Agricultural Experiments in the Field. 523 



purchased a ton of the dearer, and applied it in various ways. No 

 time was to be lost if potash was to be applied this season. If 

 it were applied late in the year, it " backened " the plant ; and 

 whatever its intrinsic virtues might be, if applied late, or in the dry 

 season, it diminished instead of increasing the produce. 



Earl Cathcart desired a word or two with regard to the application 

 of potash to dyspeptic land that he himself had experimented upon. 

 There was no part of the Society's Journal that he read with greater 

 pleasure than that which contained the contributions of Professor 

 Voelcker; and the result of reading one of those papers last year 

 was that he ordered a quantity of potash from Glasgow. He had 

 forgotten what price he paid for it ; but it was necessary to bear 

 in mind that, comi^ared with salt, potash was a very expensive thing. 

 When he was going to apply the potash to the land, his bailiff seemed 

 to have entertained the idea that it was to be applied to the land 

 as you apply it to the human subject — to correct the soui*ness of 

 the land ; and he rather expected that there would be a sort of 

 " fizzing," like seidlitz powders, going on ! But the object was 

 to try an experiment, and he applied a reasonable quantity. The 

 laud was not measured, and he could not say that the efiect on grass 

 laud was at all satisfactory — indeed, he could not see that there 

 was much difference. He also put down wood-ashes, which were 

 analogous to potash ; and wherever that was done, the effect produced 

 was very marked. Potash, then, being an expensive article, if salt 

 would produce anything like an equal effect, it was certainly preferable 

 on commercial grounds. But by far the most marked result was the 

 effect of marl upon marl. That was going back to the system which 

 existed in this country prior to the Roman period ; for when the 

 Romans came here, they foimd a number of marl pits, from which the 

 ancient Britons were in the habit of obtaining marl for the culture 

 of the land. The effect of marl upon marl was very marked ; and he 

 should like to know whether that was owing to the silica, to the lime 

 in "the marl, or to what other cause. He should further wish to 

 be informed what made so material a difference between potash and 

 wood-ashes. For between the two there was imdoubtedly a most 

 material difference ; and if he could procure a large quantity of 

 wood-ashes at a reasonable price, he should consider it the most 

 valuable manure he could have. 



Then there were also bones — about the most advantageous artificial 

 manure they could use upon marl. They were debarred from the use 

 of them during the present year, on account of the dread of extending 

 the cattle plague, and they knew that the benefit remained, for the 

 land, when once it had been thoroughly boned with a large quantity, 

 never went back. It was an interesting fact, however, that they 

 were not indebted to science in any way whatever for the appli- 

 cation of bones in the first instance, but to fox-hounds. It hap- 

 pened in Yorkshire that the grass outside a kennel was observed 

 to grow most luxui'iantly on the sj^ot where the bones of the flesh on 

 which the hounds were fed, were thi-own. These bones being gathered 

 up, broken in pieces by hammers, and scattered over grass-land, were 



