Experiments made in raising Turnips. 
167 
turnips by three different modes, on the farm of Orbliston, season 
1842:"— 
" I may premise what I intend to be ii concise and ample report of 
these experiments, by stating that they were made on light turnip-soil, 
by no means in high condition, and that in naming the acre I mean the 
imperial or standard. 
" On the 1st of June the third part of an acre was measured off, and 
next day thrown up into drills, formed deep, and made 28 inches wide. 
On the same day a bushel of bones was sifted fine from a large heap of 
mixed drill and dust; the bones were then weighed, and found to be 45 
lbs. ; they were then placed in a large box, 22^ lbs. of sulphuric acid, being 
one-half the weight of the bone-dust, were then weighed out and applied 
to the bone-dust, and immediately afterwards were added 67^ lbs. of 
water, or three times the weight of the sulphuric acid. The whole was 
then stirred about, and allowed to remain twenty-four hours, by which 
time the mixture had obtained the consistency of fine gruel, and the 
particles of bones were completely dissolved, with few exceptions. At 
tiiis time were added 2200 lbs. of water, or 100 times the weight of the 
sulphuric acid ; the whole mixture then apj)eared like dirty water, and 
was carried to the fields. The expense standing thus : — 
£. s. d. 
1 bushel of sifted bones, at 3s. Qd. , . • ,036 
22 lbs. of snlpliiiric acid, at per lb.' . . ,024 
£0 5 10 
Or per acre I7i. (>(/. 
The drills were then harrowed down by a single streak; the mixture 
drawn .off the box, and applied by a watering-pan along the bottom of 
the drills, then covered in the usual manner, and immediately sown with 
Dale's Hybrid Turnips. 
" On the same day another third of an acre was measured off, and 
drilled up 28 inches wide ; and to this were applied 5 cart-loads of farm- 
yard manure, properly prepared, and 5 bushels of bones, half dust and 
half drill, again covered in, sown with the same kind of turnips in the 
usual mode. The expense standing as follows : — 
£. s. d. 
5 cart-loads of manure, at \s. Sd. per load . . .084 
5 bushels of dust and drill-bones, at 3s. 2rf. . . 0 15 10 
£14 2 
Or 3/. 12s. 6d. per acre. 
" Likewise, on the same day was measured off one-third of an acre, 
and drilled up 28 inches wide ; to this were given 4 bushels of bones, 
half drill and half dust, dibbled in, and the seed dropped in immedi- 
ately over the bones, being the same kind of turnips as the other — the 
expense being 4 bushels of bones at 3?. 2d. — 12s. 8d.; or 11. I8s. per 
acre. These experiments were all made on the same field, and nearly 
adjoining each other. 
