The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-11-28
Use of Manure to the Best Advantage.

The practice of planting corn on sod land
is very good one, and it may well be ques-
toned whether any rotation of crops can be
adopted better than the one which makes
corn follow grass. But to manure such land
in the spring, to be then plowed under, is not
so well sustained either by theory or the facts.
II the season should prove very dry, coat of
long or unfcrmented manure plowed under
i'll the spring is not only of no benefit to the
crop, but positive injury. Why? Because,
in case of drought, the sources ofmoisture for
the plants to draw upon for sustenance lie
considerably below the surface, and in deep,
wcll-worked soil the roots have a better
chance to reach down in search of it, as well
as to appropriate that absorbed from the at
mosphere; but in case thick coat of long,
strawy manure is plowed under with the sod
in the spring, it will not only not rot in suffi
ccnt time to be ofany service to the crop.
but by its mechanical action upon the soil ar
rest OF prevent the moisture from rising from
below, and thus render the soil inverted by
the pillow much dryer than if the same had
been left i'll closer connection with the sub
soil.
1t is true that in seasons sufficiently wet
the manure as well as the sod will be highly
beneficial to the crop, and heavier yields re-
suit than from either stubble or fallow land;
but III taking the seasons one with another,
the blowing under of long manure in the
spring highly detrimental instead of benef-
clal to the crop. We much prefer therefore,
to spread such manure on sod land in the
fall, and not pillow it under until lust before
planting the following spring, by which time
the manure will be in a much more decom-
possible state and more Immediately available
to the crop of corn. But the greatest benefit
to be derived from blowing such manure I'M
der in the fall comes from the effect which
the winters thawing and freezing has upon
the tertilizing elements contained therein, that
ofextractng the soluble matter and diffusing
it through the soil, in exactly the right con-
dltlon to be appropriated by the roots of the
plant the moment they begin to demand the
necessary sustenance,
Another very important advantage of ap-
plying such manure on sod land in the fall is
that the grass is so invigorated thereby that
it starts earlier and stronger in the spring,
furnishing either earlier feed for sheep and
young cattle, or, better still, an increased
amount of vegetable matter to pillow under for
the corn. Nor is there any better way, pro-
badly, offending off the destructive cut.worm
than to manure in the fall and allow the grass
to make such Roadway by the time ii is turn
ed under in the spring as will furnish the ne
cessary food for his wormship until the corn
is far enough advanced as to be beyond his
reach.
1t may be objected that the manure will
waste by such long exposure to the weather.
But when it is rccoected that it is not in n
condition to be easily decomposed when
spread out at that season of the year when
the weather is cool and the rains and SHOWS
so frequent as TO prevent it, it is not very
likely TO lose much by evaporation. Nor do
we believe that manure loses any considera-
bic portion ofits fertilizing matter by cvap-
Grafton at any season of the year, provided it
is spread out thin enough to avoid its fer
menting.