ent. We know enough,
however, to be sure that there is a great advantage in waiting until
there is a sufficient accumulation of available plant-food in the soil
to produce a large yield, before sowing a crop that requires much labor.

If we do not want to wait, we must apply manure. If we have no barn-yard
or stable-manure, we must buy artificials.

HOW AND WHEN MANURE SHOULD BE APPLIED.

This is not a merely theoretical or chemical question. We must take into
consideration the _cost_ of application. Also, whether we apply it at a
busy or a leisure season. I have seen it recommended, for instance, to
spread manure on meadow-land immediately after the hay-crop was removed.
Now, I think this may be theoretically very good advice. But, on my
farm, it would throw the work right into the midst of wheat and barley
harvests; and I should make the theory bend a little to my convenience.
The meadows would have to wait until we had got in the crops--or until
harvest operations were stopped by rain.

I mention this merely to show the complex character of this question. On
my own farm, the most leisure season of the year, except the winter, is
immediately after wheat harvest. And, as already stated, it is at this
time that John Johnston draws out his manure and spreads it on
grass-land intended to be plowed up the following spring for corn.

If the manure was free from weed-seeds, many of our best farmers, if
they had some well-rotted manure like this of John Johnston's, would
draw it out and spread it on their fields prepared for winter-wheat.

In this case, I should draw out the manure in heaps and then spread it
carefully. Then harrow it, and if the harrow pulls the manure into
heaps, spread them and harrow again. It is of the greatest importance to
spread manure evenly and mix it thoroughly with the soil. If this work
is well done, and the manure is well-rotted, it will not interfere with
the drill. And the manure will be near the surface, where the young
roots of the wheat can get hold of it.

"You must recollect," said the Doctor, "that the roots can only take up
the manure when in solution."

"It must also be remembered," said I, "that a light rain of, say, only
half an inch, pours down on to the manures spread on an acre of land
about 14,000 gallons of water, or about 56 tons. If you have put on 8
tons of manure, half an inch of rain would furnish a gallon of water to
each pound of manure. It is not difficult to