110 REPORT ON COMPARATIVE PRODUCTIVENESS OF TURNIPS. 



only the duty of pruning from time to time. Hedgerow trees 

 ought to have more care bestowed upon them than is generally 

 given. Trees standing singly are much more exposed to the 

 high winds and storm than when growing together in an ordi- 

 nary plantation, and our care should be to supply them with all 

 the power of resistance possible. This can be done to a great 

 degree by judicious pruning, which leaves the least extent of 

 surface to be acted upon by the force of the blast, a/nd at the 

 same time gives the tree the power of expending what of its 

 natural energy it can bestow in strengthening its roots. First, 

 then, never allow straggling branches to remain ; and, secondly, 

 never cut these clean off, but shorten them so as to give a proper 

 balancing power to the tree. Allow the top free scope, but 

 shorten all the other branches when and where necessary. If 

 these simple directions are attended to, the result will be a fine, 

 stubby, firm-knit tree, possessing the power of resisting almost 

 any storm. Clean off the lower branches from time to time until 

 you clear the top of the hedge, and ultimately have a clean trim 

 of 10 or even 12 feet in height, — at all events, considerably 

 above the height of the hedge, giving a free circulation of air to 

 pass under the trees. 



In conclusion, I am aware that nothing positively new has 

 been advanced in the above statements, but my aim has been to 

 present practical views in as plain a form as possible. The sub- 

 ject is a most important one, and if the observations now made 

 may be the means of directing and securing more attention to it 

 than has hitherto been given, so that such decorative planting 

 may become more general, and the means for carrying it on 

 effectively come to be better understood, I shall not have given 

 these hints entirely in vain. 



REPORT ON THE COMPARATIVE PRODUCTIVENESS OF 



TURNIPS. 



By Hart Shaw, Bogfern, Tarland. 



[Premium — The Gold Medal.'] 



In conducting agricultural experiments many obstacles often 

 occur ; but in the following trial the writer had the good fortune 

 to meet with no difficulties. The field upon which the experi- 

 ment was made is about 16 imperial acres in extent, of a southern 

 exposure, 28 miles inland, and about 680 or 700 feet above 

 the sea. The farm or field is on the six-course shift, three years 

 pastured in grass ; 1865, in oats after grass ; in 1866, turnips. 

 The field was furrow-drained in 1852, according to the govern- 

 ment system ; — drains 4 feet deep, 27 feet apart, filled with broken 

 stones. The soil of the field is of light loam, darkish in colour, 



