Management of Br eedwg Cattle. 153 



scribed the diet, the treatment, and conditions which I conceive 

 best calculated to ensure regular fecundity and successful ges- 

 tation. In my own case, and with my own herd, it will be seen 

 that they have been peculiarly so. What I have observed and 

 heard of other herds, where a different system has been pursued, 

 has only confirmed me in my view as to the correctness of my 

 own. At the same time there are undoubtedly peculiar seasons, 

 during which the course of nature as regards the produce of 

 animals is unaccountably exceptional, and we talk familiarly, and 

 not unreasonably, of a " bad lambing season," and a " bad calving 

 season," as we should of a wet or a dry season. In some seasons 

 there is a most unaccountable predominance in the number of 

 one sex over the other. The observant author of the ' Journal of 

 a Naturalist ' notes this, and says " The most remarkable instance 

 that I remember was in 1825. How far it extended I do not 

 know, but for many miles round us we had in that year scarcely any 

 female calves born." Circumstances like this must be decidedly 

 adverse to fecundity, and yet it is not possible to prevent them. 

 I can but therefore allude to this and analogous cases as remark- 

 able facts of interest and importance to breeders of cattle, but 

 not, so far as my judgment goes, to be prevented or provided 

 against by any means which I have not detailed. 

 Siddington House, Cirencester, 



VII. — Experiments iipon Sivedes, loith Memarks on the Manures 

 employed. By Augustus Voelcker. 



In 1855 I published in this Journal some experiments upon 

 Swedish turnips, grown on a calcareous soil with guano, super- 

 phosphate, bone-dust, night-soil manure, dissolved coprolites, nut- 

 refuse-cake, and several other fertilizers. The object 1 had then 

 in view was to ascertain practically the comparative economic 

 merits of some artificial manures, which at that time were much 

 recommended as turnip manures. The result of these trials proved 

 that whilst one of the fertilizers, namely, the British economical 

 manure, which I regret to say is still sold in many parts of Eng- 

 land, turned out to be a complete failure, and others produced no 

 remunerative crops, superphosphate of lime greatly excelled all 

 other manures employed in the experiments, not even Peruvian 

 guano excepted. The superphosphate used in these experiments 

 was made on our farm by dissolving bone-dust in one-third of oil 

 of vitriol, and consequently contained a considerable quantity of 

 animal nitrogenized matter, which, on decomposition, readily 

 yielded ammonia. On land yielding, when unmanured, 5 tons 

 4 cwt. of roots, topped and tailed, 2/.-worth of home-made super- 



