until it is reduced to a pow- 

 dered state — then ploAV it under. If it is compact, and the 

 harrow does not readily pulverize it, then the roller should be 

 passed over it until it is crushed. 



There is but little danger of injuring any dry upland soil by 

 applying much of it pulverized before it is plowed under. Salt- 

 muck from the sea-shore should be composted with manure, and 

 not used until it is two years old ; then it will be found to be as 

 good, if not better, than that from fresh pond. There is enough 

 of this manure around Long Island and New Jersey to make 

 them the richest farming lands on the globe. These sandy soils 

 need this kind of manure to make them more retentive of mois- 

 ture, and we hope we shall see the day when the farmers on 

 these sandy plains Avill learn the best mode of applying these 

 inexhaustible beds of muck, which are nothing less than mines 

 of gold waiting to be coined into a circulating medium by the 

 farmers of these localities. In applying muck or other manures, 

 we believe that it is best to mix it with the soil instead of putting 

 it on the surface, as advocated by some at the present time. If 

 these manures are spread upon the soil in the fall, and plowed 

 under in the spring, before a crop is put in, then we have but 

 little objection, but we do not call this surface manuring. When 

 manure is applied to the crop after it is put into the soil, and 

 allowed to remain on the surface while the crop is growing, then 

 we call it manured on the surface, or surface manuring. 



A top-dressing to meadows is very beneficial, especially if given 

 in the fall ; but if the land had been made as rich as it should 

 have been before the grass was sown, there would have been but 

 little need of giving it a top-dressing of anything except some 

 concentrated manure or plaster, which could have been sown as 

 easily and with as little expense as it would be to scatter a field 

 with grain. To make a practice of applying coarse manures 

 upon the surface of an orchard or vineyard, we believe to be a 

 very imprudent operation, if not an injurious one, for it induces 

 the roots of the trees to grow near the surface, where they are 

 destroyed by the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and 

 the feeding roots become annual productions instead of peren- 



