The Hillsborough Recorder

"May your rich soil,
Exuberant, nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land."
TOP DRESSING.

We have not read an article in some time that pleased us more without absolutely convincing us, than the following from a correspondent of the Boston Cultivator:

Messrs. Editors:—The system of top dressing, a subject of which several articles have appeared in your columns, seems to be gaining ground amongst us; and from what I see and hear, I consider the topic by no means exhausted; various experiments going to show, that even if it be a wasteful practice, the loss attending it cannot be great, however the scientific part of the practical community may deprecate its use. I have before me, at the present moment, a field of six acres, an old grass sod, which was thickly covered in early spring with the contents of the barn yard, in a partially decomposed state, and on which, if the crop be not increased threefold, I shall be glad to be told.

Now, then, the question arises, how much greater would have been the increase and improvement, if the manure had been turned under as soon as spread, to prevent the chance of loss by evaporation, according to the books? For one, I am content with the result, and cannot conceive that, under any circumstances, the effects could have been greater, or more plainly demonstrated. Then comes the theory of the system, and I am ready to confess I am not one of those who believe it in the power of man to improve nature. She may be assisted, by placing means within her reach, but after that, let nature have her perfect work. We see that all natural dressings, whether vegetable or animal, are confined to the surface of the earth, the crops that fall at the close of the year, and the droppings from the creatures which feed upon them; and yet we find that nature has the power of renovation within herself, or things, before this, would have been out at the little end of the horn. It is true we hear and read of the necessity of fixing the ammonia of our stables, and of heaps of manure while in a state of fermentation, to prevent evaporation and loss; but I shall be glad to know, if this be not to destroy it? I admit we are told the result forms a soluble substance; but its volatility is destroyed, and that I consider an unnatural process. And in answer to the question 'is not the ammonia which escapes into the air a dead loss?' I answer, by no means, its province being to form new combinations, and again to descend in rain or dew (of which, in every instance, according to Liebig, it forms a part) the only state in which it can be made to enter into the conformation of the plant.

But let any one form a large heap of manure while in a state of fermentation, in the midst of a barren tract of land, and see if he can discover that the fructifying principles of the evaporating gases, so perceptible and disagreeable to the nasal organs, can be made observable to the optics of any one? I say nay; and not an inch can this influence be found, further than the moisture which drains from the heaps can be traced on the ground. So the idea that 'the man who top dresses his soil is manuring the land of his neighbor,' is a matter of moonshine; nay more! I hold it that if the light gases are prevented from evaporating, so far mischief is done, or, as has been already said, 'plants are by no means gross feeders, and whatever devastation may be committed by the insect or fungus tribe to trees or plants, by far the greatest extent of injury, from what is placed to the account of canker, mildew, &c., if correctly investigated, would prove to originate in the unwholesome supply or the impurity of the food.' All benefit desirable from manure of any kind, proceeds from the carbonic gas, engendered by an union of other gases, &c., when submitted to the 'Alembic of Nature;' and in such process she is the best operator. The idea of improving nature is preposterous—I had almost said, blasphemous. Of those who advocate the practice of immediately turning in manure with the plough, to prevent evaporation, I would ask, have they the idea that it can be turned in by that implement so effectually as to prevent all possibility of evaporation? and if so, would not the effect be, if buried before fermentation had taken place, the destruction of the crop? according to the experiment made in the cherry orchard of Kent, where every tree died so soon as the roots had penetrated to the dung, that had been buried by trenching the land two feet deep, and by which all evaporation had been effectually prevented.

Carburetted Hydrogen and Nitrogen.