THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



187 



I 



tfc* (*" 



, £»<•). » nd f0 . r bl! J , dog will die if fed 



«"■>•* - Xphnt '•• donot supply it with 



*•» •*£. hints' entering into its compos.t.on. 



1 >» ftrti. Slovmarket. 



_ C • » • *"**» (ivi »e continued.) 



WaMOO 



r i ww»^ - 



undertaken 



;en J n ,i Thect bv the Morayshire Farmers' 



rr *e ~ -d p55« w« awarde/to Dr. Mnn.cn. 

 Clab. The fecona , wag awarded? has 



^^rA; r^r c!ub : *£ wi** we *»** *. 



j£5* aeeount of his experiments.] 



e : = ? > 



« 



01 jt^r-ritf^ww 



W >£ *C I i KS IO 10 ** N- 



The second boein 



JLITf 1? hoein E commenced on the 27th Aug-, 

 "a followed up through the field in same rota- 

 _^ onj>s fir st time, and finished on 13th Sept, 



^ *° '• h, -WO-tCNUtOO ~ OS 05 fed J 



Second 

 Hoeing-. 



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The quantity experimented on was 30 acres, 2 roods, | 

 29 falls. The liquid manure was prepared in the same 

 way as reported on last year ;* but in place of being ap- 

 plied with a watering-pan, as then, it was put on with a 

 cart, constructed on purpose, to do three drills at a time, 

 and so as to give a uniform discharge when nearly empty as 

 when full, which cannot be done byany common discharge- | 

 pipe. When 2 bushels of bone dust per Scotch acre, with 

 the sulphuric acid, were applied with the full proportion 

 of water, a portion of the mixture, equal to a half-bushel 

 of bones, was put into the cart, and filled with water, which 

 went over exactly quarter of a Scotch acre, the horse going 

 at the rate of 3 miles an hour. When 4 bushels were 

 applied with the acid to the Scotch acre, with the same 

 proportion of water, in like manner a half-bushel was put 

 in and filled up, which went over the quarter of an acre 

 as before ; but this had to be repeated, and gone over a 

 second time. In order, if possible, to save this labour, 

 several experiments were tried, with half the quantity of 

 water ; in this case the full bushel of mixture of bones 

 and acid was put in at once, and the cart filled up with 

 water, and went over the quarter of an acre Scotch, thus 

 effecting a considerable saving of labour; and, as far as 

 I can judge from the experiments, with equal effect. 

 When the proper proportion of water to be put in the mix- 

 ture is ascertained by experience, the plugs which regu- 

 late the discharge may be graduated, and a series of them 

 made so as to regulate the quantity of mixture per acre 

 during pleasure, the horse going at the regular and com- 

 mon pace, without having to do so by augmenting or 

 lessening the quantity of water, or by making the horse 

 go faster or slower, the latter being difficult to regulate. 



Remarks with regard to the varieties of Turnips.— 

 Laing's Swedes, part of No. 3, are decidedly superior to 

 Gibb's in point of quality and hardiness, and, under the 

 same treatment, much heavier. 4. Dale's Hybrid have 

 been raised on Sheriffston for years, and properly selected, 

 and decidedly a superior variety to the other yellow 

 sown. 15. White Globes, Gibb's London, superior 

 variety of Turnip to the Green Top White, which were 

 of an inferior description— bought seed— {Signed) Geo. 

 il/' William. 



soil, and bring the humus sooner to a state of decomposi- 

 tion, and many of its other constituent parts are easier 

 soluble in water, andean be more speedily conveyed to the 

 roots of the plants. If, on the contrary, marl is hard or 

 stony, it will hardly act at all for the first year or two, 

 for the lumps will not affect the humus, neither can the 

 water penetrate into them to receive their soluble part*. 

 At times marl will act the first year with astonishing 

 power, and cease altogether the second ; it may then be 

 taken for granted that it contains saltpetre, which, Ott 

 account of its great solubility in water, comes soon into 

 play, and forces the plants by its great amount of nitrogen. 

 Marl will always act better on wet soils than on dry ones,* 

 which is chiefly caused by the plants Being only able to 

 receive nourishment through the medium of water. If, 

 therefore, a dry soil has been manured with marl, it is 

 always advisable to have it fallowed by Rye, as then the 

 moisture of the winter season will remain longer in the 

 soil. This moisture will be instrumental in the decompo- 

 sition of the coal of humus and the vegetable matter, 

 which will increase the action of the marl. On account 

 of the necessity of preserving moisture, it is also well to 

 let a soil manured with marl rest for a few years after the 

 Rye has been cut down ; the field may be planted with 

 Clover and Grasses, and used as a pasture. 



