22 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMEE. 



Jan 



bordering on the nile, would have had its fertili- 

 ty leached out bj the annual overflowing of that 

 river, thousands of years before the sous of Ja- 

 cob- went to Egypt to purchase corn, and that, 

 according to Biblical chronology, was 3,568 years 

 ago. There has been an annual overflowing of 

 the same land ever since, and yet these 3,600 and 

 odd freshets have not lessened the fertility of the 

 soil — they are as productive now as in the lime of 

 the Pharaohs. 



Thousands of our swamps have been saturated 

 with water most of the time " ever since the 

 flood," — yet drain them, throw up the muck, sow 

 oats or grass seed, and such is the ferti'ity of 

 these water soaked soils, that they will yield as 

 heavy crops as can be grown by the use of farm 

 yard manure. The fertilizing ingredients of a 

 rich alluvial soil, swamp muck and stable or 

 other animal manure, are identical — with this 

 diflference, these fertilizing ingredients in the ma- 

 nures can be mostly leached out, but not so in 

 the soil. Now, if the farmer applies his farm 

 marmre to grass land in autumn, the rain and 

 melting snows will leach out a large port'on of 

 the fertilizing constituents of the manures. — 

 These, before the spring plowing, will have mostly 

 soaked into the soils, which seizes upon and re 

 tains them as a miser does his gold, and the soil 

 will not pait with them, only to growing crops 

 and the crucible of the chemist. 



Scores of fac*e and experiments might be cited 

 to prove the correctness of Mr. Thomas' advice. 

 Just read the reported " practice of J. Beatty & 

 Sons, of Cayuga county, in applying the manure 

 for their corn the previous autumn," in the left 

 hand column, exactly opposite Mr. Goodman's 

 letter. 



This power of absorption in soils was publish- 

 ed by Prof. Way in 1850, he having experimented 

 largely, by filtering the foul water from the sew- 

 ers of London, and feot'd water in which Amx 

 had been steeped, putrid urine, etc. It was 

 found that when three-fourths sand and one- 

 fourth white clay, in powder placed in jars to the 

 depth of six inches, the foul liquids came through 

 the filter free from smell and scarcely to be dis- 

 t nguished f'om ordinary water. But to make a 

 short story of this matter, it was discovered that 

 the clay or aluminous portions of soils posse s 

 the power of chemically combining with not only 

 the gaseous compounds of decomposing animal 

 matter, but also with the alka ies, ammonia, pot- 

 ash, soda, phosphates, magnesia, etc. 



This, said Prof. Way, is a wonderful property 

 of soil, and appears to be an express provi.'ion of 

 nature. " A power is here found to reside in 

 soils, by virtue of which, notcnly is rain unable 

 to wash out of them those soluble ingredients 

 forming a necessary condition of vegetation; 

 but even these compounds, when introduced arti- 

 ficially by manures, are laid hold of and fixed in 

 the soil, to the absolute preclusion either by rain 

 or evaporation." 



Mr Charles Lawrence, an eminent English ag- 

 riculturist, about that time stated in the London 

 Agricultural Gazette, that autumnal manuring 

 inimedia*^ely followed and covered hy the plow, is 

 the most va'uable discovery, perhaps, in its re- 

 sults, for which agriculture has been indebted to 



science. This statement was founded upon the 

 then recently published experiments of Prof. W., 

 who he says "has clearly established the fact 

 that the soil has the peculiar property of absorb- 

 ing and appropriating all those elements of ma- 

 nure intermixed with it which are essential to 

 the growth of plants." 



Mo.'-t of the farmers in this section plow their 

 green sward in autumn, to be planted in the spring 

 with corn. They cart out their manure in the 

 fall : nd place it in large heaps on or near the 

 plowed field. In the spring reload the manure, 

 lay it out in heaps, spread and harrow in. It is 

 no trifling job to reload en hundred loads of ma- 

 nure next spring, and cart it over the furrrws, 

 which are much more soft in the spring; besides 

 it is usually a busy season with farmers, and 

 their teams are not then usually"in as good work- 

 ing order as they are in the fall. 



If the farmer has manure to draw out in au- 

 tumn and wishes to invert his green sod at that 

 season of the year, it is my opinion the better 

 way is to first plow, then cart on the manure, 

 spread it and harrow in If he does not wish to 

 "break up" till spring, then cart and spread the 

 ruanure on the grass lands intended for spring 

 plowing. If the manure is intended for grain or 

 corn stubble, then apply it in the fall and plow 

 in shallow. 



If there is any reliance to be placed on the 

 statements of Prof. Liebig and Wa)', and those 

 of John Johnston and hundreds of other good 

 practical farmers, there will no loss arise from au- 

 tumn.il manuring — but much saving of money, for 

 with the farmer — "time is money." 



A few weeks since, I took a trip across the 

 country of over thirty miles. In several in- 

 stances, saw farmers plowing grass ground. But 

 before plowing they had carted on the manure 

 and spread it on the grass, then turning it under 

 eight or more inches deep. It is my impression 

 that farmers would realize more value from the 

 manure if it had been applied to the inverted sod 

 to remain there through the winter. If I under- 

 stand the laws of gravitation, not much of the 

 soluble portions ot these deep buried manures 

 will rise to the surface. 



Again I saw other fields of inverted sod, and 

 on or near them, were l-.irge heaps of manure, to 

 be carted on next spring. This course makes 

 much extra labor without adequate returns. — 

 Again I saw other large heaps of manure, which 

 doubtless, are to be applied to spring plowed 

 grass lat d Would it not have been better to 

 have drawa the manure directly upon the grass 

 land and evenly spread, there to remain till 

 spring plowing ? Had a Cayuga county farmer 

 asked Mr. Thomas' opinion in this matter, his 

 reply would doubtless have been, "spread by all 

 means," I shall have no wrangle with him for 

 giving such advice, for how can two persons 

 quarrel, when they are both of the same opinion. 



L. B. 



— From our own experience and observation 

 we most ful'y concur with the views of the wri- 

 ter above, not only in the increased value of the 

 manure spread in autumn, but in the large saving 



