TOP-DRESSING IN WINTER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2001, 23 July 1880, Page 2

TOP-DRESSING IN WINTER.

The practice of top-dressing grass land during the fall and winter months is slowly increasing. The common apprehension that much of the manure is wasted by running off while the {ground is frozen is giving place to better views. There never was much basis for this opinion. The same soft weather or rain that makes surface water opens the soil to receive all that leaches away from the manure. The surface soil of dark mould, six inches or more in depth, has an easy task to take care of a heavy dressing of stable manure. If fifty loads were to be spread evenly over an acre it would make less than a half-inch in depth. The grass stubble even upon a gentle slope, would hold the manure in place, in all ordinary rains and snows. Experiments show conclusively, that the fertilizing properties of the manure remain where it is spread. The change which our railroads and steamers have made in Eastern agriculture, is turning the attention of farmers mare and more to top-dressing as a means of keeping up the fertility of their meadows without ploughing and re stocking the land. There is so much competition from tho new states in grain and meats, that the Eastern farmer can only raise them at a very small prfifit, or even loss. Grass pays better than almost any other crop. This he can turn into butter and milk for the village market, or into hay, which is too bulky to admit of transportation from the prairie states. The old rotation of corn two years, oatß one year, and grass three years, hardly pays in the Eastern States. Labor is expensive, and it costs to plough, cultivate, and re-stock land. Grass and hay are paying crops, and if the meadows can be kept up to the production of two or three tons to the acre, by top-dressing with barn-yard manure, it is improved husbandry to adopt the change. It is demonstrated in a multitude of cases that this can ba done. We visited recently a farm on which were meadows that had not been ploughed since they were first cleared from the forest, some two hundred years ago. They wore not far from the barn-yard, and produced the best hay upon the farm. Any failing off in the production indicated tho need of more top-dressing, which was faithfully applied. The season favors this mode of fertilising, and there is economy in handling the manure but once. The teams are in their best condition during the fall and winter, the weather is cool, and much power is saved by drawing the loaded carts over the solid earth, or (he sleds on the snow. Much labor is saved by spreading the manure from tho cart tail, while drawing it upon the meadows. The great pressure which comes upon tho form hands and the teams in April and May is forestalled by this winter work. About the beat place for manure, as it comes from the stable or the compost heap, is the surface of the meadow.