TURNEP3. 15 



lior to the weighing of all the turnips upon that quantity of Cultlvtalon of 

 land, without which, (when I adverted to the diflerence of ^"^neps^by Mr. 

 weight occasioned even by a scarcely perceptible difference in j^n^ 

 the diameters of simiHar solids) I could not have totally di- 

 vested myself of some doubts as to the accuracy of the result. 



Fo these reasons, I could not saiisfactoi i'l/ conduct the ex- 

 periment on so large a scale as that proposed by the Society ; 

 and though 1 am thereby prevented from becoming a candidate 

 for the Medal, — a reward by which I should have considered 

 myself highly honoured, — yet I hope this Communication will 

 not be deemed altogether unimportant ; and that it will, in 

 some degree, forward the views of so distinguished a body. 



Every part of the ground upon which this experiment was 

 made, had been managed for a series of years, in exactly the 

 same manner. Alter being three years in grass, it produced 

 a crop of oats in 1802; in the autum of which year it was 

 once ploughed. In May and June following, it received three 

 furrows in the common way, and was completely pulverized 

 and cleaned; after which it was divided into four flat ridges, 

 about eight yards broad, each ridge containing precisely 

 4719 square feet. The soil is a dry, light sandy loam, 

 mixed with small hard stories, incumbent on a thick sud- 

 stratum of gravel; and the four ridges were so much alike 

 soil and condition, that I think 1 may assert, that the most 

 accurate chemical operator could not have proved the 

 smallest difference in these respects. On the 22d of June 

 last, the ridge. No. 1, was manured with dung; immediatclj 

 after which, the manure was regularly spread over it, and 

 ploughed in. The whole ridge then received a single working, 

 with alight short-tired harrow; and zcl: He the moisture ztas 

 fresh, the turnip-seed was sown with a machine, in row-*, upon 

 a flat surface with thirteen inches intervals. About the same 

 hour, the ridge. No. 2, was prepared and formed into small 

 ridges, or drills, upon which the turnip-seed was deposited in 

 rows, with a macliine, twenty-six inches from each other; 

 The dufig in about one third of the raised drills on this ridge teas 

 partly left without being completely covered in. ■ 



Early the next morning, the ridge. No. 3, was also formed 

 into small ridges, or drills, with intervals of twenty-six inches. 

 On the tops of these ridges, a proper machine quickly depo- 

 sited the turnip-seed in single rows, precisely in the same 

 mode as that pursued in No. 2, On this ridge, however, No> 



