366 EXPEELMEXTAL STATIOXS — TURXIP CROP 1SS2. 



blood once begins to decompose the process goes on rapidly, 

 and it is probable that the products of its decomposition may- 

 have been washed away to some extent during the winter. 



The potash plots confirm their former indications. The 

 sulphate always a little better at Pumpherston, while at Hare- 

 law the difference is slightly the other way. There is not 

 seen here the advantage in the early manured parts so dis- 

 tinctly as might be expected, but it must be remembered that 

 a turnip crop is not a good one for testing the best time to 

 apply potash, as the want of the turnip for potash seems easily 

 supplied. 



The guano plots maintain their former relative positions, and 

 if the crop is a poor one it must be remembered that a com- 

 paratively small amount of the manure is employed. Owing 

 to their richness in nitrogen, the limit of 40 lbs. per acre 

 applied to that constituent prevented their receiving quite their 

 due proportion of phosphates. They were not made up to 

 strength in any way, but the total application was regulated by 

 the nitrogen. The fish guano is the only one which has not 

 profited by the early manuring, and yet it is the one from which 

 most advantage was expected. 



The plots 28, 29, and 30, manured with superphosphate of 

 various degrees of solubility, again show the advantage to lie 

 with the medium superphosphate, and this is especially notice- 

 able in the winter-manured half of Pumpherston. The highest 

 class superphosphate has produced the poorest crop at both 

 stations. 



The unmanured plots (26 and 27) have produced about half a 

 crop at Pumpherston, and somewhat more than three-quarters of 

 a crop at Harelaw. They are not the lowest on the station at 

 Pumpherston, for there are worse things that may happen to a 

 crop than the withholding of all manure. A manure may be 

 applied which does more harm, than good, and it would seem 

 that potash is such a manure on this soil. Potash is not 

 unfrequently found to injure the turnip crop, and at Pumpher- 

 ston the sole application of potash to the turnip crop has all 

 along had a very injurious effect. It does not seem that the 

 early application of this manure has done anything to lessen 

 the mischief on plot 22 ; and the generally accepted opinion that 

 the early application of potash manures diminishes their chance 

 of doing injury receives no support from the experiments this 

 year at either station. 



So much for the gross weight of the crop as carried from the 

 field, but this gives us very little idea of the actual amount of 

 food produced upon each plot. 



We must now examine the produce according to the amounts 

 of its various constituents. In the first place, most abundant 



