226 



Turnip Manure. 



and in every instance, in 1844, '5, and '6, my turnips have been 

 declared by good judges to be a guinea an acre better by the new 

 way than by the old ; and the crops following the new process, 

 particularly grass, have been earlier and better than those follow- 

 ing the old. And in J 846 I was rather short of dung, and took 

 off 5 loads of dung per Scotch acre, and added 104 lbs. 

 (2^ bushels) of bones, and 52 lbs. of vitriol, — and with this 

 change, which was an additional saving, the turnips maintained 

 their superiority, over the old way, to the full extent. 



The old way, as before stated, 20 loads of dung and 8 bushels 



of bones £4 14 0 



New way, in 1846, 15 loads of dung, at 35. Qd. £2 12 6 

 230 lbs., or 5 bush, bones at 3^. . 0 15 0 

 115 lbs. of vitriol, at Id. l-5th . 0 116 



3 19 0 



Saving per acre . . . £0 15 0 



With regard to labour, I consider that the dung-heap has to be 

 turned in the old process, and that carting the bones to the field and 

 sowing them on the dung in the drills, at the hurried sowing season, 

 is more than equal to mixing the vitriol and bone liquid, and throw- 

 ing it on the dung-heap at an earlier and less hurried season. 



Westerton, by Huntly, March 31, 1847. 



XI. — On Agricultural Chemistry. By John Bennet Lawes. 



It is a matter of surprise that so little is actually known upon the 

 theory of agriculture. Its practice is nearly coeval with man- 

 kind, while as yet it scarcely exists as a science. Ask the most 

 experienced farmer to explain the principles which govern the 

 routine he is daily in the habit of practising ? Ask him to deter- 

 mine the value of any rotation of crops, or their comparative ex- 

 hausting powers ? Ask him what ingredients must be restored to 

 the soil to keep its fertility unimpaired ? or the exact manner in 

 which climate influences his produce ? His answers will be vague 

 and unsatisfactory. - But these, and a thousand other questions of 

 a similar nature, are capable of solution by science, and they must 

 be answered before agriculture can be said to rest upon a satis- 

 factory foundation. 



Independently of the money which must annually be lost in fruit- 

 less experiments, the disadvantages attending the want of fixed rules 

 in agriculture are many. Numbers of men possessing capital are 

 deterred from farming by the proverbial uncertainty of the profits 

 attending it ; and many who follow the profession of agriculture, 



