Superphosphate of Lime. 
143 
beneficial effects of burnt earth may be seen for many years on 
poor lieavy land. 
It is also an unlimited source of employment, and particularly 
to old men and weak hands, as well as a means of much increas- 
ing the produce of some districts. 
Yours obediently, 
Chas. Poppy. 
Witneshxxm, Ipswich, June 3rd, 1846. 
July 1. — My estimate of the produce of the clover whilst 
standing on the respective portions of the field described above 
proved to be correct on cutting and carting. The beans are still 
by far the most promising crop. This was not a new experiment, 
except as to quantity of earth burned and spread on the same 
space from which it was taken. Great quantities of earth are 
burned for manure every year in this county in the heavy land 
districts, and such has been the case as far back as the oldest 
farmers and labourers can remember. — Chas. Poppy. 
IX. — On the Use of Superphosphate of Lime, produced with Acid 
and Bones for Manure. By W. C. Spooner. 
Prize Essay. 
The difficulties under which the pursuit of agriculture has for 
some years laboured — the importance and indeed the absolute 
necessity of raising the largest crops of roots at the least possible 
expense, afford ample reasons for the Council of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society of England proposing as a subject suitable for a 
Prize Essay " The Use of Bones with Acid," which on high autho- 
rity has been designated " the most important saving which was 
ever held out in the use of manure." If any additional reason 
were required why the utmost attention should be devoted to 
this important matter, and the most extended information gained 
respecting it, it may be found in the fact that while the constantly 
increasing population of this country demands a corresponding 
augmentation of animal and vegetable food, the sources of supply 
both of bones and guano are likely to become greatly diminished. 
Thus not only as it affects the interest of the occupier and owner 
of the soil, but also on national grounds, is the subject of our 
Essay worthy of the deepest consideration. The superior eco- 
nomy of employing bones mixed with an acid, over that of using 
bones alone, is no longer a hypothetical or even a probable state- 
ment, but an established fact ; and though I shall have to offer 
