BONES. 



determined, in the last week in November, to 

 take up alternate rows of the whole, and weigh 

 each separately after the roots and tops were 

 taken off, and the result was found to be as 

 follows : 



cwt Ibs. 



1st exp. The portion examined of a Scotch 

 acre, manured with the street dung, produced 

 of common globe turnip - ... 301 92 



2d exp. The same quantity of ground manured 

 with the rape and bone-dust, produced - 301 99 



3d eip. Ditto with farm-yard dung - - 312 30 



"Mr. Watson, of Keilor," says the Hon. 

 Capt. Ogilvy, of Airlie (Trans. High. Soc. vol. 

 iv. p. 238), " introduced the use of bone ma- 

 nure in Strathmore. The great deficiency of 

 farm-yard dung in 1827 (consequent on the 

 almost failure of the crop of the previous 

 year), first induced me to try four acres of tur- 

 nip without other manure, sown with fifteen 

 bushels of bone-dust per acre : it cost 3*. per 

 bushel, or 2/. 5*. per acre. The crop of turnips 

 on these four acres was, at least, equal to the 

 rest raised with farm-yard manure ; but as the 

 whole of the t'urnips were pulled, and the land 

 received some dung before the succeeding 

 crop, much stress cannot be laid on the cir- 

 cumstance of the following white crop and 

 grass being good. 



"Next year, 1828, eight acres were sown 

 with turnip, solely with bone-dust ; the soil a 

 light sandy loam; the subsoil gravel and sand, 

 coming in some places nearly to the surface, 

 which is very irregular, but in general has a 

 south exposure. This field had been broken 

 up with a crop of oats in 1827, after having 

 been depastured six years, principally by 

 sheep. The quantity of bone-dust applied was 

 twenty bushels per acre, and cost 2*. 6<f. per 

 bushel, or 2/. 10s. per acre. The turnip crop 

 was so heavy, that, notwithstanding the very 

 light nature of the soil, it was judged advis- 

 able to pull one-third for the feeding cattle, 

 two drills pulled, and four left to be eaten on 

 the ground by sheep. The following year, 

 1829, these eight acres were sown with barley 

 and grass-seeds ; and the produce was fifty- 

 seven bolls one bushel, or seven bolls one 

 bushel nearly per acre, of grain equal in qua- 

 lity to the best in the Dundee market, both in 

 weight and colour. Next year, a fair crop of 

 hay for that description of land was cut, about 

 150 stones an acre; and though I am now con- 

 vinced that the field should rather have been 

 depastured the first year, yet the pasture was 

 better than it had ever been known before for 

 the two following seasons, 1831 and 1832. It 

 is worthy of remark, as a proof of the efficacy 

 of the bone manure, that in a small angle of this 

 field, in which I had permitted a cottager to 

 plant potatoes, well dunged, and which, after 

 their removal, was included in one of the flak- 

 ings of sheep, and had (one might have sup- 

 posed) thereby had at least an equal advan- 

 tage with the adjacent bone-dust turnip land, 

 both the barley and grass crops were evidently 

 inferior, and this continued to be observable 

 until the field was again ploughed up. A very 

 bulky crop of oats has been reaped this season, 

 probably upwards of eight bolls per acre, but 

 no part of it is yet thrashed. 



" Having detailed what may be considered a 



BONES. 



1 fair experiment, during the whole rotation of 

 I the above eight acres, I may add, that turnip 

 | raised with bone manure and fed off with 

 j sheep, has now become a regular part of the 

 system on this farm. Fifteen, twenty, and last 

 year twenty-five acres were fed off, and invari- 

 ably with the same favourable results, with 

 the prospect of being able to adopt a five-shift 

 rotation, and to continue it without injury to 

 the land. Every person in the least acquainted 

 with the management of a farm, of which a 

 considerable portion consists of light, dry, 

 sandy loam, at a distance from town manure, 

 must be aware of the importance of this, from 

 knowing the expense at which such land was 

 formerly kept in a fair state of cultivation : in- 

 deed, the prices of corn, for some years past, 

 would not warrant the necessary outlay ; and 

 large tracts of land, capable of producing bar- 

 ley little inferior to that of Norfolk, must 

 speedily have been converted into sheep pas- 

 ture, but for the introduction of bone manure." 

 In the valuable experiments of Mr. Robert 

 Turner, of Tring, in Hertfordshire, the soil on 

 which they were made, hitherto a common, 

 producing only furze, is sandy, with a substra- 

 tum of clay, and then chalk. He began the 

 use of bone manure in 1831 on this land, and 

 has continued its employment for the last three 

 years on a very bold scale, and with unvaried 

 success. The quantity generally employed 

 was from twenty-four to thirty bushels per 

 acre, of the description of half-inch and dust, 

 and the bones were invariably applied to the 

 turnip crop. The bones were usually drilled 

 with the seed at a distance of eighteen inches, 

 and the turnips were always horse-hoed. The 

 year 1831 was a peculiarly good season for 

 this crop generally. The turnips manured 

 with bone-dust, like most others in the district, 

 were very luxuriant. About 2000 bushels of 

 bone manure were this year used by Mr. Tur- 

 ner. In 1832, the turnips were, in general, a 

 very bad plant, the fly committing general de- 

 vastation; many cultivators unsuccessfully 

 sowing four or five times. On the turnip land 

 of Mr. Turner, seventy-four acres were ma- 

 nured with bones, and of this breadth only the 

 last sown four acres were a failure, and there 

 was, in no instance, any necessity to repeat 

 the sowing. The turnips were a much better 

 crop than in 1831. In 1833, the turnips in the 

 neighbourhood of Tring were a very partial 

 crop. On the farm of Mr. Turner, about fifty 

 acres were manured with bones. The effect, 

 with the exception of the very last sown tur- 

 nips, was again most excellent, the crop being 

 very heavy, and that too on land now first culti- 

 vated. In 1835 and 1836, Mr. Turner conti- 

 nued the use of bones for his turnips, to the 

 same extent, and with equal success. These 

 experiments the cultivator will deem of the 

 very first importance. The soil was not ma- 

 nured with any other fertilizer except bones, 

 and in drilling, every now and then, for the 

 drill's breadth, the bones were omitted. 



On the soil not boned, the failure of the tur- 

 nips was general and complete : they vege- 

 tated, it is true, and came up, but they were 

 wretchedly small, and of no use. The turnips 

 being fed off, and the sheep folded on the soil 

 2 197 



