Drill for distrihulinf/ Superphosphate. 
excellent paper on dissolved bones, by Mr. Hannam, in the fifth 
volume of the Journal, which induced me to try the effect of it 
on a small scale, by letting the liquid run from a box through 
holes at intervals of 18 inches, and sowing the seed immediately 
after with the broadcast seed-machine. The turnips were visible 
in the rows where the liquid had fallen three days before those 
between the rows, and were fit to hoe ten days before them ; as 
the season advanced, the superiority of those plants in the drills 
was still more apparent, and continued so in the same proportion 
to the time they were fed (September, 1845). The quantity of 
manure used in this instance was only half a bushel of dissolved 
bones diluted with tank-liquor. 
Encouraged by this, I was most anxious to procure a drill 
that could be used on a larger scale, and made diligent search 
and inquiry for one^ but without success ; eventually I prevailed 
on the Messrs. Reeves, of Bratton, to make one under my 
directions on the principle of the dredging-machine, which I 
have found to answer well, and by which the following experi- 
ments were made : — 
No. 1. 
The soil a flinty loam, of good quality, the whole equally manured 
with farm-yard manure, the land well pulverized, and sufficiently moist 
to vegetate the seed. Waited till July I4th for rain. 
Jul// \5th, 1846. 
Lot 1. — 5 J acres. Drilled bushels of bones dissolved per acre, to 
which was added 500 gallons of tank-water very much diluted. 
Lot 2. — The seed drilled on a quarter of an acre without any extra 
manure. 
Lot 3. — 2 acres. Drilled bushels of bones dissolved per acre, 
and 500 gallons of spring water. 
Weight on (he 24th of December, 1846. 
Lot L' — 15 tons 6 cwt. per acre. 
Lot 2.— 6 , , 4 , , 
Lots.— 14 ,, 0 : 
In the same year I applied a double quantity of water from the river 
to that stated above, with the same quantity of bone. There was no 
perceptible difference. 
1847, No. L 
Drilled a day, with 1^ bushels of bones in solution, land previously 
manured with the fold. One coulter of the drill (a five-row one) de- 
posited the seed without the extra manure. The plants where no liquid 
was put were entirely destroyed by ily ; the other rows recovered and 
produced a good crop of turnips. 
