Drilling Maiden Earth for Turnips. 
489 
is applied with increased advantacre when moistened with liquid 
manure, and if too wet for readily passing through the drill, a 
sprinkling of dust from the roads is all that is requisite. 
One hundred bushels per acre are sufficient to support young 
turnips until the roots are sufficiently developed to contend with 
ungenial soil, or to feed upon- highly concentrated manures. 
The advantages of this system cannot be too highly appreciated- 
by the occupiers of soils considered precarious for the growth of 
tuniips, upon which uniform crops may be secured by the depo- 
sition of an artificial seed-bed." At Butleigh, near Glaston- 
bury, upon a soil considered unsuitable for the successful growth 
of turnips, is now growing a crop of pink turnips weighing 
30 tons 18 cwt. per acre, produced by ICO bushels of compost 
drilled, and 3 cwt. of Peruvian guano sown broadcast. The com- 
post consisted of three parts of rotten turf and one part of short 
dung and road-dust. The field had been much exhausted by 
three white crops in succession. 
The admixture of soils by the aid of the improved Lincolnshire 
drills has not sufficiently engaged the attention of the agriculturist. 
The cultivator of heavy clay soils is enabled to grow swede turnips 
by depositing with the seed " a seed-bed " of light earth in which 
the young plants will flourish until able to derive support from an 
imperfectly pulverized soil. The occupier of soils too light for the 
growth of heavy samples of wheat is enabled, by the deposition of 
a strong earth rich in the elements favourable to the support of 
wheat, to produce grain of good quality ; and the occupier of peat- 
soils abounding in vegetable matter, but deficient in earthy sub- 
stances, is enabled (in the absence of clay) by the frequent appli- 
cation of small quantities of earth, sand, or gravel, to convert a 
merely vegetable and root-producing soil into a Liwhly valuable 
soil fitted for the growth of grain of excellent quality. 
Yours, yery faithfully, 
R. S. Graburn. 
Walton, Clevedon, Somerset, 
Dec. \Oth, 1845. 
XL. — On the Theory of Deep Draining. 
By J. C. Clutterbuck. 
I SEE that the attention of the Royal Agricultural Society has 
lately been directed to the subject of deep draininjj; and as I 
have for some years past made observations on the percolation, 
subterranean flow, and drainage of water in various soils, I have 
referred to my memoranda in hopes that some of flie manj- facts 
