APPLICATION OF MANURE. 289 



it rather improves by keeping, and is fit for feeding after 

 the turnips are all consumed. 



No matter what place the turnip crop occupies in the 

 rotation, it is always the one to which the largest amount 

 of manure is applied, as by the proper selection and quan- 

 tity of that, the success of the crop is greatly influenced; 

 and upon the success of this crop the general welfare of the 

 farm is mainly dependent. If the root crop be good, a large 

 head of stock can be kept, and a large quantity of manure 

 made for the next year's use. If the crop fails, the stock 

 must be diminished or kept on purchased food, and the 

 manure is either less in quantity or made necessarily at 

 a higher cost. The principles that should govern the 

 application of manures are still very imperfectly under- 

 stood by us, and until agricultural education is more ad- 

 vanced, and the farmer is better acquainted with the 

 nature of the plants he cultivates, and of the soil and the 

 atmosphere in which they grow, there will always be 

 difficulties in the way of establishing anything like gene- 

 ral intelligible rules for our guidance, and the present 

 random system must remain. Chemistry, however, has 

 done this much for us, which we can practically apply 

 with advantage: it has made us acquainted with the 

 nature and amount of ingredients which our different 

 growing crops abstract from the soil; and we may there- 

 fore fairly infer that, if these are again returned to the 

 soil in the shape of manures, we shall at all events sustain 

 its normal degree of fertility. This probably, for the pre- 

 sent, is the safest and simplest guide we can take in 

 deciding upon the description and quantity of the manure 

 we should apply to our fields. The calculations are easily 

 made by those who prefer accurate figures to guess-work 

 in their farm estimates ; and if the quantities given to the 

 land are in excess of the quantities abstracted from it, the 

 farm is likely to be kept up in good condition. 