(To be continued.) 



— ■- ■» ^ MJ <J tjl <J3 . 



This lot was injured by the sand blowing in a gale. 



•ulnW; ? *•"/ , 12 T The bones were watered with the 



No - *S? tbe day before bei °S sown. 

 wer e * ■ 4. 8ul P hate of ammonia, guano, and bones, 

 wc je m, xe d together. * 



WiheVrd 6 8Ulphate of ammoni a used was dissolved 



iawithl Ga "? 17 "~ The bones and guano were dibbled 

 ™h a mixture of saw-dust. 



perches° __ two . drills of each experiment, measuring 4 



| 3fcandli^iV Pped ,* tailcd > and carefully weighed on 

 u **tn December. 



ON MINERAL AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



No. XI. 



By Professor Charles Sprengel. 

 I shall now proceed to explain some other phenomena 

 which are observed on fields manured with marl. 



It has been very often observed, that marl will not pro- 

 duce anv effect on one sort of soil, whilst on another it 

 will act most beneficially. This is to be ascribed to the 

 fact that marl is not only of use to plants by the decom- 

 position of humus, but that it really nourishes them by its 

 constituent parts. If, for instance, a soil is deficient in 

 magnesia, but not in all other essential parts, it will not 

 be materially improved by marl, though rich in lime, 

 gypsum, phosphate of lime, &c, if it does not contain 

 magnesia ; whilst the same marl, conveyed on a ground 

 which contains plenty of magnesia but is deficient in other 

 substances, will produce the most beneficial effect. I have 

 found this out by too many experiments for me to doubt 

 it for a single moment. 1 have seen, very often, that a 

 marl merely composed of carbonate of lime and clay, pro- 

 duced at some places the best results, whilst in others it 

 produced none ; but chemical analysis always pointed out 

 to me that any soil where it showed itself very useful, 

 contained but very little lime, whilst that where it was 

 useless, had already plenty of lime. 



It is often the case, that a soil which has been marled 

 some time since, contains yet a sufficient quantity of car- 

 bonate of lime, whilst its fertility has nevertheless become 

 much impaired, although there is also no deficiency of 

 humus. The reason is, that such soil, although not deb- 

 cient in lime, does not possess enough of those other sub- 

 stances which had been once conveyed to it by the marl. 

 At times it is only the gypsum or potash it is deficient 

 in, and it is merely necessary to apply to it these sub- 

 stances to re-establish its former fertility, or to apply an 

 additional dose of the marl previously used. The mineral 

 substance in which it is especially wanting is, however, often 

 obtained more cheaply than by a repeated application ot 

 marl. In most cases, however, a soil which, after a previous 

 plentiful manuring with marl, exhibits signs of sterility, 

 will be found deficient in humus, and in this case the marl 

 which may yet be in the soil cannot produce any effect, 

 because we have seen before, that it is especially humic 

 acid, through the action of which lime, magnesia, alumina, 

 iron and mangauese, potash, soda and phosphate of lime, 

 are conveyed to the plants. A soil which no longer con- 

 tains any humus, is called in Germany over-marled 

 {ausgemergelt.) In order to make it fertile it must be 

 manured with substances which not only contain humus, 

 or yield humus by their decomposition, but must also con- 

 tain nitrogen, as any soil which is "out-marled' is 

 always deficient in that substance. Dung, certainly, is 

 best in most cases, but it may be also advisable to use 

 along with it some vegetable- mould, as it requires a great 

 deal of dung to supplv the soil even with one-fourth per 

 cent, of humus. At times, however, a soil, though defi- 

 cient in humus, will yield (after being manured with man; 

 some good crops, in which case it may be that the marl 

 contains some humic particles, or saltpetre, by wnicn 

 latter substance the plants are supplied with that essential 



food for them — nitrogen. . . . 



At times marl acts the first year very powerfully, out 

 the effect soon decreases, which will be the case 11 it is 

 applied in a powdery state. It is clear that m this case 

 the p articles of lime more eas ily^e^m^_m^oVwith the 



* To 1 bushel of bone dast'sifted out, put 29 l*. >**&**• 



acid previously diluted with 56 lbs. of water; and hav ,ig ^ stood 

 24 hours, it was then mixed up with the full quantity of water. 



