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VII I . — Report on the Analysis of the Ashes of Plants. (Second 

 Part.) By J. Thomas Way, late Professor of Chemistry at 

 the Agricultural College of Cirencester ; and G. H. Ogston, 

 late Assistant to Professor Graham, of University College, 

 London. 



In presenting our last report to the Society, we found occasion to 

 remark that circumstances rather than choice had led us to make 

 the cereals the first objects of our attention. In anticipation of 

 the harvest, we were enabled to make arrangements for collecting 

 specimens of wheat from different soils and localities, and the 

 result of their examination was communicated to the Society. 

 With wheat, we think, enough has been done for the present. Of 

 the other corn crops, however, we know but little, nor are we at 

 the present time in possession of a selection of specimens either 

 of oats or barley, that would repay the outlay of much time or 

 labour.* We hope in the coming autumn to obtain satisfactory 

 samples of these crops ; but in the meanwhile it is our duty to 

 lay before the Society the results which we have obtained respect- 

 ing the more important of the root crops. On the whole, there 

 can be little doubt that this branch of the subject is of more con- 

 sequence than any other. It has been justly remarked, that the 

 turnip culture is the basis of all good farming ; it is the means, in 

 the hands of the intelligent farmer, of bringing his land into a 

 condition of cleanliness and fertility, and in the rotation the crop 

 is invaluable, both as a source of food for the manufacture of 

 mutton and beef, and as a preparation for the succeeding corn- 

 crop. The necessary conditions of the growth and the peculiarities 

 of the mineral composition of the turnip and the root crops gene- 

 rally, must therefore be of very considerable importance and in- 

 terest, and should hold a prominent place in the research with 

 which our attention is at present occupied. 



We have said that the root crops are means, when judiciously 

 employed, of increasing the fertility of the land — of rendering it, 

 that is, capable of bearing larger crops of the more valuable pro- 

 duce, wheat and the other cereals, which form the great staple of 

 food for man. Now, how do they effect this ? Whence the effi- 

 cacy of the turnip and the mangold? What peculiar properties 

 do these roots possess, that their cultivation should form so im- 

 portant a feature in modern agriculture ? They are most power- 

 ful, most industrious agents in the collection and preparation of 



* With the exception of a series of specimens of barley grown by Dr. 

 Daubeny with different artificial manures, the analysis of which we had 

 hoped to complete for the present report. ^ 



