THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



"6. That superphosphate of Urae, instead of 

 hastening, rather retarded the germination of turnip- 

 seed. 



" 7. That superphosphate made from bones, and 

 containing ammonia, is more liable to injure the 

 seed than superphosphate made from bone-ash or 

 mineral phosphates. Thus only GO plants came up 

 in No. 9, in which bone superphosphate was used, 

 and 80 plants in No. 10, in which experiment the 

 same quantity of bone-ash superphosphate was em- 

 ployed. 



" It follows from these experiments — 



" 1st. That it is advisable to mix artificial manures, 

 such as guano and superphosphate, with as large 

 a quantity of ashes as is practicable, if the manure 

 is sown dry, and to mix the artificial manure with 

 much water if the liquid-manure drill is used. 



" 2ndly. That superphosphate of lime, especially 

 when made from bones, does not hasten the ger- 

 mination of turnip-seed, but rather the contrary. 



•'I would observe, however, that when fairly up, 

 the plants manured with superphosphate grew 

 much more vigorously than the others, and soon 

 were twice as big as the rest. Although super- 

 phosphate does not promote a more rapid germi- 

 nation of the seed, it is yet extremely useful in 

 favouring a vigorous growth of the plant, thereby 

 bringing the crop out of reach of the turnip fly." 



These experiments certainly deserve to be ex- 

 tended (and other chemical substances have to be 

 tried). It is no reason against success that we do 

 not exactly comprehend the nature of the asserted : 

 beneficial action of diluted sulphuric acid on seeds. 

 This kind of ignorance naturally precedes almost 

 all discoveries in agriculture. The use of lime 



and chalk as manures, for instance, would have 

 been postponed to a very recent period, had the 

 Roman and early British farmers waited for a 

 scientific explanation of their action. When sul- 

 phuric, muriatic, and nitric acids, mixed with char- 

 coal, were first experimentally apphed by Arthur 

 Young to barleyin 1782 (" Annals of Agriculture," 

 vol. i. p. 151, vol. iii. pp. 120 121), he had no 

 knowledge of the action of the acids on the phos- 

 phate of lime of the charcoal — a result afterwards 

 so well explained by Liebig. And when the great 

 German philosopher did, sixty years after Young's 

 trials were made, exj)lain the result of the mixture, 

 cautious old gentlemen shook their heads ; and one 

 of these gravely expressed his horror, in a note to 

 one of our leading agricultural papers, at " the 

 monstrous proposition" of applying sulphuric 

 acid to the soil ! Twenty years have not yet elapsed 

 since this energetic tirade against the use of 

 mineral acids on agriculture, and now more than 

 half of the sulphuric acid of commerce finds its 

 way into the farmer's service. We must, then, 

 continue to experimentalize even in doubtful fields 

 of research. Arthur Y'oung used thus to carry on 

 his inquiries. He always seemed actuated by the 

 spirit of his contemporary, the celebrated Priestley, 

 whom Davy thus so feelingly and instructively de- 

 scribed in the introduction to his " Chemistry " — 

 " He exposed all the substances he could procure 

 to chemical agencies, and brought forward his re- 

 sults as they occurred, without attempting logical 

 method or scientific arrangement. He possessed 

 in the highest degree ingenuousness and the love 

 of truth. No person ever discovered so many new 

 and curious substances." 



NOTES UPON SHEEP-FEEDING. 



BY CHARLES W. HAMILTON. 



There must always be a great difference of opinion as 

 to the decision of judges at our cattle shows, and I 

 should be the last to bring forward a mere opinion on 

 the subject ; but I think that the discussion of one case 

 upon which I have taken pains to obtain accurate in- 

 formation may be of some assistance in future to the 

 Royal Dublin Society in classifying, and their judges in 

 deciding prizes. 



In the schedule advertised for the 25th November, 

 class 2G was for a pen of long-woolled wethers, not ex- 

 ceeding twenty-two months old ; class 30, a pen of 

 short-wooUed wethers, not exceeding thirty-four months 

 old. 



Now, if this means anything, it means that a short- 

 wooUed sheep takes a year longer than a long-woolled 

 sheep to fatten. As a short-woolled sheep-breeder, I 



must protest against this inference, and express my be- 

 lief (in support of which T am in a position to produce 

 facts) that the distinction is founded merely in ignorance 

 on the part of the Committee of Agriculture. 



The only entries in class 30 were : Three Southdown 



wethers, born in 185G, and bred by Hugh M. Tuitc, 



Esq., of Sanna ; three Shropshire-down wethers, born 



in 1857, and bred by me. Mine were, therefore, a year 



: younger; and as the instructions to the judges were to 



i base their decisions on *' the amount and quality of 



1 flesh, lightness of offal, and early maturity," I thought 



' it desirable to compare the lots more fully than the 



judges who awarded the first prize to Mr. Tuite's 



wethers had the opportunity of doing, and so test their 



judgment. The lots were each weighed in the show- 



i yard, and were exactly equal, viz., 4i cwt., or averaging 



