On Pu)-ifying the Air of Stables. 
279 
Tlic increased salubrity and sweetness of the stable, if pointed out to the 
glooms, would therefore soon reconcile them to the slight additional 
trouble the adoption of this remedy would incur. At Dean House 
the acid gypsum was first strewn amidst the straw ; but as this was 
considered likely to injure the feet and clothing of the hunters, it was 
afterwards spread on trays. One part of sawdust will be found to 
absorb readily three times its weight of acid solution, which I made with 
one part, by measure, of sulphuric acid to fifteen of water. If intended 
to be tried as a manure, it should be mixed in with the straw when re- 
moved from the stable. During the process of rotting, the ammonia is 
evolved so freely, that at the end of two or three weeks the acid powder, 
which should not remain more than three days in the stable w'ithout 
changing, will be found completely neutralized ; and as the greatest 
benefit was derived from covering up and salting dung-heaps, by which 
I believe an additional absorption of ammonia could only have been 
gained, it maybe reasonably hoped that an increased value would result 
from a manure thus surcharged with ammoniacal salts. 
Medical Hall, 168, Piccadilly. 
XIII. — Additional Remarks on the Failure of Red Clover after 
Harvest. By the Rev. W. Thorp. 
I BEG leave to state that I am extremely obliged to the Duke of Port- 
land for correcting the explanation which I have given of the failure of 
the seeds upon some fields near Clumber Park.* 
U|)on referring to the original letter of the Duke of Portland, as re- 
printed from Bell's Weekly IMessenger, in vol. ix. of the Quarterly 
Journal of Agriculture, I find that two fields had been manured with 
bones solely, for a period of thirty years ; that one half of each of the 
fields, as an experiment, was manured with farm-yard dung, and the 
other half with bones, as usual, for turnips. The seed failed upon the 
boned portions ; tliey had died away before harvest. The seeds were 
re-sown on the stubbles, but died away again in about six weeks ^ were 
again re-sown in spring, and manured with dung, but produced only an 
inferior crop. 
These fields therefore ought not to have been adduced by me as cases 
in point ; for it is stated in the commencement of the article (p. 321), 
that it is concerning the failure of the clover crop after harvest to which 
the remarks would be directed. 
Tiie " Agriculturist" t who reprints the Duke of Portland's letter 
ascribes the failure of the seeds to the four-course shift of — 1. turnips — 
2. barley — 3. clover — 4. wheat, — which he says is not adapted to any 
sand-land, with even an unlimited command of manure; for that course 
keeps light land too much under the plough, pidverising it too much. 
* .Journal, vol. iii. p. 335. 
+ Agriculturist's Note-Book, p. 102. 
