338 
The Application of the Manure of the Farm. 
any other cause, for tlie existence of fertilising^ matter in the soil 
is as necessary for promoting the growth of this crop as any 
other. The chief reason for the use of dung not being more 
general, is the delay which its application would cause at the 
time of sowing. If there be sufficient manure and labour avail- 
able to permit a moderate dressing of dung to be laid upon 
the land without delaying the time of sowing, its employment is 
decidedly advisable. A doubt often arises, when the supply of 
dung for roots is limited, as to the relative advantages of using 
manure for the spring feed, or of keeping it entirely for the root- 
crop ; but there is a very general opinion entertained that the 
turnip crop is decidedly improved by the use of a portion of the 
dung upon the spring crop which precedes it. 
These crops being consumed upon the ground, the soil again 
receives the chief portion of the materials previously drawn from 
the land ; but their services do not end here, for during life they 
have gathered stores of fertility not only from the soil, but from 
the atmosphere, and the latter consequently become an addition 
to the soil gained l)y the vital energies of the crop. Tlie more 
such a crop luxuriates, the greater the addition thus obtained, 
and consequently a liberal use of manure is productive of the 
best results. It is clearly, therefore, no loss to the root-crop, if 
for this object it is deprived of some portion of the dung usually 
allotted to it ; because the spring food produced, by being con- 
sumed on the land, returns to it nearly all it has drawn from the 
manure, together with an increase the land could not otherwise 
have had. 
The usual practice of applying manure shows a marked differ- 
ence in the quantity applied for these crops as compared with 
what would be used for roots, as from one-third to one-half of the 
entire quantity is seldom exceeded. This may need an explana- 
tion, because it appears inconsistent with my preceding remarks. 
This decrease in the quantity is not because the crop wonid not 
have been benefited by more manure, but rather because these 
sandy soils are generally deficient in their powers of preserving 
manure. For this reason they quickly lose their fertility and 
need fresh supplies, and hence they are called hungry soils. Thus 
a moderate application of dung is made, which shall be only as 
much as the plant can use before the passage of water through 
the soil causes material loss. The less the power of any soil to 
retain manure, the greater the care required to supply a more 
moderate quantity. It is for this reason that many farmers of 
sandy land do not apply any dung to these crops, and others do 
not apply their manure until the spring, the growth during the 
autumn and winter being so exceedingly slow, that by the time 
the plant becomes aroused into energy by the return of spring. 
