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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 71, 19 July 1873, Page 3

The Advantages of Manuring in Winter. —James T. Van Wyck writes as follows to the Tribune from “ Ledgeside Farm ” : —“ In these days of high prices of labor, the farmer must take advantage of every saving to make his special calling a success. Upon slight consideration the advantage of manuring in winter instead of leaving it till the following season must be apparent to every one. First of these is the saving of time and labor. This is distinct and obvious. In winter, farmers and their teams have scarcely enough to do to give them sufficient exercise. Should they hitch up their teams every day, or at least once a week, and haul or spread their manure on their corn or grass lands instead of being a drain on their resources, the time so spent would improve both the health of themselves and teams. Second: All waste is avoided. I have seen back yards where, during every rain, the juices of the manure were washed into the brooks or neighboring highway, or perhaps fertilized an adjoining acre too much to the detriment of the rest of the farm. Again, 1 have seen barn-yards unclean for years, simply because in the growing the proprietors were too much driven to attend to it. I utterly deny the assumption of those who claim that manure wastes through being spread in winter, for its juices are being immediately locked up by the cold to be washed into the surface soil by every thaw or rain. On the contrary, where heaps are under cover or in yards, there is a constant waste going on by fermentation or fire-fanging. Third: If ploughed under in the spring the whole mechanical action is retained in the soil, which is lost in rotting down. For heavy lands this is a very great advantage. It is better to put the manure in a fresh state upon a gross-feeding stock, like corn, to be followed by a more delicate feeder than to first rot and apply it to the latter crop. The corn will exhaust it no more than the process of rotting, leaving the increase of corn as well as the better condition of the land as a distinct advantage. Fourth: Fields would be fed which would otherwise be starved. In the hurry of the growing season farmers are apt to put their manure upon their fields near by, leaving the more distant ones to care for themselves. Fifth: Crops would be planted in better season without that worry and friction which is always incidental to being behind with their work. Many farmers, wishing to put their manure upon their ground, and waiting till spring to do it, being prevented bv bad weather, are late in commencing, hurry it out, or do not hault it at all and half plough the ground, hurry in their crops, and feeling behind in their work, s J continue through the whole season, attributing their failure to bad luck. Six: Barnyards would not be constant mire-holes, and by their foul odours a constant source of disease.”