336 
The Application of the Manure of the Farm. 
over-growth of straw, which we have to contend against in the 
use of dung-. I am encouraged in this hope from the satisfactory 
resuhs of an investigation on this subject which I am prosecuting 
at the present time. 
When farmyard-manure is employed it is almost always suc- 
ceeded by a wheat-crop, the use of dung for oats or barley being 
very exceptional. We shall subsequently have an opportunity 
of seeing, even more fully than has yet been explained, that when 
manure cannot be applied directly to the wheat-crop we may 
attain the desired result by allowing another crop to intervene. 
As an instance of this, I may mention the practice of applying 
dung for beans, or upon clovers when it cannot be used for wheat. 
This answers a double purpose : for it promotes the growth of 
crops which thrive under its direct action, and these crops leave 
the land enriched with materials required for the wheat. 
Aitificial Grasses. — Upon these crops the use of dung is 
generally attended with highly satisfactory results, and the exten- 
sion of this practice is very desirable. Advisable as the appli- 
cation of dung in its early stages of fermentation may be for stiff 
soils, when it is to be ploughed into the ground, the case is 
different when it has to remain upon the surface. Dr. Voelcker 
has shown that in a well-fermented sample of farmyard-manure 
we have the ammonia present chiefly in the form of a humate 
which is readily dissolved by water but is not volatile, and there- 
fore it is well prepared for being washed into the soil as soon as 
rain falls upon it, but is safe from being dispelled either by the 
heat of the sun or the passage of wind. For these and other 
reasons, the dung intended for our artificial grasses should always 
be carefully fermented, so that it may be rotten when spread 
upon the land. Upon stiff soils the autumn is the usual time of 
application. The valuable powers which clay soils possess for 
the preservation of the manure added to them renders a frequent 
application unnecessary, and thus we find a well-manured fallow 
or fallow-crop generally relied upon for carrying the land through 
its course of four or five years' tillage without additional help 
from the farmyard. If, however, the fallow-crop has been re- 
moved from the land, it becomes desirable and economical to 
apply some manure to the seeds in the manner stated. Another 
cause which has led to the extension of this practice is the oppor- 
tunity it offers for drawing this bulky manure to the land during 
a period of comparative leisure, instead of delaying the cultivation 
for swedes by its use for the root-crop. In these instances artifi- 
cial manure is entirely relied upon for the root-crop, and thereby 
a considerable saving of time and labour is effected during this 
urgent and critical seed-time. 
