The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-11-21
Burying Manure in the Soil,

Perhaps in no better way is the progress
of agriculture Illustrated than in the manner
ofapplying manure now, and the course of
practice ola century ago. No one thought
| OF applying manure on the surface It was
dead vegetable matter and must be buried;
| and like all dead things the sooner it was put
out of sight the greater profit to the living
plant. Morton, in his cyclopedia of agricui1
| ture, well puts the belief in the past when he
says "the quicker farm yard manure is buried
the better"
This is not true. ANY cyclopadst who
would write thus would not command the re-
spect of intelligent readers There is some
difference of opinion among some of our best
| farmers as to how near the surface the ma
nure is to be put but no one favors burying
it, Some will have it that it is best Just above
some prefer it just below; but that it should
be somewhere near the surface all believe
The great argument used for burying ma
nure by people of the past was that so much
OF the valuable matter escaped in the atmos-
phere. So much benefit has been found TO
result from surface manuring, that many ar
que that what escapes is no great loss. But
this is probably an error. 1t is now known
the reason for the great fertility which fol-
lows dry season is owing to the absorbent
power of dry earth, which takes in from the
atmosphere the heterogeneous particles which
have escaped from decaying vegetable mat
ter. This shows that the atmosphere is n
mine of richness, and that we add to this
mine every time we expose our manure heaps
to its influences. five can save this to our
selves-if we can hold it from passing into
this airy nothingness-it must be our advan-
tage to do so.
The advantages which have flowed from
surface-manuring are not probably because
there is no loss, but because the roots of
plants can make better use of what is left
If we dig out young tree we find that most
of its roots are just beneath the surface an
inch or SO deeper there are fewer roots, and as
we go deeper there are still less. We may
find some roots six feet or more down, but
the bulk are just beneath the surface. The
food in this surface-manuring system is there
fore just where the mass of roots can profit
by it. This is no doubt the plan. In this
way the surface advocates have won their
victory in spite of the loss, and not because
there is no loss of good plant food by the ex-
posure.
This is the principle on which so much
good has been found to flow from mixing dry
earth with manure. 1t is stated that one of
| the best farmers of New York hauls under
| cover during summer large quantity of dry
earth, which he keeps dry, and that during
| the winter season he adds this to his manure
| heap, about load for load. The result he SAYS
is that this load of added earth is equal to
| another load of stable manure. 1t takes up
the gases which he says would have gone in
| to the atmosphere. 1t has not added any,
thing to the manure, but simply saved what
| would have been lost
These are all things bearing on this ques-
| ton of deep .manuring. The soil below is
never very dry, and hence cannot take up
much. When near the surface the law
comes into play. The surface-roots, surface
feeding and dry surface earth all argue
against the deep deposit of manure-Gr-
| n,d,sto1cB telegram.