42 ON THE ADVANTAGE OF PLOUGHIN& IN MANURE 



and spring of 1877. The first part on wliich the manure was so 

 long exposed raised 6 tons 19 cwts. and 1 quarter per imperial 

 acre ; while the otlier part, which was plouglied in immediately 

 after spreading, only realised 6 tons 14 cwts. per imperial acre, 

 being 5 cwts. 1 quarter in favour of the part with the manure 

 long exposed. The potatoes were sold at different times and at 

 various prices, ranging in general from 20s. to 24s. per boll ; only 

 4 tons being sold, on the 9th October 1876, as low as 15s. per 

 boll, or £3, 15s. per ton. There were no more disposed of until 

 the 8th January 1877, when some were sold at 20s. per boll, or 

 £5 per ton, and so on till 16th April at various prices, averaging 

 on the whole 21s. 9d. per boll, or £5, 8s. 9d. per ton. It will 

 therefore be seen from the foregoing that the price per acre, 

 derived from the part with the manure so long exposed, was £37, 

 17s. 2d.; while the other was only £36, 8s. 7^d., being £1, 8s. 6-|d. 

 in favour of the former. 



The wheat for the next season was sown on the third and 

 fourth weeks of November 1877. It all sprang up pretty regu- 

 larly ; there was no marked difference during the spring and early 

 summer, nor up till it came into ear, when the part with the 

 manure long exposed got a little longer in the straw and larger 

 in the head, and showed itself then quite distinctly ; but as that 

 year's wheat was very indifferent in our district, both in quantity 

 and quality, they both yielded very unsatisfactorily. The part 

 with the exposed manure yielded 3 quarters 4 stones and 7 lbs. 

 per imperial acre, and weighed 18 stones per boll, while the other 

 realised as near as possible 3 quarters per imperial acre ; the 

 whole was mixed together and sold as one sample in Edinburgh 

 market, on the 14th August 1878, at 42s. per quarter. This will 

 again show that the price per acre derived from the part with 

 the manure so long exposed was £6, lis. 3d., and the other £6, 

 6s., being still 5s. 3d. in favour of the former. 



The tvirnips this year were sown on the 15th, 16th, and 17th 

 of May ; they all came away very well, and were singled from 

 the 20th to the 26th of June. The part where the manure was 

 ploughed in immediately after spreading kept rather ahead of 

 the exposed part till about the middle of September, when the 

 former rather stopped growing, and the latter got up to them. 

 There is now little or no difference on the whole field, and as I 

 intend eating them on the ground with sheep, there will be no 

 comparison made neither by weight nor price. 



Besides realising higher prices for the parts where the manure 

 is allowed to lie spread, it economises labour ; and potatoes are 

 invariably found to be better quality manured in this way than 

 spring manuring in the drill, which is a point of very great 

 importance to a farmer. It is also well known to every one who 

 has paid attention to the cultivation of land, that the parts which 



