ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 135 



The root crop requires liberal treatment. The greater 

 portion of the farmyard dung produced upon the holding 

 is bestowed upon the turnip or fallow breadth. It is, how- 

 ever, better to put a portion of the dung produced upon 

 the turnip crop, and to reserve a portion for the wheat, 

 placing that latter part on the^ clover about to be broken up. 

 Especially is this the case upon the lighter class of soils ; 

 there I should recommend the farmyard dung to be divided 

 a portion to be put upon the roots, and a portion reserved 

 for the wheat crop. Then again, with reference to the 

 application of artificial fertilizers, they are now universally 

 applied to root crops. Without artificial fertilizers we in 

 many cases could not obtain a crop at all. Superphosphate 

 of lime is the substance in general use over the whole of 

 the Midlands and Southern England. 



When we go north into a cooler climate guano, in a certain 

 measure, takes the place of superphosphate of lime, and in 

 Scotland, as well as in Ireland, guano is in high repute. 

 But over the greater part of England superphosphate is the 

 universal manure for the root crop. In asking the question 

 in examination, as to the proper fertilizer for roots, I am 

 often told that roots contain a great deal of potash, and 

 therefore potash is the proper manure for roots, and my 

 students will often go on to say that wheat contains a great 

 deal of silica, and therefore silica is the proper manure for 

 wheat. Potash is no doubt contained in very considerable 

 quantities in the root crop, but it so happens that farmyard 

 dung contains a great deal of potash; straw abounds in 

 potash, and straw is the material which is almost always 

 restored to the land. It is true that the root crop requires 

 potash, but it gets it in sufficient quantity, and there has 

 never been that demand for potash salts which it was at 

 one time thought there would be. They are used chiefly 

 by amateurs, but the bulk of tenant farmers who have to 



