Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-02-05
agricultural.
February OIL the Farm.

Winter is slowly wearing away, the day
are gradually growing longer, and it is abou
time to be preparing for the seasons cam
paign. Many farm tool was left last fal
In no proper condition to begin springs worl
with. Some wagon, or plough, or drag ma,
need putting in order, and if 1T is not dom
now while you have time. you will have t.
stop work on something else, and take holt
and patch it up. 1t is a great deal better t,
look after the tools now, and have then
ready to do what YOU will require of them
Did you neglect to prune the grape vines
currants and gooseberries last November
Then they ought to be attended to now, OF
the mild days of this month. Soon Marcel
will be here, and the warm days will star
the flow of sap, when pruning may do more
harm than good You may cut gratis thil
month and pack them. carefully labelled, in
moss or sand, for spring use. 1t is much
better to cut them at this season than to wait
till you want them to set. Apple orchards
may be pruned, also, the old dead limbs cut
away, and the tree brought into a comely
shape. The old orchards on many farm
would furnish supply of frewood through
a good part Of the summer, and be improved
by the process hundred per cent.
Manure may be hauled out now and either
spread upon the surface of land that ii
is intended to manure and plough soon as
-
heap in convenient place. IF the land is
tolerably level and there Is little danger oil
washing, we think it better economy to
spread it directly. 1t seems to work into the
soil uniformity to considerable depth, and
the advancing spring is exceedingly favorable
to this. Of two pieces ID receive an equal
amount of the same manure to be ploughed
in as soon as the ground is in condition, in
April or May, that where the manure is
oil he IN
winter, will send It's crops ahead faster and
earlier than that where the manure is hauled
out and spread just before the ploughing
And then only see the saving. Calculate
the difference in the value of time now and
then Reckon the ease of teaming now, over
a frozen surface, no cutting in, no straining
Of the teams, no injury to the grass land
which it may be necessary to cross, no hurry
for fear of getting belated with the spring 5
work If there is thin coating Of snow on
the ground that need not deter you. You
can haul on sleds and 50 save deal of heavy
pitching into high sided carts, but when you
get upon the field don't dump in heaps to be
left there Either spread and have done
with it, or put up iii great compost heaps, to
be forked over once or twice at great labor,
and pitched into carts again and teamed
about. 1t really doesn't seem to pay, par
ticularly as the result will be no better, but
some people think it is fun to see tremen-
dous pile Of manure, and can't seem to
think that it makes much show when
lying quietly on the surface, giving down its
soluble constituents, it's life blood, into the
hungry earth. If any doubts that a
good deal of the labor which is often be-
slowed may Just as well be saved, let him try
the experiment, and try it carefully, and he Ii
find the economy Of trusting little to the
grasping, absorbing power of the soil, to
hold and swallow up the ingredients that he
may think would be lost.
But YOU may say, - Haven't you been tell
ing us, to avoid the wash of the drenching
rains. and keep our manure under cover, COM
post and take care of II? - Certainly, but
the wash in the barnyard, with rich black
stream running away with your manure and
YOUR money, and leaving it just where you
don't want it. and where it is not needed, is
a very different thing from the wash here on
the very field where you do want it, and
where the rains will carry it into the soil and
mix it more evenly and thoroughly than you
could do, with all your human ingenuity. If
there is no great surface wash by which it
Will be carried off the field where you want
it, to other places where you do not want 1T,
the effect of the spring rains, so far from
being injurious, will be just what you want.
THEY'LL carry down the stimulating food of
plants the soluble constituents of the ma
Qurc. and mix them up In the SOIL, ana you
need not fear that the searching roots will
not find them. You may trust them for that
The loss from evaporation, at this season OF
the year, you see, is not to be thought OF.
There is none to speak of, and if it were ever
TO be feared from manure spread upon the
surface ut other seasons, certainly you are
safe from it now. Evaporation takes place
chiefly where fermentation is going on, and
where there is not in the heap a sufficient
supply of absorbing materials, like muck,
loan, clay, etc But with manure lying
upon the surface, no fermentation takes
place. Now, before the spring sun rises so
hot as to alarm you with the idea that the
sun and wind may cause you little loss, the
rich constituents of your manure, the soluble
salts, will be quietly lying in the firm en-
brace of the absorbing particles of the soil,
down below the surface, ready to leap up
through the little fibrous roots of the plant,
and assume visible form of organized life,
and your April wind, or your May sun, will
be blowing over, or pouring down upon the
dry carcass from which the spirit has fled.
Now a manure mixed all through the soil
is of vastly more value than that which lies
all in one stratum, as when ploughed under,
because it is more available to the roots OF
plants, and by applying it now to the surface,
YOU secure this mixture. Not that the or
ranic. visible part Of the coarse manure goes
down out of sight, to any great extent, but
the more important part, that which Is easily
dissolved and ready to act as the food OF plants,
becomes in this way disseminated through the