top-dressing.
TOP dressings are used with advantage for grain, grass, flax, &c. They should not be too freely given to winter grain in autumn lest they unseasonably produce a luxuriant growth at a time when it exposes the tender, plants to be the more injured by frost. It should be done early in the spring when the land is sufficiently dry to bear the treading of horses, without poaching; and after the manure has been applied it is generally well to harrow and roll it. Soot, ashes and other light manures are thus made use of.
Mr. Deane makes the following remarks on this subject If the application of top dressings to mowing ground were generally practised in this country, and yearly repeated as it ought to be instead of the general, or rather universal neglect of it, it would put a new face upon things. A vast plenty of hay, double crops, two cuttings in a year, and much increase of wealth to farmers in general would soon be the happy consequences.
Sir John Sinclair recommends top-dressing the growing crop, when it is suspected that the land is not rich enough to bring a full crop to perfection, and says "this should be done early in the spring, when the land is sufficiently dry to bear the treading of a horse without poaching; and after the manure has been applied, the land should generally be harrowed or rolled. Soot ashes and other light manures, are thus most advantageously made use of.
