THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



649 



the time for the equally improper applica- 

 tion of such manure by plowing under for 

 wheat. 



Now, comparing the two modes of ap- 

 plication merely in reference to labour and 

 to waste, all the difficulties are much less 

 in top-dj-etsing. Though there is a pre- 

 ferable time to push this application, indi- 

 cated by both the clover and the manure, 

 still it may be begun much earlier and 

 continued much later, without any mate- 

 rial or obvious loss. And the work may 

 be done, (though not to the best advan- 

 tage.) when the w^eather is too wet for 

 any labour on plowed land. The manure 

 made in stables or elsewhere on litter, 

 during summer, or any other putrescent 

 matters, needs not to be kept, fermenting 

 and w^asting, but may be carried out at 

 any time, and spread on clover in any 

 state. These summer applications, in- 

 deed, are not so beneficial as if earlier, 

 because having less time to act. But it 

 is much better thus to apply the manure, 

 than to let it be wasted, as it would be on 

 any plan of keeping it on hand. 



There are other applications of manure 

 on the surface longer and better known 

 than that on clover, and which are advo- 

 cated and practised by some farmers as 

 " the best modes. One of these is in win- 

 ter upon wheat. When circumstances 

 are favourable, and to limited extent, this 

 is a judicious practice; but it cannot be 

 extended far. It requires manures well 

 advanced in decomposition, and ready to 

 act quickly. The dressing should not be 

 heavy, if it should not act early or 

 strongly enough to produce perceptible 

 benefit on the wheat, it will at least cer- 

 tainly serve to secure the standing of the 

 young clover, which, on poor land, or in a 

 dry season, would otherwise be apt to fail. 

 The chief obstacle to this mode of top- 

 dressing is the usual softness of the wheat 

 land in winter, which forbids carting upon 

 it, except when frozen hard. 



A practice much more extensive for- 

 merly, was top-dressing, and with unrot- 

 ted manure on corn, applied from the 

 time of planting to as late as when the 

 plants are several inches high. I have 

 pursued this plan to a considerable extent, 

 several crops. But, judging merely from 

 9ne careful comparative trial of my own 

 making, and one other reported by another 

 farjner of my acquaintance, I infer that 



the effects of manure thus applied are less 

 beneficial than when the manure is plow- 

 ed under before planting the corn. Still 

 there is much labour saved in the former 

 compared to the latter application. And 

 this saving perhaps. may fully compensate 

 for any inferiority of effect. But my own 

 experience in top-dressing either wheat or 

 corn, is so limited, that opinions founded 

 thereupon are entitled to very little r(3- 

 spect. 



To be continued. 



From the Country Gentleman. 



Comparative Economy of Spring and 



Fall Manuring. 



Professor Stockier of the Royal Ag- 

 ricultural College, Cirencester, England, 

 together with Professor S. W. Johnson of 

 Yale, and several farmers in the State of 

 New York and elsewhere, are it seems 

 convinced that manures hauled out and 

 spread broadcast on the soil during late 

 fall and winter, do not suffer any material 

 loss of ammonia, and other plant food, 

 from such exposure ; that the evaporation 

 which invariably affects manure in such 

 conditions, does not carry off any consid- 

 erable quantity of the elements used as 

 food by plants, and which therefore it is de- 

 sirable to pievent the waste of, whether 

 such waste results from evaporation 

 or otherwise. As this view, demonstra- 

 ted I believe, at Cirencester College, is 

 novel, and the reverse in some respects of 

 that which has long governed the practice 

 of manuring, and the hypothesis on which 

 it hinges, viz: that it is most economical 

 to plow in manure as soon as it be 

 spread — which includes spring manuring 

 where plowing is delayed into spring — 

 because of the supposed loss by evapora- 

 tion, &C.5 after spreading — it deserves 

 somewhat closer attention, in order, if 

 possible, to discover the reason of the 

 change. More especially should we in- 

 quire into it, because the improvement 

 of modern agriculture results more from 

 the application of real manure, substan- 

 tial plant food, than from almost any other 

 condition. 



A certain, say sufficient, proportion of 

 water is necessary as a condition to the 

 partial solution preliminary lo the fermen- 

 jtation of any substance it is wished to ex- 



