The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1885-03-18
CLODHOPPER
Gives Us a Chapter on the Making, Saw
Ing and Application Of
Manure.

For the News.
shall make an effort to redeem my prom
Use of a chapter on the making, saving and
application Of manure. There is no more
important subject than the above TO engage
the attention Of the huSboudmon that farms
any other than alluvial bottoms that, "like
the valley Of the Nile, ," are subject to an
annual overflow, by which fertility is re-
stored as fos as removed.
The doctrine advocated by myself is that
1.-THE impoverishment of the soil is a wick
ed abuse Of Gods great gift toman." The
earth was given to mau as a habilation, and
by it's cultivation, "by the sweat of the
brow" man should gain his sustenance
Dherefrom and thereby. Then, if to inn
poverish the land by cultivation is a wrong,
moral or otherwise, the means by which
the virgin fertility of the soil can be indef-
iuitely maintained is of vital and first inn
portauce
Before proceeding further with the sub
ect, I wish to state there is much yet to be
learned, by the wisest, in regard to how fer
tilizing agents act.
The proposition is that to grow any crop
will remove or take a given amount Of fer
tility from the soil where grown; some
crops remove much more than others, and
some crops will darw largely of one ele-
ment while another crop of a different
kind will subsist mainly on some other Of
the chemical compounds that euter into the
growth Of plants.
It is on this principle that the rotation Of
Of crops is founded. A proper rotation
consists in a series of crops the one follow.
ing the other so that no two in the rotation
will draw largely of the same chemical
compounds Wheat, corn and clover form
y perfect rotation, and the one crop largely
compensates the other. This has already
Ieen learned by experience, and is doubt
full if theory would ever have grasped tn,
idea unaided by experience. Growing
crop of clover fits land most excellently fO
a corn crop, aud growing corn crop on
clover sod does not disqualify it the leas
for raising a wheat crop. Then, after thu
wheat, it is very little the worse for raising
another crop of clover This is one form
If green mauuring Another form Of greer
uauuring is to raise clover, buckwheat
rye, millet, etc., for the sole purpose o
blowing under the entire plant for the pun
pose of fertilizing a given piece of land
OF green fertilizers clover stands at tn
head next I would rank the millet family
including hungarian grass; then buckwheO
and rye. Any of these will make fai
growth on very thin land, especially if tn
season is showery Orchard grass and blu
grass stand high as fertilizers, whilst timo
tty is the poorest Of all. Nobody woul
ever think of sowing timothy as a fertilize
If the soil
But above all, and regardless of all Othe
sources of fertility, the careful farmer vii
study to make aud save all the barnyar
,ud stable manure possible. The way {
10 this is to feed, as far as possible, all o
the domestic animals in sheds and stable
constructed with reference to keeping al
of the droppings, both solid and liquid, a
title exposed to sun and rain as possible
With the ordinary means at the comman
# the average farmer, the most he can
in this respect is by carefully compactiu
the manure from the horse stables, cattl
sheds, pig pens, ETC., with an abundance {
straw, corn stalks, forest leaves, sawdus
md such like articles. Sawdust is one {
he very best obsorbents, and as a beddin
aud absorbent for horse and COW stable
will bear hauling several miles
All horse and cattle berns should be car,
fully spouted, for one of the greater
sources of waste is by backing under IL
lrippiugs of the caves. The black streal
that flows off from the barn lot to the nea
'st stream is simply a drain on the farmer
"bank account" for if farming is wort
my thing the farmers bank is the fertilil
4 hat is in his soil, on which he is annual
checking, aud his farm bank is just lib
ais other bank, when he fails to deposit Ii
J. ! lCCOuub VIII luu ouL III llulbJ anu nuh
q bright morning he will wake up to fin
II that his check is not being houored. Othe
e wise, his "farm bank" will refuse to retul
/, remunerative crops. Therefore, save Il
deposits and place them where ''they vi
(, 10 the most good"
IT The next question then is how and wht
4 to apply the fertilizers that have been save
which should include the ashes from Il
stoves and fireplace, as well as the 9th
sources enumerated,
- Much diversity of opinion exists amor
our best practical farmers as to the be
10 time and mode of applying mauures. Whe
M corn, whea and clover constitute the ma
.f crop, am a great stickler for the thr
Of years rotation; that is one crop of COZ
ID one of wheat, then seed to clover.
%. rule, aud like it well, is to haul all
1u manure that can be found on to the cloy
yn in the fall spread as hauled, to be plow
.ir under for corn the next spring. Even W
w coarse manure spread on the clover field
be September and November produces a co
70, plete revolution in the land before plowi
ay time in the spring making it "as nell
nd as an ash heap" Though I am so IA
se- oughly 10 favor Of spreading in the fan
pes the grass and clover land, / do not hssit