Field Experiments on Root-Crops. 



505 



be so poor in elements of fertility other than potash, that the 

 latter, for this very reason, has not a fair chance to exercise 

 a beneficial influence. 



These remarks will suffice to show how many obstacles have 

 to be overcome in attempts to solve experimentally an apparently 

 simple problem, and afford an insight into the reason which 

 induced me to try the German salts side by side with common 

 salt, superphosphate, farmyard-manure, and mixtures of super- 

 phosphate with salt and potash. 



My friend, IVIr. Jacob Wilson, of Woodhorn Manor, Morpeth, 

 kindly undertook to carry out the experiments, as stated above, 

 on light but good sandy loam. 



The results he obtained are calculated in the following table 

 to the acre : — 



Amount of Swedes, IiOOts, and Tops per Acre, grown at Woodhorn Manor, 



Morpeth, 1864. 



No. 



Per Acre. 



Tops. 



Farmyard-manure 20 tons 

 Farmyard-manure 10 tons, and dis-j 



solved bone-ash 4 cwts / 



Dissolved bone-ash 4 cwts. 



No manure 



Crude German potash-salts 4 cwts. .. 



Common salt 4 cwts 



Dissolved bone-ash 4 cwts., and crude I 



potash-salts 4 cwts / 



Dissolved bone-ash 4 cwts., and com-\ 



mon salt 4 cwts j 



tons. cwts. stones, lbs. 

 22 3 6 5 



tons. cwts. stones, lbs. 



19 



23 

 17 

 22 

 15 



20 



15 



1 

 18 



3 

 14 



16 



1 

 1 

 6 

 3 



11 



The preceding tabulated results exhibit some points of interest 

 and a few curious anomalies. 



1. In the first place, it will be seen that the unmanured 

 portion of the experimental field produced a very fair crop of 

 swedes. We may therefore infer that the land was in a good 

 agricultural condition. 



2. Notwithstanding its good condition, 4 cwts. of a purely 

 mineral superphosphate gave an increase of rather more than 

 5 tons of roots per acre. This is the largest increase which was 

 obtained from any of the plots, not excepting the one manured 

 with 20 tons of dung per acre. Having found repeatedly in 

 other experiments that on land in a high state of cultivation 

 mineral superphosphate, rich in soluble phosphate of lime, pro- 

 duced a better root-crop than a heavy dressing of dung, this 

 result did not surprise me. 



