The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-02-10
AGRICULTURAL.
Green Manuriny,

1t is evident to all intelligent and observing
farmers in our Eastern and Middle States
that competition with the virgin soil of the
west, or even remunegative crops at prevail
ing low prices OF produce, must be the result
Oh pettef cultivation, and more especially of
larger applications of manure, Few will at
tempt TO deny that barnyard manure is the
best and most efficacious, and no system of
farming is complete that does not include the
raising OF live stock and consequent additions
to the manure heap. The udicious use Of
artificial manures accords with the judgment
and experience Of large proportion OF our
most intelligent agriculturists, yet their pur-
chase in considerable quantities is beyond the
limited means OF many worthy farmers. The
condition OF large areas may be bettered by
ploughing in clover, rye, buckwheat and the
like in green condition.
The practice OF green manuring, though
well understood by the majority of the farm
ers OF the present day, yet has been in use
from very early periods. The second or third
crop of lucerne was ploughed in by The an
cient Romans, as it still is by the modern
Italians. In Tuscany the white lupn is
plonghed under, in parts of France the bean
and the vetch, in Germany borage, and upon
sandy soils in Holstein spurry. In parts OF
northern France two crops OF clover are cut
and the third is ploughed in. In Sussex,
Eng, and in parts of Scotland, turnip seed
has been sown at the end of harvest, and az
ter two months again ploughed in, with great
benefit to the land. Wild mustard is sown in
parts of Great Britain and ploughed in as
preparation for wheat; sometimes, also, on
the stubble, as a preparation for turnips. 1t
is said to destroy the wire worm. Turnip
leaves and potato tops decay more readily aud
perfectly, and are more enrichiDg when bur-
led in the green state. Where circumstances
admit, IL is well TO bury the potato tops on
the spot from which the potatoes are raised.
Since the time of the Romans, it has been the
custom to bury the cuttings of the vine stocks
at the roots of the vines themselves, and
many vineyards flourish for succession of
years without any other manuriDg. In the
English hop-yards of Kent, the prunings of
the hop-vine, chopped and dug in, or made
into compost with other material, give good
results.
That the soil should be richer in vegetable
matter after turning under green crop than
it was before the seed of that crop was sown,
and should also be otherwise benefited, will
be understood by rejecting that perhaps
three-fourths of the whole organic matter
thus buried has been derived from the air
that by this process of ploughiDg in, the veg
etable matter is more evenly diffused through
the whole soil than it could ever be by any
merely mechanical means and that, by the
natural decay of this vegetable matter. ammo
mia and nitric acid are. to a greater extent,
produced in the soil, and its productive ca
pacity thereby materially increased. Indeed
some practical men assert that green crop,
ploughed in, will enrich the soil as the drop
pings of cattle from quantity of green food
three times as great. 1t is said that clover
takes from the soil more potash, phosphorc
acid, lime and other mineral matters than
any other crop, though, during its growth, a