ON MANURES. 163 



have rarely been found to produce any sensible benefit. Their 

 power of contributing- to lighten strong land, by their mechani- 

 cal action upon the soil, and thus rendering it less adhesive, has 

 indeed been vaunted, and, if laid on to a very large amount, 

 there can be no doubt that the bones, in pieces, would have 

 some such effect; but the smallness of the quantity in which 

 they are usually applied renders their force for that purpose 

 quite insignificant. 



On heavy loams and clays, the accounts of their operation 

 have been almost invariably unfavourable ; and it may be laid 

 down as a necessary qualification in a soil fit for the applica- 

 tion of bones, that it should be dry. This, indeed, has been 

 contradicted by experiments stated in the Doncaster Report, 

 upon what is described as a wet sand soil, with an irony- 

 coloured subsoil, upon which two quarters per acre were 

 drilled, and produced an excellent crop, when manure had 

 been previously tried without effect. This, however, having 

 occurred in the years 1826 and 1827, which were unusually 

 dry, may serve to explain the fact, without affecting the prin- 

 ciple that bone manure is nof generally beneficial to clay 

 lands. 



The same Report states, that ^'■upon very thin sandy land, 

 the value of bone manure is not to be estimated; it is not only 

 found to benefit the particular crop to which it is applied, but 

 extends through the whole course of crops; and even in the 

 succeeding courses, its effects are visible in the improved 

 quality of the land, and the efficiency of a smaller quantity 

 than would at first have insured a crop. Upon much of the 

 high land about Babworth, which is a light^ sandy soil, the 

 crops under ordinary farm management were comparatively 

 jnproductive; but since the introduction of bones, after having 

 been dressed for several fallows with sixty or seventy bushels 

 per acre, they have not only become productive, but so much 

 improved in quality as to return an equal crop with a much 

 lighter dressing of manure or bones throughout the next 

 course." 



" On the dry limestones near Doncaster, the same favour- 

 able results have been obtained ; and no failures, beyond those 

 attributable to peculiarity of season, are noticed." 



On tiie wolds of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, it also ap- 

 pears, by the testimony of several extensive farmers, that 

 "before bones were generally used with turnip-seed, many 

 thousand acres were annually sown for that crop without any 



