Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-09-28
DaiIu Kennebrr 3ournaI.
Applying Manure.

How shall we apply manure. is much
discussed yet very unsettled question.
Shall we apply on the surface as top
dressing and mulch shall we pillow 1t in
more or less deeply; shall we harrow or
cultivate it in shall we apply in the hill,
or drill. or broadcast? Shall we let our
farm yard dung lay until fall, through the
summer from the previous winter, de-
compose and fine up before applying, or
shall we draw and apply as soon as we
can after it is made? Shall we draw to
the fields and leave in q big pile through
the winter and apply in the spring. or in
small piles where it is to be spread
Shall we draw out and spread on the snow.
or shall we draw it on the cart and spread
Just before the crops are planted There
and very many other questions come up
when we consider the subject. 1t was al
most a universal practice years ago. to
either pillow in the manure deeply, or put
it in the hill, or in the drill These prac-
tees are not wholly obsolete. Later came
the other dressing, spread
ing on the surface. Many think yet there
is a great loss, and deplore the fact, if by
any means they are prevented from plow-
ing or narrowing in their barn manure as
soon as spread Some think that nearly
all the richness will die out if exposed
few days to sun and wind. Evidently
they confound bulk and dampness with the
value of barn manure. Water is valua-
BILE. necessity, but not very much 80 to
haul in cart or spread with fork. For
our part, we should much prefer to have
our manure dry when we handle it, but
Err hf. fir al II
We believe that urine would be just as
valuable as fertilizer to soils were the
water evaporated from it before applying.
1t is its soluble salts, its mineral and chem
ica parts that are valuable and not the
water in which they are held in solution.
Drying. then, does not greatly if any.
iniure manure About all there is to it is the
wetter it is the bulkier it is, and the more
there seems to be of it. Doubtless small
portion of ammonia escapes during the
process of evaporation of the moisture of
the manure, If ground plaster has been
used in the litter in sprinkling the heap,
or is used in the cart while drawing, the
danger of loss of any free ammonia is re-
duced to minimum.
When manure is spread it soon becomes
dry, and then all chemical change is laid
in embargo. Fermentation is arrested.
When the rains descend, it will be
leached out and the elements of it carried
into the soil. TIE abundant water will
solve and dissolve its soluble parts. These
are the plant food, and the only valuable
portion of the manure.
Our own observation would lead us to
adopt partially medium course. neither
blowing manure in deeply nor leaving it
wholly on the surface, but after spreading
it on the surface as evenly as possible,
work it into and among the
surface SOIL using whatever implement
that was found best adapted to the soil.
and work in hand; often disk
harrow followed bv fine spike tooth or
harrow, will do the work sat-
A very light loan or sandy soil would
probably be better and longer fertilized
with the same manure if entirely on the
surface. On heavy loans or clay, the
manure will be held at any point it may
be applied. and on there it would probab-
ly be best to incorporate the manure sew
eral inches into the soil, where the roots
will find it, and where it will act me
on the soil, as well as for plant
flooding.
When we pillow in green crops we enrich
the soil without the necessity of making
manure by grazing animals, or feeding
them on crops for that especial purpose.
The expense of fences, of stock, of hand
ling manure, of applying it, is saved. The
team and the pillow are the chief factors
needed in this sort OF renovation. Very
few farmers are there but can adopt the
green manuring plan on some part of their
hungry fields. 1t is what all must come
to, we think, in the future, more or less,
and not in the very distant future, either.
j. w. LANG.