648 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



is removed, and spread on the land ; and 

 of which the escape is greater in propor- 

 tion to the richness of the mass in animal 

 matter, and to the advanced state of hot 

 fermentation. But this escape of gaseous 

 products ceases with the first slight rain 

 that falls after the manure has been 

 spread ; the volatile parts being taken up 

 by the water and carried into the earth 

 and to the roots. And even before rain 

 may fall, and while the passage of the 

 gaseous product continues, I do not be- 

 lieve the degree of loss thereby caused 

 to be considerable, or to compare in 

 amount with the other kinds of loss at- 

 tendant upon other modes of manuring. 



The main and by far the most im- 

 portant grounds for preferring the appli- 

 cation of manure on clover, have been 

 presented in the supposed operations of 

 converting the greatest possible propor 

 tion of the manure to the food of plants, 

 and putting it to that use in the earliest 

 possible time, and the better avoiding the 

 waste of fertilizing principles. But though 

 of minor importance, there are other pe- 

 culiar advantages of this practice, well 

 deserving attention. These will be brief- 

 ly stated. 



The Flemish farmers, whose practices 

 in manuring and improving lands have 

 been so long and deservedly celebrated, 

 act in obedience to a maxim universally 

 received among them, that manure should 

 never be applied immediately to grain 

 crops; but to others of which it is de- 

 sired to increase, not the seeds, but the 

 whole vegetable product. They believe 

 that the early effects of rich putrescent 

 manure are most upon the stalk and 

 leaf, and much less upon the grain. And, 

 if they are correct in this opinion, then 

 the benefit thus actuall}'' produced on 

 grain crops may be more in appearance 

 than reality; or that with a rank and 

 heavy growth of stalk and blade, there 

 may be comparatively but little increase 

 of grain, following heav}^ and recent ma- 

 nuring. Every farmer has observed, on 

 spots which had been very heavily dung- 

 ed, that the general growth of wheat is 

 as rank and luxuriant as possible, though 

 the stalks are too weak to support the 

 weight of the heads, and the grain is shri- 

 velled and of mean quality. The Flem- 

 ish maxim offers another reason for ap- 

 plying the manure to clover. For, in 



that, the object is not to increase the 

 the quantity of seed, but to add to the 

 growth of the root, !>talk, and leaf 



There is a great saving of labour, per- 

 haps amounting to one-half under ordinary 

 circumstances, in applying the manuie to 

 clover, compared to other applications. If 

 for corn, the breaking up of manure, for 

 carrying it out, cannot well i)e done be- 

 fore April. If much earlier removed, the 

 coarse litter will not have been weaken- 

 ed in texture, by the beginning of fer- 

 mentation ; and, moreover, the cattle 

 ought not earlier to be deprived of any 

 part of their bed of litter. Then let us 

 suppose the removal of the manure to the 

 field to take place just before the time of 

 planting the corn on the same ground, 

 which is the usual and the best time for 

 this application. Then, either the land, 

 having been broken up in winter, will re- 

 quire the extra labour of second plowing 

 merely to cover in the manure; or other- 

 wise, the plowing has been delayed, to be 

 executed after the spreading of the ma- 

 nure. In the latter case, the plowing, by 

 being so late, will usually be much more 

 laborious and less effective ; and as there 

 is no time to wait, it is very likely to be 

 done when the earth is not in good condi- 

 tion. Or, if plowed early, the cost of re- 

 peating the operation, will even be ex- 

 ceeded by other attendant disadvantages. 

 In this case, the manure is hauled upon 

 soft plowed land, with great labour to 

 the teams, and some injury to the ground, 

 even in dry weather, and both of which 

 are much increased by the least wetness 

 of the earth ; and, with the usual amount 

 of rain, the work must be suspended dur- 

 ing half the scant and precious time in- 

 tended to be devoted to manuring : and 

 whether such suspensions of the work oc- 

 cur or not, the labour of carrying out, on 

 plowed land, and plowing under all the 

 manure of the farm, (or as much as ought 

 to be made,) is a very heavy job, to be 

 begun and completed within narrow and 

 strict limits of time. 



But, suppose all these difficulties to be 

 overcome, and all the accumulated ma- 

 nure made in winter, and to the end of 

 April, carried out and applied for corn ; 

 still, without resorting to the top-dressing 

 plan, there will be no economical means 

 of applying the stable-manure made dur- 

 ing the next four or five months, or until 



