ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
56 
Disposed of? ” 
THOMAS McD. RICHARDS, WOODSTOCK, ILLS. 
Mr. President and Members of the Illinois. State 
Dairymen’s Association:— The practice of manuring soils 
is as old as civilization. The Greeks fertilized their fields 
for a thousand years previous to the Christian era. The 
Romans in their purest days highly cultivated and manured 
their small farms, indeed agriculture for a considerable 
period was their chief pride and passport to distinction. 
And so along down the centuries as civilization and popula¬ 
tion have increased, better culture of the soil, and greater 
care and economy in the saving and application of manuies 
has followed almost as a matter of necessity. Should the 
densely populated nations of the world entirely neglect the 
application of manures for only a short period of years, starva¬ 
tion would be the dire result, hence the older nations ransack 
battlefield and the islands of the sea for materials to enrich 
their farms. The subject before us then is an important 
one, for not even our comparatively virgin soils can long 
endure the neglect that many farms have been and still are 
subjected to. A frequent rotation of crops, with the appli¬ 
cation of all the manure possible to make and save . on the 
farm, either on or near the surface is a safe practice, that 
will hand our farms down to coming generations in a fer¬ 
tile condition. I hold that no man has a right to live, who 
continually impoverishes his soil to the detriment of pos¬ 
terity. I have indicated that manure can (most profitably) 
in my view be applied at or near the surface, and (econ¬ 
omically) I would as a rule say spread as you have, green 
manure on corn or grain fields I would plow under 
shallow for convenience in putting in crops. If I did not 
plow under in the Fall would spread on the surface instead 
of dotting tlie field with little heaps, always a nuisance if 
you wish to plow in early Spring. On meadows I would 
apply any kind of barn-yard manure, green or otherwise, 
soon after haying, if possible, or all along the Fall and 
Winter, being careful to spread evenly, and also rake the 
hay crop without the admixture of strawy manure, and to 
do this no rake equals the old revolving wooden rake. 
Meadows top dressed with barn-yard manure once in three 
