184 Manures for Turnips, etc. 



Maitoees used for Tuenips at Clifton-on-Bowmont. — 

 First crop taken after grass — 6 cwt. to 8 cwt. of basic slag, 1 cwt. 

 of sulphate of potash, and 1 cwt. nitrate of soda per acre. 

 Analysis, 26 to 30 per cent, total phosphate. Fineness, 80 to 

 90 per cent, will pass through sieve 10,000 to the square inch. 

 Second crop after oats — 5 cwt. to 6 cwt. bone manure per acre. 

 Analysis, 2 to 2^ per cent, ammonia, 32 to 35 per cent, of 

 phosphates, 24 per cent, of which are soluble. If the field seems 

 poor it receives the larger quantity stated, and if in good heart 

 the lesser. 



Why Laijd on My System Inceeases in Feetility, even 



THOUGH A BeEEDING StOCK IS KePT, WHILE PEACTICALLY NO 



Cake is Used, and Hitheeto only a Small Quantity of 

 Aetificials with Tuenips. — This is a point alluded to in the 

 letter of a tenant-farmer quoted in the Preface, and has puzzled 

 him, and many others, not a little, seeing that, as he points out, 

 even valuable old pastures quickly degenerate when^ a breeding 

 stock, or young animals, are kept without extra cake feeding. 

 The explanation is that the old pasture only produces white 

 clover, which is a comparatively small collector of nitrogen ; while 

 with my system, once every eight years, a large heavy crop of red 

 clover and kidney vetch is grown, which supplies a large quantity 

 of nitrogen to the soil, while the deep -rooting plants bring into 

 use much mineral matter which is quite out of the reach of the 

 grasses. With these manurial agencies, and the rich turf we can 

 now gi'ow ia four years' time, we are able to keep that breeding 

 stock which old grass cannot do without deterioration, because we 

 supply the soil with a large amount of humus. The effects of this 

 are fully enlarged upon by Warrington, Roberts, and other 

 writers. The presence of humus conserves manure (ammonia) in 

 the soil that would otherwise be washed out, and a soil destitute 

 of humus will contain hardly any nitrogen. The fertility of all 

 virgin soils is largely owing to the nitrogenous humus they 

 contain. What plants most require are things dependent on that 

 physical condition of the soil which, with the aid of humus is so 

 fully supplied — air, moisture, and warmth. The importance of 

 humus in all light soils is immense, as it enables such soil to 

 retain notanurial matters. Humus also brings into action the inert 



