Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-12-17
NEWLY SEEDED LAND.

Should 1t Be MANFRED Not Am Old
Question Revived.
For the last twenty years there has
been much said and written about
'manuring. Fertilizers are now having
boom on some lands, and in some sea-
sons they work wonders the same sea-
son, while in other seasons they do no
good, in some cases being a positive
injury. Their cost usually exceeds their
value. l heard one man report at an
agricultural meeting, that he had used
sixty thousand dollars worth of fertil-
izers in his life, and one-half of the
money was thrown away. l am not
blaming the manufacturer, for good,
substantial. honest farmers are making
their own fertilizers, and have published
the wholesale price of the ingredients
used. and it would seem that there is but
a small margin for the manufacturer.
The best crop farmer can raise il
manure, for homemade manure is the
key note to successful farming; but
when we have the manure made, We
must use practical sense in its distribu-
ton One man says it is common sense
to bury manure eight inches under
ground with three horse pillow,
and another says it is common
sense to put it on the surface
where the grass roots can get hold of it,
and both are looking for the same re-
suit. Manuring meadows the last FIVE
years or more, especially old turf-bound
meadows, has been risky. business. 1t
is not so with newly seeded fields that
hsve become hard or turf-bound. If we
would, manure thoroughly after the first
crop of grass is taken off, think We
would see better results. My observa-
ton has been, that where hay is spe-
cialty. and manure plenty, the newly
seeded mowings have been MANFRED
heavily after the first crop of grass was
taken off. The application of manure
lat that time serves two purposes-the
solution finds the grass roots more read
lily while the ground is open and porous,
and seemingly does double the good that
it would IN turf; and it also operates as
& mulch. My own experience is. that
the>same amount of manure does more
good when part is applied before seed
ing down, and a part after the first crop
IF grass.
a few yeaks since I plowed.up a run.
cat meadow maRzlred heavily and
planted with corn. / hired a new man
to cart manure, and teld him to begin
to spread whene the osaser man left off;
but instead sf that he pat one
load on top of where am
other had been spread. The
soil was good yellow loaRl, and the corn
grew very large and kadly suckered.
The next year it was planted wit4 po-
tatoes. Where the two loads of manure
were put. the potatoes where treble
yield, and most of them we're rotten.
Very few rotten ones anywhere else IN
the field.) The next year il was sowea
to oats and stocked down. the oats lodg~
ing. The grass grew three or four
years very large. but the field soon
txrfed over SO thick that the grass grew
short, and this year it was not over four |
inches high. but thick. while the rest Of |
the meadow was fair height, but thin |
ner, yielding, however, double the grass |
that the doubled MANFRED portion did. |
am satisfied that had the extra load OF |
manure been saved and applied when
he seeding was new, the result would
nave been more satisfactory. Some hay
armers manure every other year and
Keep up their good crops of grass, while
arms alonSside are manured heavily
,sfore seeding. and then are left to
themselves until run out, and have to
,e re-plowed and re-stocked. Now
which is bestp The farmer needs judg.
nent as we'll as experimentation.
co1SsfrU Gentleman