EXPERIMENTS OX THE CULTURE OF TUIiXIPS. 240 



in appearance towards maturity. The Sandy ford stations were 

 the only ones which suffered from any unusual occurrence in the 

 weather. A very severe hailstorm passed over the district 

 shortly after the turnips were thinned, and literally stripped the 

 leaves of their foliage, and knocked the plants very much about ; 

 but as all the plots at these two stations got the same treatment, 

 it could not be said that it interfered in the slightest degree with 

 the comparative value of the plots, although I have not the 

 least doubt but that it kept the turnips a fortnight back, and to 

 some extent diminished the ultimate yield. All the other stations, 

 escaped this storm. 



The unhealthiness I complained of last year in the dissolved 

 manure plots was visible only at Craichie on the superphosphate 

 plot. That plot im]n'oved a little after the beginning of August, 

 but was never satisfactory in appearance. 



I examined very particularly the appearance of all the stations 

 during the first week of August. At that time the Migvie station 

 showed the best appearance of a crop, the Craichie and Sandy- 

 ford being in appearance about equal. The xVuchindorie station, 

 owing to the late sowing, was at this time a little way behind ; 

 but during the two or three weeks which had elapsed since the 

 turnips had been thinned, the progress the plants had made was 

 almost marvellous, and showed that Mr Soutar's confidence in 

 his light sharp soil was not misplaced, or his late sowing ill 

 judged, the turnips at this time looking full of growth and 

 vigour. 



Speaking in a comparative way, on tlie 1st August the 

 stations all seemed to speak with one voice, the Migvie and 

 Craichie stations particularly being an exact counterpart the 

 one of the other, the difference between the appearance of the 

 plots being quite visible, the plot without manure being at the 

 bottom, and tlie others rising in succession like the steps of a 

 stair in the order of I. II. and III. plots successively. No ditler- 

 ence was visible between tlie soluble and insoluble sections at 

 this stage. 



I am sorry to say tliat shortly after this, or about the middle 

 of August, " finger and toe" smote the turnips, not only on the 

 station at Over-Migvie, but over all tlie lii'ld in which it was 

 situated, and in the course of a week or two the turnips at this 

 station were so much diseased, that they were quite unsuitable 

 for comparison so far as weighing wns concerned. It is inter- 

 esting to note, however, that every plot was seized with the 

 disease alike, as also the general crop outside the plots, which 

 was lieavily njanured with farmyanl manure and a heavy 

 dressing of mixed artificial manures; thu.s })roving con- 

 clusively, that none of the manures u.^^ed are a preventive 



