Root  Crops. 
420 
and  get  over  10  acres  a-day.  Our  great  difficulty  is  to  secure  a 
plant.  Since  I followed  Mr.  Jonas’s  advice  five  years  ago  in 
doubling  the  quantity  of  seed,  using  3 or  4 lbs.  to  the  acre,  and 
have  also  used  superphosphate,  I have  scarcely  lost  an  acre  of 
turnips  by  the  fly,  though  the  fly  has  sometimes  obliged  my 
neighbours  to  sow  two  or  three  times.  The  superphosphate 
pushes  up  the  plant  quickly  into  rough  leaf,  out  of  the  fly’s 
power ; and  though  many  be  eaten,  others  take  their  place,  as 
the  seed  does  not  all  come  up  at  once.  1 mention  this,  because 
certainty  is  a very  great  matter  in  farming.  The  next  point  is 
economy  ; and  in  this  too,  in  looking  backward  eight  years,  we 
have  reason  to  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  now  general  use  of 
sulphuric  acid  with  bones.  At  first  the  bones  so  treated  were 
applied  in  the  liquid  form  ; but  the  dry  form,  as  I recommended, 
soon  became  universal,  and  superphosphate  a common  article  of 
commerce.  Another  method,  the  putrefaction  of  bones,  is  yet 
more  easy  to  practise.  I have  found  it  answer  to  employ  them 
jointly.  The  superphosphate  pushes  on  the  young  plant ; the 
fermented  bones  feed  the  tuber  as  it  is  formed.  The  immediate 
economy  effected,  in  giving  an  adequate  dose  per  acre,  may 
be  stated  roughly  as  follows  : — 
Cost  of  each  of  the  four 
applications. 
£.  s.  d. 
16  bushels  bones  . . . . . .220 
8 bushels  bones  fermented  . . . .110 
3 cwt.  superphosphate  . . . . .110 
1 z cwt.  superphosphate,  4 bushels  fermented  bones  I 1 0 
All  these  doses  are  rather  low ; but  the  proportion  I believe  to 
be  just.  Here,  then,  is  a most  important  reduction  in  one  of  the 
two  principal  charges  of  high-farming,  the  yearly  bone-bill.  If 
we  double  the  dose,  as  is  my  own  practice,  and  use  5 cwts.  per 
acre,  we  are  within  the  sum  saved  from  Mr.  Bayldon’s  couch-bill, 
for  which  credit,  as  the  reader  may  recollect,  was  reserved  at  the 
time,  and  have  therefore  a right  to  say  that  so  far  high  as  well  as 
clean  farming  is  not  more  expensive  than  foul  farming.  The  cost 
is  the  same  ; the  produce,  of  course,  very  different.  This,  how- 
ever, by  the  bye.  The  turnips  come  up  very  quickly  and  thickly, 
so  that  no  time  must  be  lost  in  singling  them  out.  Mr.  Jonas 
advises  that  a harrow  should  be  drawn  across  the  rows  to  separate 
them  for  the  lioers.  I find  it  also  a good  plan  not  to  let  the  hoers 
delay  for  absolutely  singling  each  plant,  a tedious  matter  in  thick 
sowing,  but  that  they  should  rather  strike  once  with  the  hoe,  leaving 
the  singling  to  be  finished- by  a troop  of  children  from  six  years 
old  upwards,  who,  with  their  fingers,  at  ‘Id.  or  3 d.  a day,  if  well 
looked  alter,  earn  their  pay  well,  and  are  not  sorry  to  leave  school 
for  the  purpose.  From  this  time  Garrett’s  horse-hoe,  exactly 
VOL.  xi.  2 F 
