Connecticut western news., 1885-01-28
FARM AND GARDEN.
All About Winter Top.Dressing.

There are some things which may be done ct any time; some which are better done thus than never, and some which must be done at particular time. It is quite important for the farmer to dis tinguish between these and to so under stand the nature of any work that he may always have it done at the best time. Now, p-dressing is one of these jobs about which there is a considerable latitude in regard to the time when it may be performed It is 0 very neces. sary work, and for fall grain or grass lands may be done at any time from late in the fall until the middle of the winter. But where circumstances have prevented the work up to this time it is better that it be done late than not at all. The manner of doing it depends somewhat upon circumstances. If the manure is fresh it may be hauled out and spread as it is made, and for grain or for sod that is to be plowed in the spring for corn coarse manure is an ex. cellent thing to protect the crop as well as to feed if, and this protection is very important fact in the question.
 The great doubt which disturbs this matter in the minds of farmers is whether or not there is loss of valu. able portions of the manure by reasons of the rains carrying the soluble part of it too far into the soil, so thsi they are lost to the crop. This is very improb- able. The soil is exceedingly absorbent of any such matter as these, and acts as a most effective filter. It may be safely accepied as a pertinent fact that no solu- ble organic matter contained in manure will be carried through to F inches of soil, unless the soil has become sat urated with it and can hold no more. The earth floor of manure cellar, after years of use, has been found completely nnstained by any percolation at depth of 12 inches, and has given no indication of any mixture which has been kept in if. It will be found the same in barn. yards, the surface of which has been covered with manure and has been rained upon for many years. If this is so in such extreme cases no anxiety need be felt in regard to it in the field. Every farmer knows how little the continued use of manure for years past has effected the yellow or lighter colored soil below the arabic surface, and how he objects 10 bring this hungry and barren subsoil 10 the surface. The most experienced and intelligent farmers who have had opportunities of observing the effects of it agree in this view, viz: That there is no loss of any valuable matter from the manure that may be spread upon the grain or grass, or even upon fall plowed land during it's exposure to the weather through the winter. One thing is to be avoided: Steep hillsides, upon which heavy rains will wash the ground and carry of any loose or soluble matter, should not be top-dressed in the fall or the winter, and especially if the ground is frozen, in which case a sudden thaw or heavy rain might carry down all the manure bodily into the low places or wash them entirely from the field. One other danger is to be carefully avoided, which is to unload manure into the field in heaps to be spread afterward. This is both loss and an injury. One rain or a weeks delay in the spreading vii cause the ground under the heap to be- come saturated with the strongest part of the manure, while the rest of the field will be deprived of just share of it, To leave these heaps in a field all the winter for the purpose of spreading them in the spring is a still greater waste and loss and more serious damage,