Home Correspondence. 



Salt as a fixer of Ammonia. — An article appeared in 

 No. 3 of the 4t Agricultural Gazette," under tins head r 

 signed V Peter Mackenzie," in which it is asked if any 

 other means of decomposing common salt for the use of 

 land have been discovered besides that of first convert- 

 ing into sulphate, and then into carbonate, as described 

 in •« Rural Chemistry." I am in a situation to answer 

 this question, and I deem it of no small importance to the 

 farmer. I saw in my newspaper last week a recommend- 

 ation to apply salt to the dunghill, stating that the car- 

 bonate of ammonia generated there would be prevented 

 from going off into the atmosphere, if common salt were 

 occasionally thrown on the dung, a* the caroonate of 

 ammonia and common salt would by the moisture and 

 heat of the dunghill decompose each other, forming 

 muriate of ammonia and carbonate of soda. Carbonate 

 of ammonia will be evaporated into the air by the ordi- 

 nary heat of a dunghill, but muriate of ammonia will not 

 —thus we not only save the ammonia, which is the most 

 valuable part of the manure, but we get a new ingredient 

 —carbonate of soda, which is also highly valuable. This 

 is all to be accomplished by buying a little Agricultural 

 salt and applying it to the dunghill— that is to say, if the 

 foregoing be true. On reading this 1 got a chemist to 

 try the experiment, and stood by him the whole time. 

 He saturated a solution of common salt, say \ or * ot 

 a pint, put into a white glass bottle with a wide 

 mouth and glass stopper; he then put into this 

 strong brine several pieces of carbonate of ammonia 

 in lumps, so that in the event of a precipitate be- 

 fore the ammonia was all dissolved it should be dis- 

 tinctly known. After shaking the bottle for half 

 an hour so as to dissolve some of the ammonia, it 

 was subjected to a gentle heat, and a large deposit of 

 white powder was the result. In this state the bottle 

 remained all night, and next morning the powder was 

 separated from the fluid by filtration, and it was found 

 to be soda, and the chemist said that it was mostly in 

 a state of bicarbonate. After the powder was dried it 

 was tested, and found to contain 29.4 4 per cent, of real 

 soda, which the chemist told me proved that It contained 

 upwards of 80 per cent, of bicarbonate of soda. Now I 

 know all this to be true, for I saw the whole operation 

 and the bottle was in my own keeping during the whole 

 period. 1 have directed my people to put •bout 1 lb- 

 of salt to every good wheelbarrow-full of manure hat 

 ?hey take from the .tabic or feeding-stalls. The adoption 

 of this quantity is all guess-work, and if any of your 

 readers have any experience or information on this point,. 

 I should be glad to sec it transmitted to your columns. 

 I have considered the subject of the preparation of 

 manures for some years past; and with this new, and to 

 my mind, very important fact before me, I am strongly 

 of opinion that all newly-made manure should £ •eco- 

 mulated under a shed, with a tank to receive the drain- 



™ s sdtlZ intimately mixed with it but not in too 

 zreat quantity ;-be sure to mind this; 1 lb. to •barrow 

 f, I may be too much-this can only be known by trial. 

 L etThe 7 draining, be pumped over the dung from time to 

 time and the heat of the dunghi I wiU evaporate he 



Dibbling Turnip -Seed.-Th\s is much practised here, 

 and by some of our very best farmers, and we believe it 

 to be the surest way of procuring a regular braird. One 

 sturdy Scot with an improved hand-dibble, will go over 

 one imperial acre in a day. He makes the holes at the 

 proper distances ; a boy or woman follows with bones, 

 or other portable manure, puts into each hole the requi- 

 site quantity, when another boy or woman follows witn 

 the seed. They take a pinch betwixt the finger and 

 thumb, and with finger and thumb thus joined, they shove 

 a little of the soil above the manure, and while *o™S«> 

 they drop the seed. By this mode you will never se»a 

 failure ; and, after a little practice, the workmen j become 

 so accurate, that they scarcely ever err in . ; v ing ert Aer 

 too much or too little of seed or manure. I : erhep. mm 



method will not do so well ^^^^^^ 

 excellent, and not expensive. This ha^t y^___p 



* My «< dry soil," are probably meant thin stony land, easily 

 1 scorched in summer. 



