350 Transactions of the American Institute. 



crop. He invited me to see a new mowing machine at work. The 

 work for the horses was light for two-thirds of the way round the 

 meadow, the other. third very heavy. I asked the reason of the 

 difference. His reply was : "Last fall this part was top-dressed." 

 The difference in the crop was three or four to one. The timothy 

 on the manured part was like wheat, the heads turning over with 

 their weight, and would make two tons to the acre ; the other part 

 not more than half a ton. I asked why he did not manure all alike. 

 Because he had not enough of it. Do not your neighbors sell hay ? 

 Yes. Then buy it and feed it till you make \our whole farm pro- 

 duce two tons to the acre. A farmer cannot afford to grow hay at 

 half a ton to the acre any more than he can afford to spend his life 

 in making ten or fifteen bushels of corn to the acre. Such crops 

 will keep him poor forever. With two tons of hay or sixty bushels 

 of corn he may grow rich, and the sooner he begins to make his lands 

 produce such crops the better. Meadows are often plowed because 

 the grass has run out. Plowing makes them no richer, and they 

 soon ran out again. A top-dressing with barn-yard manure would 

 save both time and trouble. 



Rev. Joshua Weaver — To make the proper comparison it would 

 be necessary to put the manure on two fields and turn it under on 

 one. I believe that the proper way is to mix the manure with the 

 soil. Lay a board on the surface and you improve the soil. A sur- 

 face application of manure, of course, has some more advantage in the 

 same way. It acts as a mulch. 



Prof. Nash — I go for putting the manure on or but little under 

 the surface ; not deep underground, for there it either lies dormant 

 a long time and does no good, or if it decomposes it goes into com- 

 pounds which are poisonous to plants ; whereas if left on or little 

 below the surface, where it feels the influence of the sun, air and 

 rains, it is speedily decomposed, and its elements pass into such com- 

 pounds as are genial to plants, restoring their growth at once. But 

 do not leave manure above the surface. If so left in great lumps, 

 hardly touching the soil, it dries up ; its value is but partially attracted 

 into the soil, while the most of it is wasted on the desert air. On 

 meadow land, therefore, I would spread it as evenly as possible, and 

 then roll down into actual contact with the surface soil. If applied 

 on plowed land I would cover it but shallow, not more than four 

 inches at most, and then harrow till it should be fairly mixed in and 

 composted with the soil. 



Mr. John Crane — Manure should be fine when it is applied. My 



