THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



309 



England for tlie use of the Britisli agriculturists of 

 the 19th century? 



To make use of a Yankee expression, I believe in 

 chemistry, and it its |)o\ver to guide us in the choice 

 of manures. But I have still stonger faith in ex- 

 periments, although these are not always safe 

 guides. There are so many circumstances to be 

 taken into consideration — the character of the soil, 

 climate, period of sowing, the season, &c., &c., 

 that implicit confidence cannot be placed in any 

 one e:cperiment ; but if year after year we make 

 trials of manures on different kinds of soils, and 

 carefully ascertain the results, we shall be able to 

 arrive at general conclusions on which we may de- 

 pend as safely as any chemical theory, however 

 beautiful. 



Farm-yard manure, guano, ground bones, charcoal 

 manure, and dissolved bones, are the manures I have 

 made the experiments with, the results of which I 

 now beg to lay before you. In the season of 1856 

 I tried six different lots of three drills each. The 

 First was manured with 5 cwt. Peruvian guano per 



Imperial acre, and yielded — 21 tons 1 cwt. 

 Second, with 5 cwt. dissolved bones — 17 tons 



1 cwt. 

 Third, with 5 cwt. charcoal manure — 12 tons 



9 cwt. 

 Fourth, with 2i cwt. each guano and dissolved 



bones — 18 tons 15 cwt. 

 Fifth, with 2| cwt. each guano and charcoal 



manure — 21 tons 1 cwt. 

 Sixth, with 1^ cwt. each guano, charcoal, and 



dissolved bones — 20 tons 2 qrs. 



I ought to explain that the turnips were not 

 sown till the 19th of June, quite too late to sow 

 green top yellow, especially in such a season as 

 1856, and hence the crop was a very small one. I 

 also weighed the same lengths of 3 drills of the 

 same variety of turnips sown on the 24th of May, 

 and manured with about 30 tons of farmyard dung, 

 ploughed in December, and Ih cwt. each dissolved 

 bones and guano, applied in the drills, which 

 yielded 27 tons per imperial acre. 



This season I had a trial of seven xlifferent lots, 

 manured as follows : — 

 First, manured with 6 cwts. of Peruvian guano, 



weighing 26 tons 19 cwts. 

 Second, manured with 6 cwts. Patagonian guano, 



cost about 10s. — 26 tons 13 cwts. 

 Third, manured with 9 cwts. dissolved bones — 



22 tons IS cwts. 

 Fourth, manured with 6 cwts. do. from the same 



manufacturer, but much drier — 25 tons 11 cwts. 

 Fifth, manured with 6 cwts. dissolved bones, from 



another manufacturer— 22 tons 19 cwts. 

 Sixth, manured with 10 cwts. do. — 22 tons 10 



cwts. 

 Seventh, manured with 3 cwts. Peruvian guano 



and 3 cwts. charcoal manure — 25 tons 18 



cwts. 



These weights are all per imperial acre. I may 

 state that Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cunningham were 

 kind enough to assist me in measuring the land 

 and weighing the turnip. 



I tried another lot, manured with about 30 tons 

 farmyard dung and 1 cwt. each guano, cliarcoal 

 manure, and dissolved bones, which yielded 33 



tons. The turnij)s in this last were Swedish 

 variety : the others were all green top yellow. 



1 have been in the habit of making a few ex- 

 periments with different kinds of manures every 

 year. Up till last season I always found dissolved 

 bones to yield as large a crop, or nearly so, weight 

 for weight, as guano, and certainly the largest crop 

 for the money value of the manure, while its effects 

 on the land were more lasting. Whether the defi- 

 ciency the last two years arose from the wetness of 

 the season or the quality of the manure, I know 

 not. I dissolved the bones myself previously, but 

 I had them from a highly respectable party, and do 

 not believe they were in any way adulterated. I 

 was in the habit of using bone meal, or the rid- 

 dlings from the bones, to assist in drying them 

 The addition of a portion of dry bone may perhaps 

 account for the different result. Dissolved bones, 

 I have observed, ^ive a great stimulus to the young 

 turnip plant, and by sending it rapidly on, it is 

 sooner beyond the reach of that horrid enemy of 

 the turnip plant— the fly. In this respect it excels 

 all other manures except guano. You will observe 

 one remarkable result in the lot with 10 cwt. of 

 dissolved bones; the yield is no greater than with 

 6 cwt. This would not have surprised me had 

 guano been the manure, but with bones it is to me 

 altogether inexplicable. In making a calculation 

 of the cost of various manures used in these experi- 

 ments, Patagonian produced the largest weight of 

 turnips for the money cost, but inferior guanos are 

 not to be depended on, with this exception. Half 

 charcoal and half guano produce the next greatest 

 weight of turnips for the mone}', reckoning the 

 charcoal manure at 5s. 3d. per cwt. and the guano 

 at 14s. Dissolved bones are the next cheapest. 



Perhaps it may be expected I should say some- 

 thing of the manures best adapted for potatoes. I 

 am not a large potato grower, seldom having more 

 than eight or ten acres, and therefore leave that 

 subject to another. I may state that I this year 

 used 1 cwt. each of charcoal, guano, and dissolved 

 bones, with farmyard dung ploughed in in autumn. 

 A small portion of the field had 3 cwt. of guano, 

 without charcoal or bones, and I could observe no 

 difference in the produce. One word as to the 

 Edinburgh Police Manure. I have found it suit 

 well on stiff soil, but on lighter land I would de- 

 cidedly prefer the one-half quantity of farmyard 

 dung. I know this does not correspond with the 

 experience of some of the most intelligent farmers 

 of the district, who compare it with other manure 

 in the proportion of three or two. One serious 

 drawback to it is, you have even on this calcula- 

 tion three tons to load, cart, and spread, for two of 

 the other, and it will take nearly double the time 

 to fill and spread it. If liquid manure could be 

 applied to turnips, I believe it would surpass every 

 other manure for that crop. Some time ago, m 

 transplanting some Swedes, I took urine from the 

 tanks, and applied it after the turnip was trans- 

 jdanted, and its effects were very powerful. 



The Chairman expressed thegreatsatisfaction he 

 had had in listening to the very able and sugges- 

 tive paper of Mr. Rowat. It had brought out 

 prominently a most important point, which was 

 well worthy of our best consideration, viz., t/ie most 



