164 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



manure whatever, from the impossibility of getting fold-ma- 

 nure for more than one-third or fourth of tiieir fallows. The 

 turnips upon such unmanured land were consequently very 

 indiflerent; and the benefit of sheep feeding upon their tops — 

 for of bottoms they seldom had any — was very trifling. Since 

 the use of bones, has however, become general, the turnip 

 crop lias been, in many instances, ten-fold, and in few less 

 than four or five-fold its former bulk. All the succeeding 

 crops of grain and seeds have been amazingly increased, and, 

 upon the four or five-shift system, there is no doubt the land 

 will go on progressively improving, requiring a less quantity 

 of bones annually, from its increased fertility and power." 



On light loams, the returns to the Doncaster Committee 

 give bones a preference to farm-yard dung. And we learn 

 that, upon the calcareous soil of the Yorkshire Wolds, heavy 

 crops of turnips have been raised from 16 bushels per acre of 

 bones, while in the same field, and under similar circum- 

 stances, but manured from the farm-yard at the rate of from 8 

 to 10 tons per acre, the turnips have been of the most inferior 

 description. 



On peat soils, if previously drained and laid dry, their ad- 

 vantages are reported to be so striking, that from fifteen to 

 twenty bushels of dust per acre, drilled, have been also found 

 to very far surpass the ordinary dressing of srable-dung, and 

 even of lime and pigeons' dung. 



On gravels, the reports are meagre and contradictory, 

 though perhaps reconcilable in principle, as it has been justly 

 observed, that "a gravelly soil may embrace every variety of 

 texture and qu^^lity, from the light dry sand to the water- 

 logged yellow clay — preserving in each the necessary admix- 

 ture of stones and grit." To wet gravel, their application has 

 been found decidedly unfavourable. 



[It is much more economical to treat bones with acid than 

 without. It has been found that burned bones are better than 

 those not burned — and that there is an advantage in using 

 boiled bones rather than fresh. Of the acids, sulphuric is 

 better than muriatic; because it is cheaper, has greater spe- 

 cific gravity and contains less water. In a dry season, how- 

 ever, we should give the preference to the muriatic acid, since 

 the chloride of lime formed, if not rather more fertilizing and 

 soluble than the sulphate of lime, has greater attraction for 

 moisture. The smaller the fragment of bones submitted the 

 better, as they will be more readily acted upon and require a 



