298 On burning Clay for Manure. 



the weight per acre amounts to 52 tons. 1 cwt. and 48 

 pounds. Six turnips weighed eighty-one pounds ; and 

 a single turnip weighed fifteen pounds, three ounces. I 

 suppose the produce is superior to any thing ever known 

 in this country, on the best soils ; and when the quality 

 of the ground on which these turnips grew, (a thin, light 

 soil, on a rocky bottom,) is taken into consideration, the 

 produce is almost incredible. My Swedish turnips, from 

 clay ashes, the year before, were fully better than the 

 above crop, owing to the seed having been remarkably 

 good. The above weight includes the tops and tails of 

 the turnips ; but as they grew in the centre of Mr. Mur- 

 ray's preserve of game, very little of the tops remained, 

 the whole having been stripped off by the pheasants, and 

 a part of the turnip also having been eaten by hares." 



In the number of the foregoing work for November, 

 1810, Major-general Sir H. M. Vavasour, of Milbourn 

 Hall, Yorkshire, gives his testimony in favour of the uti- 

 lity of clay ashes as manure for wheat. He says, " I last 

 year manured forty acres for wheat, at the rate of twenty- 

 cubical yards per acre : the effect was equal to my hopes : 

 half of the field was manured with dung, about fifteen 

 tons per acre ; the other half with clay ashes, twenty solid 

 yards, about twenty-five tons. Several farmers, who 

 viewed the crop, thought the part covered with ashes the 

 best. After being cut, that part appeared decidedly the 

 best crop. Two lands in a field were manured with a 

 double portion of ashes, and there the corn was laid : a 

 strong proof of their effect." 



From the foregoing testimony in favour of burnt clay, 

 no doubt can remain as to its fertilizing properties, and 

 as there are extensive clay districts in most of the old 



