No. 3. Top-dressing with fermenting manures. — Curious Result. 85 



employed in the raising of turnips. Where 

 such is really the case, experience decides 

 the question, and pronounces t!iat notwith- 

 standing the loss which must occur, this 

 mode of applying the manure is consistent 

 with good husbandry. But if the quantity 

 or market value of the food raised by a ton 

 of manure applied in this way, is not equal 

 to what it would have raised in turnips and 

 corn, then it may as safely be said that the 

 most economical method of employing it has 

 not been adopted. 



But theory also throws some interesting 

 light upon this question. 



"old grass lands can only be manured by 

 top-dressings. And if they cannot continue, 

 and especially such as are meadowed, to 

 yield an average produce, unless there be 

 now and then added to the soil, some of[ 

 those same, substances which arc carried off 

 in the crop, it appears to be almost necessary 

 that farm-yard dung should now and then be 

 applied in some form or other. It is true, 

 that hay or straw, or Innii; dung, contains 

 all the elements which tlie growing grass 

 requires, but if spread on the surface of the 

 field, and then allowed to ferment and de- 

 cay, the loss would probably be still greater 

 than when, for this purpose, it is collected 

 into heaps or strewed in the farm-yard. 

 Thus the usual practice of laying on the 

 manure in a highly fermented state, may be 

 the most economical. 



2°. Again, where the turnip crop is raised 

 in whole or in part by means of bones only, 

 of rape-dust, or of other artificial manures, 

 as they are called, it is usual to expend a 

 large proportion of the farm-yard dung in 

 top-dressing the succeeding crop of clover. 

 Thus the land obtains two manurings in the 

 course of the four years' rotation — bones or 

 rape-dust with the turnips — and fermented 

 dung with the clover. This second applica- 

 tion mcreases the clover crop in some dis- 

 tricts, one-fourth, and the after crop of wheat 

 or barley, very considerably also.* 



Here, also, it is clear, that if mari^ire be 

 necessary to the clover, it can only "be ap- 

 plied in the form of a top-dressing. But 

 why is it necessary, as experience says, and 

 why should farm-yard manure, which is 

 known to suffer waste, be applied as a top- 

 dressing rather than rape-dust, which in or- 

 dinary seasons, is not so likely to suffer loss? 

 I offer you the following explanation : — 



If you raise your turnip crop by the aid 

 of bones or rape-dust alone, you add to the 

 soil what, in most cases, may be sufficient 



* Such is the caso upon pome of the farms in the 

 Vale of the Tame (Staffordsliire,) where the turnips 

 are raised with rape-duet, and wheat follows tlie 

 clover. 



to supply nearly all the wants of that crop, 

 but you do nol add all which the succeeding 

 crops of corn and clover require. Hence, 

 if these crops are to be grown continuously, 

 and for a length of time, some other kind of 

 manure must be added — in which those ne- 

 cessary substances or kinds of food are pre- 

 sent, which the bones and rape-dust cannot 

 supply. Farm-yard manure contains them 

 all. This is within the reach of e very- 

 farmer. It is, in fiict, his natural resource 

 in every such difficulty. He has tried it 

 upon his clover crop in the circumstances 

 we are considering, and has necessarily 

 found it to answer. 



Thus to explain the results at which he 

 has arrived in this special case, chemical 

 theory only refers the practical man to the 

 general principle upon which all scientific 

 manuring depends — that he must add to the 

 soil sufficient supplies of every thing he 

 carries off" in his crops — and, therefore, that 

 without some such dressing as he actually 

 applies to his clover crop, he could nol long 

 continue to grow good crops of any kind 

 upon his land, if he raise his turnips with 

 bones or rape-dust only. 



It might, I think, be worthy of trial, whe- 

 ther the use of the fermented dung for the 

 turnips, and of the rape-dust for top-dressing 

 the after crops, would not, in the entire ro- 

 tation, yield a larger and more remunerating 

 return. — Johnston''s Lectures on Agricultu- 

 ral Chemistry. 



Curious result. — A friend has shown to 

 us some scions, which he has just received 

 from a gentleman on Grand Isle, Vt., which 

 produce apples partly sweet and partly sour. 

 This singular production was brought about 

 in this manner. A bud was taken from an 

 apple tree producing sour fruit, another from 

 one producing sweet; the two buds were 

 neatly cut into halves, and a half of each 

 kind joined together, forming a bud which 

 was inserted in the stock as usual. 



We have often heard of this method of 

 producing two distinct varieties of fruit in 

 the same apple, but we have doubted it, and 

 though our information appears to come now 

 from a very respectable source, we are ra- 

 ther incredulous, though such a thing may 

 be possible. It is easily tested, and we hope 

 the point will be settled. Our friend thinks 

 to test by getting the two kinds of fruit from 

 the scions sent him, but whatever fruit they 

 may produce will prove nothing, unless there 

 is proof of their origin. We have seen of 

 natural fruit, sweet and sour fruit in the 

 same apple. We advise him to be thorough 

 in his experiment, and begin with the bud. — 

 Southern Cultivator. 



