APPENDIX. 293 



Turnips are the crop usually taken after reclamation. 

 In addition to a fair dressing of farmyard dung, 12 

 cwt. of a mixture of crushed bones, superphosphate, and 

 guano was applied per statute acre. The average acre- 

 able yield of roots has been about 30 tons, but in the 

 present season it will not be more than 25 or 26 tons. 

 The high state of the fertility of the soil is attributable 

 to the manner in which the turnips are consumed by 

 sheep -folding. All the turnips are not left on the 

 ground ; of every ten drills, six are removed and four 

 allowed to remain alternately. The turnips are pulled, 

 cut into finger bits and supplied in troughs on the field, 

 the machine, troughs, and sheep, being transferred from 

 place to place, according as the ground is vacated. The 

 animals are likewise furnished with an abundance of 

 hay in racks, and a certain quantity of crushed cake and 

 corn. The land, as may be expected, yields a most 

 luxuriant crop of grain in the succeeding season ; and 

 is thus enriched for a number of years. 



Since the work of reclamation has been in great part 

 accomplished, it has become necessary to break up a 

 considerable amount of the worst grass-producing land 

 with lea oats annually. A fair return is realised 

 with an application of 1 cwt. nitrate of soda and 2 

 cwt. superphosphate per acre. This year the oats, both 

 of the tillage and lea, has been unusually productive ; 

 while 14 cwt. grain has been the average of former 

 years, the results of the cropping of 1879 have been 1 

 ton of grain and 2| tons of straw. 



The yield of hay this season has been also satisfactory 

 fully 2 tons per acre ; and, notwithstanding the 

 variable character of the weather, it has been well saved, 

 a good deal of energy having been brought to bear in 



