The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-02-09
Application of Manure.

30 mucn OF SUCCESS IN farming depends
on the methods of using manure, says the
american CuttiUdtor, that the discussion
of this subject can hardly be overdone
Undoubtedly some farmers get more profit
out of the same amount of manure than
others, and in this their superiority mainly
consists. Knowing how to make the best
use of manure, they can purchase it when
Others cannot. The principle is shown in
the commonly known fact that where seeds
men and nurserymen are found near cities
and villages, farmers growing ordinary
farm crops cannot purchase stable manure.
All that is made in the city or village is
taken on contract as soon as made. and at
better prices than common farm crops will
afford. In other places market gardeners
instead of farmers take city stable manure.
OF course the farmers secure a certain
amount on the farm from stock kept, but it
is never enough. They do not buy, not be-
cause they do not recognize the need of the
fertilizer, but because they cannot compete
in the price.
1t is significant fact that most of this
manure is purchased for land that the ma
jority Of farmers would consider rich
enough, which has indeed all the fertility
a majority Of farmers grow. This indi-
Gates that as a rule, it pays best to draw
most of the manure on rich land, even if as
result some of the poorer portions of the
farm are left to slowly increase in fertility
by growing grass or clover. On the heavily
manured land most of the labor will be APP
piled. The poor land gets less attention,
but probably all that it will pay for. This
is not the method often adopted, most farm
ers selecting year after year their poorest
land for cultivation and applying all the
manure they make thus raising the whole
to q comparatively low average. and no
part much better than the others. If they
concentrated labor and manure on fewer
acres, they would make more profit They
would at least make something on the best
land, and not lose on the other. By their
present method they work over wider
area, and do not make profit anywhere
If farmers practiced this plan of manuring
only their best land they would soon find
that they had too much. This would in most
cases be great advantage.
The time for applying manure, like the
time for doing any good work, is always
the present time. The old idea that man
ures spead on the surface leach or evaporate
to any wasteful degree has long since been
exploded. Some of the more soluble
chemical fertilizers are best applied just
about the time crops are planted or sown.
But stable manure, even the best, Is COM
paratively slow in its action. If some por-
tions of it are washed down into the soil,
they are not lost, but are rather in exactly
the best position for doing most good when
warm weather starts in them the necessary
fermentation. If manure is left spread on
the fields through winter and spring, it has
put the soil for two or three inches at least
in the best condition that this manure could
possibly do. The mulch has protected the
! surface, and if this is plowed under it fer
| ments, and the gases thus formed are the
best solvent of the fertility in the soil above,
including what has soaked into the surface
soil from the mulch. The earlier in the
winter this application is made the better
will be the result
After land has been thus made doubly
rich, its owner must understand the respon-
s1bility it imposes to give it proportionate
care and labor. He cannot afford to be
satisfied with crops that farmers on poor
soil can grow as well or nearly as well as he.
This is perhaps the most important advant-
age OF the thorough manuring needed to
make.a farm into garden. 1t involves
equal thoroughness in other respects. When
farmers once try this method and learn how
much they can make from little land, they
will abandon the system of spreading their
efforts over vast acreage. By the division
of farms, this country will long continue to
maintain the preponderance of farmers in
its population which Of late years has been
diminishing. 1t is a mistake to suppose that
there are too many farmers. There are too
few, and too little capital and manure for
the extent of land under cultivation. It is
not possible much longer to find new farm
ing land. Now for better Improvement OF
what is already under cultivation.