216 Advice to Parents. — ExpeHment with Special Manures. Vol. XII. 



suring less than 5 feet, and more than 3 in 

 girth, makes 264 pounds; which, divided by 

 14, to bring it into stones, is 18 stones 12 

 pounds. The dimensions of the girth and 

 length of black cattle, sheep, calves, or hogs, 

 may be as exactly taken this way as it is at 

 all necessary for any computation or valua- 

 tion of stock, and will answer exactly to the 

 four quarters, sinking the offal, and which 

 every man, who can get even a bit of chalk, 

 can easily perform. A deduction must be 

 made for a half fatted beast of 1 stone in 20, 

 from that of a fat one ; and for a cow that 

 has had calves, 1 stone must be allowed, 

 and another for not being properly fat."* — 

 Chatnbers's Information for the People. 



Advice to Parents. — My father liked 

 to have, as often as he could, some sensible 

 friend or neighbour to converse with him, 

 and always took care to start some ingeni- 

 ous or useful topic for discourse which might 

 tend to improve the minds of his children 

 By this means he turned our attention to 

 what was just and prudent in the conduct 

 of life, and little or no notice was ever taken 

 of what related to the victuals on the table; 

 60 that I was brought up in such a perfect 

 inattention to those matters, as to be quite 

 indifferent what kind of food was set before 

 me. In after life this has been a great con- 

 venience to me; for my companions are often 

 very unhappy for want of a suitable gratifi- 

 cation of their more delicate tastes and ap- 

 petites. — Franklin. 



The Journal of Health says that a person 

 accustomed to undress in a room without a 

 fire, and to seek repose in a cold bed, will 

 not experience the least inconvenience, even 

 in the severest weather. The natural heat 

 of his body will speedily render him even 

 rfiore comfortably warm than the individual 

 who sleeps in a heated apartment, and in a 

 bed thus artificially warmed, and who will 

 be extremely liable to a sensation of chilli- 

 ness as soon as the artificial heat is dissi- 

 pated. But this is not all ; the constitution 

 of the former will be rendered more robust, 

 and far less susceptible to the influence of 

 atmospherical vicissitudes, than that of the 

 latter. 



Report of an Experiment with Special 

 Manures, as applied to the Growth of 

 Turnips in the Summer of 1846. 



Charles Barclay, Esq., Bury Hill. 



Sir, — In compliance with your request, I 

 beg to present you with a Report of the ex- 



♦ Caitle Keeper's Guide. 



periments made with special manures for 

 the growth of turnips, on your estate during 

 the last summer. 



In order that the nature of the several 

 experiments may be the better understood, 

 and consequently a more correct estimate 

 formed of their different results, I will state 

 as briefly as possible the nature of the soil, 

 the course ot^ cropping which it had previ- 

 ously undergone, and the preparatory culti- 

 vation of the land for the crop ; together 

 with any other attendant circumstances 

 which may serve to illustrate the subject. 



The nature of the soil in question, is a 

 light blowing sand, very shallow, with a 

 considerable quantity of rubbly surface 

 stones, resting on a subsoil of sandstone 

 rock. In point of quality, I believe I am 

 justified in saying, it is almost as pcor as 

 any land in the county of Surrey, The 

 part of the farm chosen, on which the trial 

 took place, was a field of ten acres in ex- 

 tent; an old ley of three years standing, 

 the layer commencing immediately after a 

 crop of oats. The land was broken up with 

 the plough as deep as it was possible to go, 

 in the autumn of 1845. In the following 

 April, the land was again ploughed, in an 

 exactly opposite direcUon to that taken in 

 the autumn. The plough was never again 

 used, the cultivation being completed by the 

 use of Biddel's scarifier; the couch and roots 

 of the grasses were collected by Grant's 

 lever horse-rake, some small part of which 

 was burnt on the land for the sake of expe- 

 dition, and the remaining greater portion 

 carted to the yards. 



From the backwardness of the season, and 

 the multiplicity of work which necessarily 

 attends an extensive breadth of turnips, the 

 sowing was delayed till the 22nd and 23rd 

 of July. The seed and manure were depos- 

 ited by a drill manufactured by Smyth, of 

 Suffolk, worked by two horses, drilling three 

 rows at 18 inches apart at each breadth. 

 The kind of seed the "Red Round." 



The field was divided into ten portions, 

 containing an acre in each; but owing to 

 some part of the manure not being suffici- 

 ently dry to work quite properly, the divis- 

 ions first made were necessarily altered, 

 which will account for there being but nine 

 portions mentioned below. 



I here subjoin a tabular statement of the 

 quantities and kind of manure applied to 

 each portion ; together with the cost of 

 each, and also the weight of the whole pro- 

 duce per acre. It should be observed that 

 the field was as nearly as possible of uniform 

 quality; and the cultivation, both previous 

 and subsequent to the sowing, on all parts 

 exactly alike. 



