So7ne Field Experiments on the Growth of Turnips, ^c. 113 
not care to give high prices and to send long distances for 
every advertised novelty, but, so far as their own markets are 
concerned, they are always seeking for something better than 
the best they have got at present.* 
III. — Some Field Experiments on the Groicth of Turnips, at 
Rusper, Horsham. By Bernard Dyek, F.C.S., F.I.C. 
The following notes record the results of some experiments 
carried out in the seasons of 1882 and 1883 on the farm of 
Mr. A. F. Parbury, of RuSper, near Horsham, in the county of 
Sussex. The experiments were based on a plan somewhat 
similar to that of the Woburn turnip experiments, except that 
attention was directed solely to the use of Cambridge copro- 
lites, raw and dissolved, with and without the addition of 
dung. 
Mr. Parbury was good enough, in the spring of 1882, to 
place at my disposal a couple of acres of land, and to devote 
much time, trouble, and, it may be added, expense, to the 
carrying out of my suggestions : all essential operations, such 
as the measuring and staking out of the land, the preparation 
and distribution of the manure, the sowing of the seed and the 
weighing of the crops, being carried out under the eyes of both 
of us, and — as far as regards all measurements and weights — 
by our own hands. 
The land is a stiff clay — not, it should be noted, by any 
means of a mechanical texture naturally adapted to the growth 
of turnips ; but none other was at our disposal, and the 
particular field selected had the advantage, for experimental 
purposes, of having been very severely dealt with and badly 
manured for some time previously. Its recent history was 
briefly as follows: — 1878: kohl-rabi, which crop proved a 
failure, and was ploughed in. 1879 : Winter wheat sown 
with red and white clover, alsike, and yellow trefoil. 1880 : 
Two clover crops carried. 1881 : Clover once cropped, and 
* Messrs. Sutton and Sons have most kindly and zealously afforded me a great 
deal of useful aid in the course of the inquiries connected with this paper. The 
same acknowledgment is due to Messrs. Carter and Co., wliose trial-grounds at 
Forest Hill, as well as their seed farms in Essex, have been always open to my 
inspection. It is not perhaps generally known that the Lindley Library, con- 
taining valuable agricultural and horticultural works deposited in the rooms of 
tiic Royal Horticultui-al Society at Soutli Kensington, is open to the public under 
certain regulations. I have found the library useful both for consultation and 
for the loan of its books. 
VOL. XX. — S. S. 
I 
