and a Soil suitable to its Culture. 
397 
tion, which I do not consider well suited for so poor a soil, 
althouijh it is often adopted here. A section of a stone-pit gives 
the followinjEi: : — First G inches, rather dark cultivated soil ; 
below this, 2 feet of a somewhat lighter soil ; below this, 10 feet 
of yellow sand, resting on sandstone rock. 
VVith regard to the crops generally grown here, I may say 
wheat and barley are the favourites. A fair crop of peas may be 
grown occasionally, but the land does not bear a repetition of 
this crop for a long time. Clovers may be grown once in eight or 
ten years. Sainfoin generally takes well, and yields good crops 
when top-dressed with road-scrapings and yard-manure. Carrots 
are well suited to the soil. Above all, turnips grow to perfection 
if the land is well prepared and well manured for them ; super- 
phosphate appears to be the most suitable manure. On these 
sands, after they have been in cultivation for some years, turnips 
grow well, and are not subject to the disease of anbury ; but in 
some places, on newly cultivated land, they fail altogether. On 
land where turnips are attacked by anbury, the plants generally 
look healthy and well until the time of hoeing ; the leaves then 
turn pale or yellow, and the roots seldom get bigger than a 
finger. 
As you wish to know how the field was cultivated and cropped 
previous to the lupines being planted, I will give you an account 
of the last five years : — In 1856 it was in clover, unmanured. 
1857, wheat, top-dressed with li cwt. Peruvian guano per acre. 
In the autumn the stubble was pared and cleaned, and winter 
vetches drilled ; these were top-dressed with 10 2-horse cart-loads 
of yard-manure to an acre. 1858, vetches, eaten on the land by 
sheep. After the sheep the land was cultivated with a broad- 
share, cleaned, ploughed with a shallow furrow, and turnips drilled 
with 3 cwt. superphosphate. The turnips having been eaten on 
the land by sheep having hay, the land was next ploughed as 
shallow as possible. 1859, the broadshare passed across the 
furrows, and barley drilled. 18G0, 10 2-horse cart-loads of Avell- 
made pig-manure applied to the acre in the last week of March, 
and ploughed in with a furrow 4 inches deep ; the lupines drilled 
on the 3rd of April in rows 13 inches apart; Ij bushel of seed 
per acre. 
Three weeks passed before the plants made their appearance 
aboveground, and then only a few came up. On the 1st of 
May they were so thin on the ground that I quite despaired of a 
crop ; however, they continued to increase in numbers, and at 
the end of six weeks from the time of planting there were enough. 
I am informed by a seedsman that the yellow lupine is always a 
long time coming up ; but I may mention that in this instance 
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