as a Manure for Turnips. 
69 
quantity will answer equally well ; and that even one-fourth the 
ordinary quantity, or 25 times the weight of the acid, will serve the 
purpose required very efficiently. 
This fact is one which will be of great use. One of the main prac- 
tical difficulties to contend with in the application of dissolved bones 
was the large quantity of water which was considered necessary. 
These results, liowever, show that 4 bushels of bones (or 12st.), 6st. 
of acid, and 300 st. of water (at 50 fold) = 420 gallons per acre, will 
suffice, or at 25 fold, 210 gallons will serve. 
While upon this question it will not be improper to state, that the ob- 
jection to the liquid form of application may be done away with by using 
the manure in the compost form, as practised by Mr. Tennant Ayr, and 
detailed in the addition to my paper o« Sulphuric Acid, in the 'Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,' vol. v. p. 596. 
As, however, it is proved in this case that so small a quantity of 
water will serve us, and as it is not requisite to place the manure in im- 
mediate contact with the seed, (all the dissolved bones in these trials 
being spread in the ridge, and then covered up with the plough, before 
the seed was drilled,) a simple barrel for the distribution of the liquid 
may be easily constructed. — ( Vide my paper on Action of Dissolved 
Bones, 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,' vol. v. p. 467.) 
12. That the sulphuric and muriatic acids have no fertilizing 
influence of themselves ; and that the whole of the beneficial re- 
sults from dissolved bones is owing to the increased efficiency of 
the bones. 
Compare 18 and 19 with 20 for proof of this. It has been thought 
that some of the acid might form salts with the alkalies in the soil, and 
thus have some effect upon vegetation ; but such is not the result in this 
case. 
13. That the general advantages arising from the use of dis- 
solved bones, instead of the ordinary bone-dust, are — 1st, a great 
saving in the cost of the application ; 2nd, a gain in the greatly 
augmented produce ; 3rd, a crop which grows so quickly that the 
fly, and other enemies of the turnip's infancy, cannot afflict it so 
seriously as in ordinary cases ; 4th, a crop which shows so early a 
tendency to form bulbs that it affords us the means, by sowing 
early, of getting an early crop for autumn feeding, or, by sowing 
late, of securing a crop when no other known means could effect 
it, and when our land, owing to peculiar circumstances, has not 
been fit for the seed at an earlier period. 
The three first advantages h&ve already been explained, and the fourth 
is of equal consequence. In the present case the crop was sown at a 
later period than usual, as a test of the forcing quality of the manure; 
and it is fully proved, not only by final results, but by the fact of the 
turnips under its influence arriving so soon at maturity. 
The advantages of an early crop are well known when we want food 
for sheep in the autumn. An early crop of turnips, too, will give more 
