( ^c>i ) 
XII. — Report hy the Caminiihe of the Morayshire Farmer Club, 
appointed to inspect and to report on the Experiments made 
ill raising Turnips hij means of SidpJturic Acid and Bone- 
Dust. Communicated by the Duke of Richmond. 
Ttik Committee found that the only members of the Club who 
had tried the experiment were Mr. M'William, Sheriffston, and 
Mr. Geddes, Orbliston, tlie fmuner of these gentlemen having also 
used guano. 
The Committee have much pleasure in reporting the success 
of the experiments, whereby a great discovery has certainly been 
madc% which, if judiciously followed up, must tend to diminish 
very materially the heavy expense the farmer is now put to in 
raising a crop of turnips, from the very high price of bone-manure. 
Before proceeding to state the details of the experiment, as 
furnished by Mr. M'William and Mr. Geddes, the Committee 
may remark that last season appeared to be very unfavourable to 
the experiment, from the long continuance of dry weather, and 
more particularly as it is pretty evident the turnips come away 
much earlier to which sulphuric acid has been applied, and con- 
sequently are sooner affected with drought. 
The crops of both gentlemen raised by means of the applica- 
tion of the sulphuric acid were very fair indeed, though it was 
evident in the fields that the turnips raised from bones continued 
jnore vigorous in the tops than those from sulphuric acid and 
bones, the one having pushed sooner on to maturity than the 
other. In Mr. M'William's field this was particularly to be re- 
marked, and the crop there raised by bones alone, appeared to 
have the advantage ; but when the experiment came to be proved 
at the weighing-machine, the difference of produce was very 
evident. 
Mr. M'William, in his report to the Committee, states that on 
a field of Swedish turnips, he manured very heavily with well- 
prepared farm-yard manure, and commenced sowing on the 13th 
of May ; that to some parts of the field he applied, in addition, 
12 bushels of bones per acre; to other parts a proportion of 
guano, and to 2i acres a solutif)n of sulphuric acid and bone-dust, 
at the rate of 2 bushels of bones and 40 lbs. of sulphuric acid. 
These applications had an advantage in the crop, over what was 
manured only ; but from the great quantity of manure applied 
over the field, this was not considered to be a fair test of the 
different applications. 
The applications were fairly tested on another field, which Mr, 
M'William states was 
" rather favourable for turnips, had carried a crop of wheat, which was 
well manured after a two-years' ley. The wlieat-stu1)ble was trench- 
ploughed with three horses, and, in spring, treated in the usual way. 
