as a Manure for Turnips. 
55 
To enter fully into the claims to our attention which this sug- 
gested practice offers, is, however, unnecessary. These have 
already been fully discussed in the pages of the Royal Agricultural 
Journal. Experiment, too, has in an extraordinary manner con- 
firmed them. The results of my own former trials, communi- 
cated to the Highland Agricultural Society, of those made by 
the Duke of Richmond, the Morayshire Farmers' Club, and 
others, have already been made known through the same me- 
dium (Royal Agricultural Journal, vol. v.) ; and they are such as, 
while they give great promise that the claims which theory has in 
this case put forth will be made good, demand further inquiry. 
And this not merely that the general truth of a theory which pro- 
mises so much, and has already performed something, may be set 
beyond dispute — as we take it that the facts already proved are 
pretty conclusive as to the general truth of the advantages claimed 
for the system — but that all the peculiarities in effect and par- 
ticulars of the preparation and application of so novel and econo- 
mical a fertilising agent may be made known, and any difficulties 
or Inconvenience which might retard its general adoption be the 
more speedily removed. 
Such then is the necessity which both theory and practice have 
for further inquiry into the action of bone manure ; and to this 
necessity is to be ascribed these and other investigations on the 
same subject which the writer has, within the last few years, un- 
dertaken. In the present case, however, he has made repeated 
trials, the results of which he has previously ascertained and 
published. As truth, however, cannot be too frequently con- 
firmed, or error too speedily exposed, and as, in fact, comparative 
results can only be obtained under perfectly similar circum- 
stances, he has done so in order to make the objects and results 
of his present inquiry the more comprehensive and valuable. 
And it has been a matter of hope with him that the experience 
of past labours might enable him to collect information fitted for 
inductive reasoning, and for building our precept and practice upon. 
With what success he has laboured will be seen from the follow- 
ing particulars of the objects, method, and results of his inquiry. 
I. — The Objects of Inquiry. 
On the theory of the action of bones, our object is to ascertain, — 
1 . What is the action of the earthy or inorganic part of bones 
as a manure ? 
2. What that of the organic part ? 
3. Is the united action of the organic and inorganic consti- 
tuents of bone equal to the total action of both when 
applied separately ? 
4. If not, is the circumstance owing to the non-fertilising 
influence of one, or to the diminished action of the 
other ? 
