222 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



each district. These experiments have been carried out with 

 the utmost care by the gentlemen to whom they were entrusted, 

 but the extremely unfavourable character of the season caused 

 an unavoidable failure in some cases. Mr Bichardson, Drylaw- 

 hill, having sown his on a heavy soil, the result was such that 

 none of the bulbs exceeded a swan's egg in size, and he therefore 

 thought it unnecessary to weigh them. Mr Scott, Spylaw, states 

 that the field in which the experiments were made suffered so 

 much from finger-and-toe as to make the results entirely worth- 

 less. These are only instances of the failures which must always 

 take place in all field experiments, especially during a season so 

 unfavourable as that of 1867. 



I shall give the details of each series of experiments separately, 

 and append to them a short statement of the most important 

 conclusions to be drawn from them, which it is scarcely necessary 

 to say apply only to the present season. 



Experiments of the First Series. 

 Experiments made by Mr Samuel D. Shirriff, Salcoats, Br em. 



The field in which these experiments were made is a rather 

 stiff clay. The previous crop was oats after one year's pasture, 

 which was laid down with a wheat crop after potatoes. The land 

 was ploughed during winter, and steam-grubbed in spring. 

 Owing to wet weather during the end of May and two first 

 weeks of June, the land was not in condition for sowing turnips 

 till the 17th, when the experiments were successfully commenced. 

 The land worked very unkindly, having got two much wet, which 

 made it drill up very hard with what, in agricultural parlance, is 

 called too much heel on the top of the drill. The braird was 

 very distinct on 4th July, but during the early part of that 

 month the turnips made but little progress, and were not ready 

 for thinning till just at its close. During August, though the 

 weather was moist, the crop did not thrive, but appeared yellow 

 and sickly, the leaves creeping close to the ground and showing 

 no vigour. Mr Shirriff thinks this is due in part to the variety 

 of turnip, as swedes sown on the 18th June on drills parallel to 

 the experiments, grew luxuriantly and became a fair crop. The 

 turnips were singled by hand, so as to secure regularity of width 

 and the selection of the largest and strongest plants. During 

 October and November they did not thrive. The crop was 

 weighed on the 24th November. The results are contained in 

 Tables I. and II. 



Mr Shirriff is of opinion that the unfavourable character of the 

 season has had such an effect on these experiments that little 

 reliance can be placed on them ; and there can be no doubt that 



