78 Recent Publications on Manures. 



much of it will be altered in this way, or, if in excess, it would 

 be hurtful as well as the others. 



At Shewalton, near Irvine, the seat of the Lord Justice Clerk, 

 now Lord President, Mr. Menzies, the gardener, showed us a 

 part of the lawn which had been dressed with nitrate of soda 

 after the first cut. It had grown more luxuriantly than that not 

 dressed, and promised to yield a very superior second cut in the 

 autumn. At Belisle, near Ayr, the seat of Mrs. Colonel Hamil- 

 ton, the gardener, Mr. Hunter, showed us a large quarter of 

 onions, which had been found, for some years before, almost a 

 complete failure from vermin, the ground having been long 

 wrought. He had dressed it with the nitrate of soda for two 

 years past ; it had been free from insects ever since ; the crop 

 of the former year had been vei'y good, and that of this year 

 had a fine deep green healthy appearance. 



At Roselle, near Ayr, the seat of Archibald Hamilton, Esq., 

 of Carcluie, where so many agricultural experiments are carried 

 on, the land steward, Mr. Walls, was from home when I 

 called. Mr. Locke, the gardener, showed me, on the farm, some 

 rows of potatoes dressed with nitrate of soda, oil cake, and rape 

 dust, which were all of a fine deep green colour in the foliage, 

 and more vigorous and healthy to appearance than the others 

 without this dressing. Some rows dressed with sulphate of soda, 

 in addition to the manure, were no better, and rather inferior 

 in appearance to the other rows that had no dressing. In the 

 experiments at the garden, and in the outside slips, the rows of 

 potatoes that had got an additional dressing of oil cake, nitrate 

 of soda, and rape dust, besides the manure, were scarcely so 

 high in the stem as those with the same manure without the 

 dressing; but the foliage much darker in the green, and the 

 plants more healthy and vigorous to appearance. In some rows 

 dressed with the sulphate of soda besides manure, those at the 

 rate of 1 cwt. per acre were similar to those with ordinary 

 manure and no dressing; but those dressed at the rate of ^ cwt. 

 per acre were inferior to any, perhaps from some unperceived 

 difference in the quality of the ground or manure. The late 

 cabbage planted in a rich border soil without manure, and 

 dressed in alternate rows with nitrates of soda and potash at the 

 usual rate per acre, showed a decided improvement where the 

 nitrates were applied. In a row where they were purposely 

 applied in excess for experiment, the plants were killed alto- 

 gether. There was a still more decided improvement on some 

 savoys dressed with nitrates. In Mr. Locke's essay, lately 

 published in the Ayr Advertiser, he states that sulphate of soda 

 applied to cauliflowers, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, and turnips, 

 made not the slightest improvement. That in cauliflowers, the 

 soil of the border prepared with manure in the usual way, the 



