The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-11-19
THE APPLICATION OF MANURE.
From the Chicago Tribune.

The old practice in the use Of ma
nu1e was to spread it on the suface,
and to pillow it in, except in the up
plication to meadow land, and then
the manure was composted or we'll
rstted, and applied as top dressing.
In all cases, the manure must be old,
OF composted with some absorbent,
such as muck, rubbish, sawdust, etc.
In case the manure was fresh from
the stables, it was placed in small
heaps, and allowed to 80 remain until
the time Of culture, when it was
spread cat and at once plowed under.
A farmer near me, who is careful to
use al there is at hand, pursues this
practice, and with good results, hav-
ing better average crops than his
neighbors who pay less attention to
this subject. While there is no
question that this practice will pay,
there is no reason to suppose that this
same manure applied as a top-dres-
sing will pay better. In short, there
has been sufficient experience to prove
its truth.
One great objection to the use of
raw unfermented manure is the seeds
Of weeds and of the grasses; but l
have shown that, in most instances,
this is no objection, as these weeds
and grasses are destroyed in the pro-
cess ofpreparation Of the soil and of
culture. We will suppose that farm
er A has manure for 10 acres of corn
land, and that he has stubble land on
which to apply it. The old plan
would be to haul out the manure at
this season, place it in heaps to re-
main until spring, and then spread it
out, pillow under, and plant at once
OF course all the seeds in it would be
ready to come up and to grow with
the corn, making greatly-increased
amount Of labor to cultivate the crop,
and many of our good farmers think
that this increased labor costs more
than is repaid by the increased value
OF the crop, and for this reason
they do not apply manure d.
rectly to the corn crop. Suppose We
first pillow the stubble land, or rather
it had been plowed Immediately after
harvest, and at the time of applying
the manure subject it to a thorough
narrowing. This would have killed
the growth of autumn weeds, and the
surface would be in good condition to
haul the manure for the purpose of
spreading it direct from the wagon,
when it may remain undisturbed
through the winter. Before it is time
to plant the corn, and after the first
crop of vernal weeds have made their
appearance, the wholeshould be again
harvested. This will destroy the crop
OF weeds, and, at the same time, COM
minute the surface of the soil and
the manure, and thus prepare it for
the seed. A rolling at this stage of
the proceeding will facilitate the
'prouting Of another crop of the seeds
Of weeds, and of the grasses or clo-
yer, if there were any in the manure;
and, before the corn is up, this Sec
ond crop 6 weeds should be destroyed
by narrowing. Thus it will be seen
that the blowing and the application
Of manure can be done in the fall,
and all we have to do in the spring is
to harrow the ground when we are
ready to plant, the second narrowing
being part of the after culture. But
the manure is wasted during the win
ter, it is suggested. Not in the least !;
it is the Office of the soil to hold plant
food until the roots of the plants de-
mand it, and all the plant food that
the frost, the rains, the snow, and the
dew have extracted from the manure.
is carried down into the soil and CIV
en- up to its keeping. The potash that
has been ixiviated from the ashes Of
the grasses that the annual fires have
supplied for untold centuries, is yet
in the keeping of our prairie soils,
making vast store of this food that
ages Of sapping will not exhaust. 1t
is only very sandy soils that refuse to
hold the plant food, and these must
have clay added to them, for this pur-
pose. We need fear no loss in this
respect from any Of our clay loan:
OF clay soils, for the plant-food sent
down to their keeping will be availa-
Olo at the proper time.
1t will thus be seen that, in pre-
pairing the garden for early vegetables
We need not be over nice in the use of
unfsrmented manures filled with the
seeds of weeds, for, if we apply such
nanures in the autumn, we can de-
st1oy two crops of weeds before the
Fsas, beets. onions, carrots, parsnips,
and similar plants, are out Of the
E,ound. We need not pillow the gar
den in spring for those crops provi-
ding that We have given it q good
deep blowing at this season Of the
year, when the manure may be ap-
piled. The cultivator, roller and
harrow may be used in the prepara-
ton for seeding in the spring, and the
harrow and roller may be called in to
destroy the second crop of weeds, be-
fore these plants appear above ground.
The narrowing will not in the least
disturb them before that time. Po-
tatoes and corn can have the same
treatment, and have narrowed win