. Soil physics and management. even the shed (Fig. 8*^). Some farmers prefer wellrotted manure, but there is too much loss in the process of decay toallow this to go on in any other place than in the soil. Weight for MAINTAINING THE ORGANIC MATTER OF SOILS 169 # wciglil, well rotted manure may be Jiioie valuable than fresh manure, but tbe loss ot fertility and organic matter involved iji theprocess more than overbalances the benelits. The character of therolled manure will depend upon the conditions under which thedecay took place. ^^Iliere is no question l)ut that twenty tons offresh manure a
. Soil physics and management. even the shed (Fig. 8*^). Some farmers prefer wellrotted manure, but there is too much loss in the process of decay toallow this to go on in any other place than in the soil. Weight for MAINTAINING THE ORGANIC MATTER OF SOILS 169 # wciglil, well rotted manure may be Jiioie valuable than fresh manure, but tbe loss ot fertility and organic matter involved iji theprocess more than overbalances the benelits. The character of therolled manure will depend upon the conditions under which thedecay took place. ^^Iliere is no question l)ut that twenty tons offresh manure applied to soil will produce fi^rcater increase thanthe same weight of manure would after it is well rotted. In manycases it is not practical to apply manure as rapidly as of the corn belt haul out the manure in summer andearly spring. That taken out in summer is usually placed on landto bo fall plowed. This is without (lon1)t a good practice. Themanure becomes decayed sulhciently by spring so that it will not. Fig. 84.—An uud way of handling manure on the in piles. (Deere & Co.) Do not put interfere with moisture movement. The fall and winter loss isavoided. Coarse manure is best applied in the fall, but if the apj)lica-tion is made in spring it should be very light. Heavy spring appli-cations may ruin the crop, especially corn. In the dry summer of1914 corn on some fields that had received heavy applications ofmanure before being ])lowed in the spring produced no grainwhatever. Manure is sometimes piled in the field in small heaps and laterscattered with the fork. This is not only an expensive but awasteful process. Much of the fertility is leached into the soilbeneath the heaps and a large amount of manure is left at thesespots in spreading (Fig. 84). The result is a great many veryrich spots upon which small grain lodges badly and is frequently 170 SOIL PHYSICS AND MANAGEMENT lost. Those spots aiv still visible h\ oats after .5 years on a
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