366 



EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS — REPORT FOR 1880. 



greatly increased accommodation and large apparatus provided 

 by the Society it was possible to carry on the analysis on a large 

 scale. Thirty bulbs (or about a fourth of the Avhole crop) were 

 taken from each plot and sent to the laboratory. These were 

 thoroughly cleaned from all adhering substances, and a section 

 of about one-tenth of each bulb was taken and transferred in 

 batches of ten to a large drying chamber heated by water under 

 great pressure, and capable of maintaining a heat in the cham- 

 ber above the boiling point of water. The difference of the 

 weight of the turnip sections before and after drying gave the 

 moisture only approximately, for even when the turnip sections 

 had ceased losing appreciably in weight, there still remained a 

 varying amount of moisture, which was determined when the 

 samples were ground, and this added to the former amount gave 

 the entire moisture in the bulbs. The amounts so obtained 

 were checked and confirmed in various ways, so that the results 

 might be perfectly reliable. After drying, the pieces of turnip 

 were ground in a mill, the additional moisture was determined, 

 and samples of the dry turnip matter thus obtained were kept 

 for making all further analysis. Upwards of 3000 turnips have 

 been sampled in this manner during the past season. 



In the above table it will be noticed that plot 1 at Harelaw 

 and plot 9 at Pumpherston have yielded very small crops. 

 The deficiency in the former case was due to accidental causes ; 

 and in the latter to a blight which occurred early in the season, 

 and from which the plants never recovered. 



Arranging the first twelve plots so as to make a comparison 

 between dissolved and undissolved phosphates, we have the 



f olio win gj results 



Undissolved Phosphates. 



