400 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



seed, 10 have any prospect, of a crop. Now, as 

 potato-drills are made up in the same way as'for 

 turnips, hy transplaniing them with turnip plants 

 two or liiree njonths old, the potato (jround might 

 be stocked mintediateiy wiih the probability of a 

 crop of turnips equally goud as it' sown wiih eeed 

 at the proper season. In the same way, the head 

 and loot ridges of potato and lurtiip fields, which 

 at present, are left unoccupied to allow the turning 

 oC the horses and ploughs in the working of these 

 crops, might be planted with turnips, as also all 

 vacant grounds in gardens, alter the gathering of 

 the early crops. 



4. In larther proof of the practicability of my 

 plan, it may be satislincfory lo mention that, on 

 the 9th of October. 1839, I went to examine a 

 field of turni|)son ihe farm ol Green Burnside, in 

 this parish, tenanted by Mr. James C issie, who in 

 consequence of the great ravages of the fly, had 

 resolved to try the transplanting plan according to 

 my directions ; but having no prepared plants, he 

 took plants with great care from the thickest parts 

 of the drills that had escaped the ravages of the i 

 fly, and filled up the blanks to a certain extent ; 

 and not having much confidence in my method, 

 the blanks on the remainder of the drills were, at 

 the same lime, sown with seed, so that I had an 

 opportunity of seeing at once three crops of tur- 

 nips raised in a different manner. The crop I'rom 

 the first sowing that had escaped the ravages of 

 the fly was excellent ; the transplanted verycood, 

 but the turnips not so large in general as the first ; 

 the third, although sown on the same day as the 

 others were transplanted, were none of them the 

 size of an egir, which I believe is always the case 

 vyiih late-sown turnips, although tlie result is 

 difficult to be accounted for. 



5. 1 may, in conclusion, mention another ad- 

 vantage of the transplanting plan — that it is best 

 performed in wet weather, when all other field 

 labor is at a stand. 



ON THE APPLICATION OF BONES TO GRASS 

 LANDS, ON LORD COMBERMERe's ESTATE. 



From tlie London Farmers' Magazine. 



Within the last nine years Lord Combermere 

 has supplied his tenantry (upon the Combermere 

 estate in Cheshire) with bones (or upwards of 600 

 statute acres of their pasture land, at a cost ol 

 about lOZ. an acre. The land before the bones 

 were applied was not worth more than from 10s. 

 lo los. an acre [rent] ; it is now well worth from 

 30s. to 40s. His lordship charges the tenantry 

 7 per cent, upon the outlay; they would gladly 

 pay 10 per cent, rather than not have the bones. 

 Old sour turf upon a clay subsoil is the land that 

 answers best to manure with bones, though I 

 have seen them used upon a dry, Irifble soil and 

 a sandy substratum with success, i have never 

 known them to tail when there is a strong lurfj 

 and the land Iree from water. Upon Lord Com- 

 bermere's estate bones are not allowed to be put 

 upon land until it has been down in grass at least 

 seven years. In very lew instances where land 

 has recently been in tillage have I known bones 

 to answer well. The end of April I consider 

 the best tin^e to apply bones; no stock ought to 

 be put upon the land before the Ibliuwing spring. 



If the land is not too poor to produce a crop of 

 hay, I do not object to its being mown the first 

 year, but on no account afterwards. Thirty to 

 3-5 cwt. is the quantity used upon a statute acre, 

 according to the quality of the land ; or if bought 

 by the bushel, one bushel of bones to a rood of 

 64 sqiiare'yards ; if the land is very poor, 90 bush- 

 els to a statute acre. An imperial bushel of bone 

 dust should weigh from 45 lo 47lbs. if ground fine 

 enough. I prefer them ground to about the size 

 of a walnut. It is now 20 years since I first saw 

 bene dust applied to paslure land, on a field •ad- 

 joining Lord Combermere's estate. At the time 

 the bones were put on the land, it certainly was 

 not worth more than 10s. an acre, and though, so 

 long a period has elapsed since the field was 

 manured with bones, it is now worth 35s. per acre, 

 thoush I think the land is not quite so good as it 

 was five years ago. f consider bones the cheap- 

 est of all manure for mowing-grounds. Eight 

 years ago, I manured part of one of my mowing 

 fields with bones, 35 cwt. to the acre, the land has 

 produced me a good crop of hay every year since, 

 quite equal to the other part of the field which 

 has been manured with good farm-yard dung 

 every two years. Once in eight or nine years is 

 quite often enough to manure mowing lands with 

 bones; and 1 am quie certain that pasture land 

 on which bones have been applied never will 

 (so long as it remains in grass) return to the state 

 it was in before the bones were put on. The 

 price I paid lor bones last spring, was 2s. 8c?., per 

 bushel ; or if by weight, 61. 15s. per ton. They 

 are now a little lower; I can purchase them at 

 2s. 6tl. per bushel, or 61. 6s. per ton, that is for the 

 raw bones. The boiled bones are at 41. 15s. per 

 ton, hut I do not consider them any cheaper than 

 the raw ones, as being wet they weigh much 

 heavier; two tons of boiled bones are not more 

 than equal to 30 cwts. of the raw. I give the pre- 

 ference to the latter, if they can be got pure ; but 

 I have not had such long experience as to assert 

 cotifidently that they are the best as to durability. 

 In the year 1S2S, one of Lord Combermere's 

 tenants manured five acres of pasture land with 

 boiled bones, and in the same field two acres with 

 raw bones; both answered well, and at ihis mo- 

 ment I do not observe any difference, both still 

 equally retain their fertilizing qualities. I find a 

 great difficulty in procuring good fresh bones, as 

 the manufacturers buy them up to make size of; 

 old bones (such as the greater part of those are 

 which are imported from Ireland and the conti- 

 nent) will not do lor this purpose, and it is my 

 opinion that the fresh bones are not so much de- 

 teriorated by boiling, but that they are quite equal 

 as a manure to those we get from the bone-dealers 

 as fine bones, most of which are old, and conse- 

 quently have lost a great part of their lertilizing 

 powers. Edward Hillyse. 



JJaywood Farm, Nantwich, Cheshire. 



GUANO MANURE. 



From tlic London Farmers' Magazine. 



Alfred Castellain, esq., of Liverpool, informed 



the Council, that having observed a reference 



made in Professor Sprengers article, on " Animal 



Manures," published in the 4th part of the So- 



