174 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
wanted for the corn crop the ensuing year, some portion may 
be drawn out early in the fall and put upon such clay lands 
as will bear manuring with the wheat crop, and spread and 
plowed in when drawn out. But on prairie soil it is best to 
apply it to the corn crop; and for this purpose it may be 
drawn out late in the fall or winter, on sod land, at the rate of 
fifteen loads to the acre and left in heaps until spring, when it 
should be spread very evenly over the ground^ tahing care to 
remove all the manure from where the heaps lay^ as those places 
have got their share by the drenching of the rains. If the 
manure is applied too thickly, or is not evenly spread, it will 
cause the grain to lodge in places; and as the growing crop 
only requires a limited portion of the manure yearly, all 
excess has a tendency to cause rust and lodging and a greater 
loss of manure by evaporation and leaching. If surplus 
manure is made it will be far better to apply it to the land 
oftener than to increase the amount of manure used at one 
time. “Feed your land before it is hungry and rest it 
before it is weary,” is a golden maxim. The reason why 
manure in moderate quantities helps to prevent lodging of the 
grain is that the silicate of potash—the silica or flint, which is 
the bone earth of the straw—does not enter in for the support 
of stock but will be returned to the soil in the manure, and 
with what little silica is annually rendered soluble by atmos¬ 
pheric elements will produce a bright glassy straw and thus 
help to prevent rust and lodging. An acre of wheat will 
require from fifty to one hundred pounds of soluble silica'for 
the straw and only one or two pounds for grain. So, if the 
straw is made into manure and applied judiciously, it will 
help the grain to stand up. Again, with the exception of the 
large amount of silica in the straw, the elements of the wheat 
are nearly the same as those in the straw, but in different pro¬ 
portions ; and as the straw is grown first, if there is any 
deficiency in the soil, it falls with the greatest weight on the 
grain ; for the straw has its first choice of productive elements 
and obtains nearly its full growth before the grain is formed. 
