EXPEPJMEXTAL STATIONS — REPORT FOR 1880. 375 



The field on which tlie experiment was made has two kinds 

 of subsoil, one-half of the field resting on clay and the other od 

 gravel, and the plots were so arranged that one-half of each plot 

 was on the one kind of land and the other on the other. 



Samples from each plot were sent to the laboratory for analysis, 

 thirty turnips from clay half and thirty from the gravel half, 

 and some of the results are contained in the preceding table. 



This table shows that the turnips grown on the clay subsoil 

 contained a greater proportion of dry matter and a less propor- 

 tion of ash than those grown over the gravel. As in the experi- 

 ments at the stations, the use of dissolved phosphates does not 

 seem to have made any difference in the proportion of water or 

 dry matter contained in the turnips. It will be noticed that the 

 turnips on the undissolved section contain a greater proportion 

 of ash than the others, and in this respect they differ from the 

 other experimental crops, where an increase in the percentage 

 of ash is constantly found to accompany the use of dissolved 

 manures. Supposing that the weight of crop had been uniform 

 over the whole of each plot, there would still have been a defi- 

 ciency of from 3 to 5 per cent, in the amount of dry matter in 

 that part of the plot resting on gravel. The results of these 

 experiments, so striking and so decisive, are not only interesting 

 in themselves, and of value as contributini? to the solution of the 

 general question regarding phosphatic manures, but they are of 

 immediate value as indicating clearly the kind of manures most 

 suitable for application to the turnip crop on that particular 

 soil. This is another proof of the great benefit which would 

 accrue to farmers if, without going out of their way, or without 

 interfering at all with their ordinary farming practice, they 

 would practically ask a few simple questions of their soils to 

 guide them in the choice of their manures. 



In another part of this volume are published the results of 

 experiments made by Mr Lawson, Sandy ford. They differ 

 almost entirely from those obtained at the Society's stations, 

 and show that tlie wants of the soils of Ancjus are not the same 

 as those in the Lothians or at Yester. The results of Mr 

 Lawson's experiment ought to convey a plain, unmistakable 

 lesson to all the farmers in the district, and they will be wise 

 if they learn it, and still more so if they imitate it, so as to 

 prove for themselves the accuracy of the conclusions arrived at. 



There is one great fact brought out by the various experi- 

 ments that are now being carried on in Scotland, and that is, 

 that different soils want different inannres, and tliat in the matter 

 of manuring it is useless, or worse than useless, to legislate for 

 all Scotland from the results obtained in any one part of it. If 

 our Scottish farmers, and specially our Scottish landowners, were 

 true to their own best interests, there would not be a county in 



