408 
Farm Reports. 
courses of roots, making in a farm of 1050 acres, 300 acres devoted 
to those crops every year. Of this quantity 20 acres are sown 
with rape, one half of the remainder with Skirving's King of 
the Swedes, and the remaining half with green and white globe 
turnips. No mangolds are grown. Swede sowing commences 
about the last week in May, and is finished during the first week 
in June, 2^ lbs. of seed being drilled to the acre. Turnip 
sov/ing follows immediately, with about 2 lbs. of seed per acre ; 
and rape sowing is finished by about the last week in June. 
All roots are sown on the flat, the rows being 26 inches apart. 
Ridge-sowing has not been tried, as the land is very loose, and 
the plan adopted enables it to retain moisture longer than is 
possible when ridge-sowing is practised. 
The bulk of the farmyard manure having been used for the 
wheat crop, great attention is paid to the compost of artificial 
manures, &c., used as a dressing for roots. Early in the year 
large quantities of half-inch bones and superphosphate are mixed 
together, at the rate of 8 bushels of the former and 4 cwt. of the 
latter to every acre of turnips, as well as a certain quantity of 
ashes. This mixture is allowed to remain in a heap for a month, 
when it is turned, moistened with tank-water, and covered again 
with ashes. The liquid manure, besides adding a little to the 
strength of the compost, performs the more important function of 
assisting in the solution of the half-inch bones. On its addition 
to the heap the temperature becomes in a little time very per- 
ceptibly raised, and this " heating " is caused by the combination 
of the water with free sulphuric acid. If the water or liquid 
manure did not, soon after its application, raise the temperature 
of the mass, it would be a tolerably sure indication that this 
addition to the heap had ceased to be beneficial, and had begun 
to be hurtful. When ready to put on the land the mass yields 
about 3 quarters to the acre, the quantity of ashes added having 
been about equal in volume to that of the bones and super- 
phosphate, and this mixture is drilled with the seed on the whole 
of the land for turnips. 
The Eastburn crop of swedes last year was the finest in the 
neighbourhood, and quite an average crop for the district, where 
roots are very difficult to grow ; but it should be observed that 
the practice of manuring seeds in July is not adopted by all the 
farmers in the district, many preferring to apply the farmjard 
manure the previous autumn, the argument in favour of this plan 
being that it strengthens the young clovers during the winter, and 
enables them to carry more stock the following summer. Some 
farmers also prefer manuring for the turnip crop instead of for 
wheat. 
The plan adopted in purchasing superphosphates with a view 
