PRACTICAL PAPERS—DAIRY FARMING. 
181 
invaluable, while the effects of wood ashes are barely percepti¬ 
ble on most soils. Salt is spoken of highly by those who have 
used it as a fertilizer. The best returns from the use of land 
plaster with me, have been where sown upon clover at that stage 
of its growth when the leaf is near a quarter inch in diameter. 
Not more than one hundred pounds to the acre need be sown; 
more than that quantity will be wasted. My neighbors speak 
highly of results from early sowing, as soon as the snow melts 
in the spring. 
Wood ashes are highly appreciated in those sections of the 
country where cropping has been long continued. Near the 
Atlantic seaboard ashes find a ready sale at twenty-five cents 
per bushel after being leached. It will be well to use all that 
may be made upon the farm, and where the capital exists, what 
can be purchased at the reasonable rates now prevailing. One 
of the best farms known to the writer had upon it an ashery, 
from which ashes were drawn and spread after being leached; 
thousands of bushels each year for over twenty years. The 
effects w r ere shown upon the grass, clover and all kinds of 
cereals, while potatoes and turnips were marvelous in their 
yield. Farmers cannot go amiss in saving ashes. 
The stables must be resorted to as the best and greatest 
source of fertilizing material yet known to agriculture. The 
most important business of the farmer is to increase manurial 
substance, and apply it where most needed. The dairy far¬ 
mer is happily placed for this object. To save all, both liquid 
and solid substances, within his province will be the test of his 
good husbandry and the measure of his prosperity. Capital 
cannot be better used than for erecting such buildings as will 
secure the manure crop, and to prepare it for application to the 
surface of the meadow. The time to apply it is, at all times 
when there is not a growing crop to be harvested in the way. 
The best time is immediately after the crop has been removed 
and continued until the grass begins to grow in the spring. 
Much has been said and written upon the best time to manure, 
some say when the ground is moist, others when dry, one in 
autumn, another in spring, one when the manure is fresh, 
