The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-12-06
farmers' Column.
Speed the PIOsC."


Many farmers are drawing out manure
to top dress fields intended for blowing
next spring. Top dressing is coming to
be the favorite mode of using manure, and
there can be no doubt that farmers who
have it can hardly do better than to apply
it now. In many cases, however, the ma
nure being used is the remains of what
was made last winter, and has been in the
barnyard during the summer. Thus far it
is an evidence of past bad management, as
it should have gone on spring crops or on
the winter wheat. But there are some adj
vantages in top dressing grass lands in the
fall. The rains and melting SHOWS dissolve
the manure, while the grass and roots hold
it from washing, except on the very Steep
est hillsides, where the flow of water is
| sufficient to form gulies, carrying roots,
grass and manure to the plains below
But if the ground is we'll covered with
grass, there is little danger from this
source, as the roots hold the soil from
washing, and catch the particles ofmanure
as they are held in the water.
A good many farmers are top dressing
young clover. This is q very natural prac-
tice, in view of the great Importance of
the clover crop, and it is one which for
LhSilJ aoFOCdtCis LUZ ChpCTltDC6 anu OD-
servation have satisfied me that it is
great mistake. Glover is so easily smoth-
cred by covering of any kind that one of
manure even is more likely to hurt than
help it. Gypsum, ashes, or lime in moder-
ate quantities, is the only top dressing
which can be profitably applied to young
clover. Unless the soil is very poor, these
will usually cause fair growth of plants,
and prepare the way for something better
the next time the field is seeded. But af-
ter the second year of clover, manure may
be applied freely. The field is to he plow-
ed next spring, and the clover, having
mostly ripened its seed, will make no far
ther growth. The soil, too, is in the best
possible mechanical condition to be helped
10y the manure. The clover roots have
mellowed it, and in their decay leave pas
sages which the tertiizing material enters
and fills, thus giving succeeding crops a
reservoir of rich plant food. am salts
fled that many times one half of the manure
applied in the spring would do more good
to the crop had it been spread on the land
the fall previous.
We do not in this section top dress
meadow or pasture lands very extensively,
partly because our money crops are grain
and potatoes Frequent seeding on land
recently MANFRED brings good grass crops
without directly fertilizing the grass itself.
Yet on river bottoms where there is an
annual overflow, bringing thin coating
OF earthly sediment every spring, the bene-
fit of this natural top dressing is most ap-
parent. 1t gives us very good hint, too,
of how little manure is needed to accom-
plsh good results, as the sediment yearly
deposited is often not more than quarter
of an inch deep, and is not always very
rich. Its even distribution, and the fact
that the water carries its virtues direct to
the roots of the plants, is the secret of its
efficiency in giving aquck start to vegeta-
ton after these annual overilows. ] have
no doubt that leaf mould from the woods,
or scrapings from the roadside, would
prove efficient fertilizers on poor meadows
or thin pastures. The difficulty in the alb
sence of an overflow of water, would be to
spread the top dressing thinly and bring
it in close contact with the grass roots.-
Something may be always done at this sea-
son of the year in breaking the clods Of
manure left by animals after pasturing
field through the summer. A double adj
vantage is thus gained; the places occu-
pied by the droppings are relieved, and II
vigorous growth springs up there the fol-
lowing season, and the scattered clods do
ten times as much good as they otherwise
would. This plan is especially important
for meadows which have been fall pastur,
ed. as the clods or manure, if unbroken,
will be gathered into the windrows with
the hay next season, if the wire tooth rake
is used.
Fall top dressing is undoubtedly the
best mode OF manuring orchards wherever
they are not making sufficiently vigorous
growth. 1t is the only way to manure
pear trees without inducing blight, as it
usually does if the manure is plowed in
1t is never advisable to manure trees heavi-
ly at one time. A slight top dressing every
fall is more favorable to vigorous growth,
productiveness and exemption from dis
ease. In manuring orchards, be careful
not to use straw or other coarse manure in
which mice may harbor and injure the
trees while the ground is covered with
snow in winter.-Country Gentleman.