| With guano | $8.70 per acre. |
| With nitrate of soda | 6.00 |
| With nitrate of soda and common salt | 9.33 |
| With 448 lbs. wheat-manure | 7.94 |
| With 672 lbs. wheat-manure | 10.16 |
The marl did no good.
The nitrate of soda and common salt contained no phosphoric acid, and yet produced an excellent effect. The guano and the wheat-manure contained phosphoric acid as well as nitrogen, and the following crop of clover would be likely to get some benefit from it.
John Johnston wrote in 1868, “I have used manure only as a top-dressing for the last 26 years, and I do think one load, used in that way, is worth far more than two loads plowed under on our stiff land.”
[CHAPTER XXXIII.]
MANURES ON PERMANENT MEADOWS AND PASTURES.
In this country, where labor is comparatively high, and hay often commands a good price, a good, permanent meadow frequently affords as much real profit as any other portion of the farm. Now that we have good mowing-machines, tedders, rakes, and loading and unloading apparatus, the labor of hay-making is greatly lessened. The only difficulty is to keep up and increase the annual growth of good grass.
Numerous experiments on top-dressing meadows are reported from year to year. The results, of course, differ considerably, being influenced by the soil and season. The profit of the practice depends very much on the price of hay. In the Eastern States, hay generally commands a higher relative price than grain, and it not unfrequently happens that we can use manure on grass to decided advantage.