6i6 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ous sub-soil as low as the solvent rain 

 water could descend in moisture. From 

 this depth, perhaps, the dissolved n^^atter 

 may subsequently be drawn up again by 

 the deeply penetrating roots of plants. 

 But it is more likely to be carried still 

 lower by other ^ains, and be lost in the 

 sources of springs and wells. That the 

 latter effect is often produced, and in a de- 

 gree as great as the effect is disgusting, 

 may be witnessed in every city built on 

 level and pervious ground, by the offen- 

 sive condition of the water of shallow 

 wells. 



Such losses must follow, to greater or 

 less extent, the plowing under of manure 

 on soil not occupied by growing plants ; 

 because there would be nothing to take 

 up the soluble and gaseous products as 

 successively and continually produced. If 

 a few scattered plants soon after sprang 

 up, (as in a fiekl of corn just planted,) 

 then some of the otherwise fugitive pro- 

 ducts would be arrested and put to use. 

 But still the greater part would meet with 

 none of the few scattered rootlets imme- 

 diately, and, therefore, would be subject to 

 waste, whether in a liquid or gaseous 

 state, in the same manner as if no plants 

 were there growing. 



Now let us compare this, the usual mode 

 of application of manure, and its neces- 

 sary wasteful results, with what must be 

 the effects of top-dressing on clover. 



The preferable time for this mode of 

 application is just before or about the 

 time when the clover (then more than a 

 year old since the sowing) first feels the 

 warmth of spring weather, and begins to 

 show the influence in its growth. Then, 

 also, is the best time for a general clean- 

 ing out of the winter-made manure, be- 

 cause the necessity for feeding and litter- 

 ing cattle has then nearly ceased, and the 

 older parts of the manure have become 

 somewhat rotted, (as lying in the pens,) 

 without any waste from excess of fermen- 

 tation having yet occurred. Such ma- 

 nure, made principally of the straw and 

 corn-stalks used plentifullj^ for. littering, 

 and the remains of the dry and poor food 

 of the cattle, when first dug up for re- 

 moval in the spring, will be found to con- 

 sist of a small proportion of rich and sol- 

 uble extractive matter, (of animal more 



than vegetable origin,) and the much 

 larger proportion of the undecayed, hard, 



insoluble, and of course, mostly inert'veg- 

 etable matter, used for litter. If such 

 coarse stuff is plowed under for corn, (as 

 is usual when used in spring, and unrot- 

 ted,) the difficulty of plowmg under is 

 considerable, and the coarser parts of the 

 manure even continue to be obstacles to 

 later tillage processes. These coarse parts 

 keep the soil too open, and dispose it to 

 become and to remain too dry. This dry 

 state retards the decomposition and the 

 occurrence of the useful condition of the 

 manure, and prolongs the state of its be- 

 ing inconvenient to cultivation and hurt- 

 ful to the crop. And, for these reasons, 

 it happens in itiany cases, that the second 

 plowing, given merely to cover the ma- 

 nure, — (and otherwise unnecessarily,) — 

 or. otherwise, the postponing of the first 

 and only plowing very late, so that it may 

 serve both to prepare the ground for til- 

 lage and to cover the manure, costs more 

 than is gained from all the beneficial ef- 

 fects of that part of the manure permitted 

 to act. 



If the same kind of manure be applied 

 to clover, and spread immediately, the 

 first abundant rain carries every portion of 

 matter already soluble and nutritious to 

 the roots ; and these being spread through- 

 out the soil, will i.mmediately take up the 

 whole of the soluble portion. Within a 

 few hours after the manure is laid upon 

 the land, even in its coarsest state, if rain 

 comes so soon, all the portion then fit, is 

 in actual use as food for the crop ; and in 

 a few days just so much of the manure is 

 converted to clover. The increased growth 

 of the clover causes it soon to cover the 

 remaining coarse and insoluble manure, 

 which still is as much in bulk as was the 

 whole application. The shade and mois- 

 ture thus caused, with the increasing heat 

 of the weather, induce and maintain a 

 slow and regular advance of decomposi- 

 tion of the remaining manure, before in- 

 soluble, but now daily becoming more and 

 more soluble in part. Every successive 

 rain carries these newly-made soluble 

 parts to be absorbed by the roots; and 

 I thus to add more and more to the growth 

 I of the crop, and increasing the shade and 

 j moisture of the remaining course manure, 

 [and hastening the repetition and augment- 

 ing the force of the like operations. The 

 manure is thus made to act as quickly as 

 possible in feeding the growth ; and the 



