On Manures and on the Growth of T^irnips. 265 



hoed turnips the second time ; appearance much the same, except in the 

 bones, put in at 27 inches, in which the greatest improvement was 

 visible ; this part had been ridged up similarly to the remainder of the 

 experiment, but owing to the turnip-drill being in use at a distance, 

 which deposits the bone-dust in required quantities immediately previous 

 to the seed, my farming-man, to be accurate, split the ridge with the 

 bean-plough, deposited the bones with the hand, and then run the 

 common drill, with the roller attached, over the bones. Consequently, 

 the appearance is exactly as if the turnip was sown in the furrow, the 

 intervening ground between the rows standing higher than the turnips 

 in the rows. For a fortnight previous to the 29th of August, in the 

 west we had most delightful rains ; and I find the following note in my 

 farm-book: — "The experiment looking very well; but the turnips 

 manured with the glue-dross most come on — the luxuriance of the 

 foliage wonderful, having assumed that fine purple appearance which 

 I have before observed in other roots similarly manured." About the 

 10th of September the crop was attacked by mildew : the swedes ma- 

 nured wdth the glue-dross, however, were scarcely injured, whilst all 

 the others were hard hit. The consequence of which was that the roots 

 of these went on swelling, whilst the others were for some time at a 

 complete stand-still. I weighed and stored the turnips on the 25th of 

 November; the result I enclose, from which you will perceive that, ex- 

 cept with bones, the 18-inch distance has the largest produce : as far as 

 the experiment with bones is concerned, I think the greater weight pro- 

 duced at 27 inches is to be attributed solely to the mode of putting them 

 in, as, in the heat of summer, the plant, by being placed in a hollow, 

 enjoyed every particle of moisture, not only that which fell on the 

 foliage, but that which fell on the intervening ground, as each drill acted 

 as a water-furrow to the adjoining land. The roots when stored were 

 very perfect, but in many of them I found an unusual quantity of 

 worm -holes. I had, fortunately, two fields of purple-top swedes imme- 

 diately adjoining me, rented by two of my father's tenants; the three 

 fields formed an acute triangle, of precisely similar soil ; mine was the 

 apex, and situated on higher ground, the two others on precisely similar 

 elevations the one with the other. One neighbour sowed a fortnight 

 before me, broad-cast, and a very good crop of turnips he had ; the other 

 drilled a fortnight after me, with a like result. My early neighbour's 

 crop was attacked by mildew a fortnight before mine, and I was infected 

 by the blight an exact fortnight before my later neighbour. The crop 

 first sown was most injured by the blight ; the turnips last put in scarcely 

 sufi'ered. 



Thus it appears that the turnip, at a particular time of its growth, is 

 predisposed to this bhght ; or, otherwise, there could be no reason 

 whatever that we should not have simultaneously equally suffered. 



The soil on which these experiments were tried is a sandy loam 

 upon a mountain limestone. I have only, however, had it in occupation 

 three years, and when I took it it had been much over-cropped, and 

 was dreadfully impoverished. 



Believe me ever, yours sincerely, 

 King's Weston, Dec. 5, 1840. Miles. 



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