Vol. LXII. No. 2811. NEW YORK, 
WHEN TO HAUL AND SPREAD MANURE. 
Arguments for Winter Spreading. 
I am most decidedly in favor of getting the manure 
oil the ground and spread where wanted at the quick¬ 
est moment after it is made. There is never a later 
day when manure has so much value to the plant as 
when it comes from the stable, and every hour of ex¬ 
posure in the yard or in the pile however well made 
and protected, but causes serious loss in this value. 
As usually treated by our farmers, not one-fourth the 
first value is ever available to any plant. They throw 
it out into the yard generally under the eaves, and by 
the time it is hauled and spread little 
is left but the woody fiber. All the 
liquids which contain at least three- 
fourths of its gross value, are washed 
out, and much of it is firefanged to 
such an.extent that but little of the 
nitrogen is left. My land is very level, 
and but very little subject to wash, 
and we always aim to draw the manure 
out and spread it as fast as made, and 
nothing causes us more worry than to 
have the ground get so soft that we 
cannot get upon the land with the ma¬ 
nure. I have repeatedly noticed that 
those parts of the field which, by rea¬ 
son of a break up, became so soft that 
we could not get the manure on and 
spread until just before plowing for 
corn, showed very much less benefit 
from the same application than where 
it was drawn and spread during Win¬ 
ter. There is another great advantage 
in daily drawing and spreading in 
Winter. We are never then crowded 
with work, and can do the spreading 
much better than when driven with 
Spring work. Another thing in favor 
of Winter spreading, we use the bulk 
of our manure on clover sod for corn. 
Where the manure is applied In Win¬ 
ter it causes the clover to start quick¬ 
ly, and by the time we are ready to 
plow for corn the clover is knee high 
to the horses, and hy plowing this 
down we not only recover all that the 
clover has taken up, but in its growth 
it has gathered a large amount of extra 
nitrogen from the air and it also car¬ 
ries with It into the ground much wa¬ 
ter, which it will hold until wanted by 
the growing corn. We have never 
failed, no matter how dry the Summer 
might be, of having a bumper crop of 
corn when planted on a manured 
clover sod. We only make one excep¬ 
tion to applying manure as fast as 
made, and that is this, we sow wheat 
always after barley or oats, and we want to top-dress 
the land always after plowing with manure to work 
into the surface for the benefit of wheat and following 
seeding. To keep this manure we leave it trodden 
down hard in the sheep pens during Summer, watch¬ 
ing carefully to see that it does not burn, which we 
prevent by keeping it well wetted down. When 
ground Is plowed after harvest this is applied to the 
rough ground and thoroughly worked into the surface 
just before the wheat is sown. There is only one ob¬ 
jection to applying manure in Fall and Winter. If 
the land is hard and inclined to be wet, it does not 
dry out nearly as quickly In Spring where covered 
with manure. But all in all, I like to follow Nature’s 
plan of applying manure as fast as made and on the 
surface, instead of holding it 
New York. 
the barnyard. 
J. 8. WOObWATlD. 
i Haul in the Spring. 
Our practice and that of nearly every farmer in 
this country, is to leave the manure in the barnyard 
till Spring, then haul out on sod gp’ound and plow it 
under for corn. Our land here is quite hilly, and to 
haul out as fast as it accumulates we would have to 
haul on water-soaked ground, and the wagon would 
cut in so deep that it would be almost impossible to 
get a load where we wanted It. We do teaming for 
others, and our teams are nearly always busy all Win- 
KNGLISH CACTUS DAHLlAwS. Rkoucko from Natl’RAi. 
See Ruralisms, Page 854. 
Size, 
ter, so we do not take time to haul manure in Win¬ 
ter except when we haul from town; then we take a 
load of coal to town and bring manure home and 
spread it on the field. But if I were farming only I 
would haul it out as fast as I could get it and spread 
it on sod for corn, then oats, then wheat, and seed to 
grass. j. Q. KAPP. 
Pennsylvania. 
An Ohio Opinion. 
It has always been our practice to haul the manure 
as rapidly as it accumulates from the stables to the 
fields if the ground is in fit condition and the other 
work does not interfere, in which latter cases it is 
accumulated in the large covered barnyard, which 
will hold the accumulations of several months if need 
be. When hauled it is at once spread as evenly as 
possible, and never permitted to remain in heaps in 
the fields. We prefer to haul on clover sods that are 
to be planted to com the following year, but I am led 
to believe that it would be better to place it all on the 
newly seeded clover fields if possible that it might 
aid the young clover to make larger growth of both 
root and branch. Now as to the reasons that exist 
for the faith that is in me. When manure is accumu¬ 
lated in open yards it is subject to losses from rains, 
from evaporation, and heating. Prof. Roberts, I be¬ 
lieve, is authority for the statement that when manure 
is left in an open yard six months it 
has usually lost half its value. If left 
a year it frequently has lost 90 per cent 
of its value. We have been using the 
covered yard for nine years, and it Is 
no trouble to tell where every forkful 
of the manure is placed. Then, too, 
it can be hauled from the covered yard 
when too cold or too wet to work with 
manure in open yards. We spread In 
the fields so as to get the benefit of it 
as a mulch, which in many cases is 
equal to the manorial value. When 
placed in heaps In the fields the rain 
carries the larger part of the soluble 
elements down into the soil immedlates 
ly beneath it, and when it is spread 
there is little to spread but the coarse 
litter. We make all the manure that 
we possibly can by feeding up all the 
rough feed, such as hay and fodder, 
and the straw used for bedding pur¬ 
poses. As this straw is kept in the loft 
above the covered yard it Is perfectly 
dry, and will absorb three times Its 
weight in liquid manures, and is thus 
of greater value in the stables than 
water-soaked straw stacks that have 
been exposed to ram and snow for sev¬ 
eral months. jonn l. shawver. 
Ohio. 
Practice in Illinois. 
In Winter I usually aim to haul once 
or twice a week, depending somewhat 
on the weather. There is more time 
to do it, the ground is usually solid, 
and if the Spring and Summer should 
be dry the manure spread in Winter 
will not burn the crop. On level land, 
and especially sod, I think the loss is 
very slight. Some farmers tried rais¬ 
ing tomatoes and nutmegs here the 
past season. The crop was good, but 
the market overstocked, so that re¬ 
sults were not satisfactory; they use 
barnyard manure in the hill for these 
crops. A few farmers tried commercial fertilizer on 
corn the past season with very satisfactory results. 
We have used some on grass seeded this Fall, which 
shows up very fine. If we had your markets of the 
East with our cheap land farming would be a very 
profitable business. r. w. 
Mason, Ill. 
Harrowing in Pays Best. 
Conditions are so varied that there can he no view 
through which all may look. Here of all cases must 
the manner of farming be taken into accoimt, to¬ 
gether with the ability of the farmer to carry out his 
plan of campaign. As to my experience, four years 
ago while harrowing a field for corn I applied some 
12, 1903. • 
II PER YEAR. 
