304 Manurial Propei-ties of Clay from Gas- Wort. s. 



by theory in this case been pertinaciously adhered to against 

 what, by a misnomer, some would call experience, British 

 agriculture might have been deprived of a boon, which it is dif- 

 ficult at present to estimate. 



It would be tedious and useless to chronicle all the failures, 

 and half- failures, and successes which attended the early use of 

 what I desire to place before the Society, and I will therefore 

 confine myself to such cases as are either remarkable or charac- 

 teristic. The first notable use in 1854, was by the gardener of the 

 Wakefield Union Workhouse. He had served his time at the 

 Earl of Mexborough's, had been upwards of twenty years head- 

 gardener at the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, and was very 

 fond, as the local phrase goes, "of trying experience." He 

 obtained gratuitously (as did any one who wished) a supply of 

 the new compound from the gas-works, and applied it to some 

 early turnips which he happened to be sowing. Tliis was the 

 very application which theory would indicate. Here was the 

 most sulphurized of all manures being applied to the mostliighly 

 sulphurized of our field crops, and though this was done on a 

 piece of poor soil in a garden and on a variety of turnip not 

 generally raised for farm purposes, still the experiment was quite 

 as satisfactory as it would have been on the half acre of swedes 

 of the wilful gentleman before-mentioned. The question put 

 was, " Will excess of sulphur in manure promote excess of growth 

 in turnips ? " and the answer could be given as distinctly by a 

 few rods in a garden as by the largest field in a farm. The crop 

 was inspected by many, who all agreed that they had never seen 

 it surpassed. The leaves were half as broad again as a man's 

 hand, and the bulbs corresponded with the luxuriance of the tops. 

 Parallel to this may be mentioned an experiment made in 1856, 

 which I heard of by accident, and which was made, it is said, 

 for the purpose of showing the worthlessness of the new manure. 

 A'person (whose name I have not obtained permission to mention) 

 obtained a supply and took it to the farm of a relation on the 

 estate of the Duke of Leeds in Nottinghamshire. It was employed 

 for both swedes and white turnips, four rows of which were sown 

 alternately in the same field, against the bare soil, farmyard 

 dung, and what is called " management." I suppose this signifies 

 hand-tillages, but am unable to say with certainty. Tlie ex- 

 perimenter visited the farm in October, and was amazed to find 

 the turnips, which were manured with the saturated clay, the 

 best on the farm. This result was of course not mentioned, but 

 at length it slipped out in the ardour of conversation with three 

 other persons, and has since, I am told, been mentioned to 

 several others. 



1 am not unaware that man}', perhaps most farmers, will urge 



