No. III.] RESULTS OP EXPERIMENTS ON PRACTICAL AGRICULTUKB. 15 



Mr. Turner, his lordship's agent, thus writes : — 



" The plan I followed in putting on the different manures, and the quantities 

 used, accorded as nearly as 1 could manage it, with the directions given in your 

 published lectures. 



" The field on which the experiments were tried is situate 'in a high, blealt 

 climate, and consists of a thin light soil, upon a bad subsoil of barren clay 

 resting upon Hmestone. It had been completely exhausted by a succession of 

 white crops, and was full of weeds and quickens. I had it well ploughed, and 

 took a crop of drilled turnips fairly, but not extravagantly, manured. The crop 

 "was a poor one. I ploughed the land as soon as the turnips could be got off. 

 Drained it ; and in the spring worked it very fine. The following August I 

 sowed it away with grass seeds without a crop. The seeds came up beautiful- 

 ly, and were the admiration of all who saw them, keeping a deep green through 

 the winter, and beginning to grow early in the spring ; and it was on this crop 

 that the experiment was tried early in the succeeding summer. 



" I need scarcely remark, that the crop of grass for such land was enormous, 

 and has fully repaid the money expended upon it, with the exception of drain- 

 ing, and in two or three years I have no doubt but it will repay this also." 



Remarks. — On comparing the effect of these several top-dressings as indi- 

 cated by the results above stated, the reader will be struck with the extraordi- 

 nary increase caused by the addition of common salt. I have in the text 

 (Lecture IX., p. 190,) indicated a principle which may serve to explain in sor.ie 

 measure both the localities in which the use of common salt may be expected 

 to be beneficial, and the reason why in many parts of our island the employ- 

 ment of this substance has not been attended by any large measure of success. 

 The position of the land experimented upon by Mr. Turner, is such as to lead 

 us to expect it to be improved by common salt, according to the views there 

 stated. 



The nitrate of soda produced less effect than either the common salt or the 

 soot, but it gave an increase which was double of that yielded by the sulphate 

 of soda. The latter salt, however, was applied in the state of crystals, which 

 contains') per cent, of water, so that less than one half of that weight of drij 

 salt was used, which was recommended in the suggestions I offered for the 

 employment of this substance in practical agriculture. At the same time, the 



Krice paid by Mr. Turner for this salt was foiir times as great as«it ought to 

 ave been. Any quantity of the dry sulphate of soda may be procured at lOs. 

 a cwt., at which price it is forwarded in casks to all parts of the country by 

 Messrs. Allan &; Co., Heworth Alkali Works, Newcastle. 



The most valuable practical suggestion to be derived from these experiments 

 is certainly this — that a liberal use of common salt is likely to increase in a great 

 degree the produce of grass in the locality where they were made, and on the 

 same kind of soil. This valuable discovery will far more than repay the ex- 

 pense and trouble of the entire series of experiments. No application can be 

 so cheap as this, so long a^il succeeds. At the same time a mixture of the other 

 substances — the niH«te and the sulphate, which were partially successful — might 

 possibly prove still more efiicacious on the grass, and might be expected even 

 to ameliorate the condition of the land for the further production of white crops. 

 In a future part of this Appendix I intend to offer some suggestions in regard to 

 the kind and quantity of the ingredients which may, with probable advantage, 

 enter into the constitution of these mixed manures. 



I have calculated and introduced into Mr. Turner's table an additional col- 

 umn, exhibiting the weight of hay yielded by 100 lbs. of grass, with the view 

 of showing the relative succulence of the several crops when cut. As a gen- 

 eral rule, the weight of dry hay does not exceed one-fourth of the weight of the 

 grass when cut. In the experiments of Mr. Turner, however, the weight of 

 hay in every case was mucli beyond this quantity — the most succulent crop, 

 tl^at to w.'iich no dressing was applied, yielding 36 per cent, of hay. This gen- 

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