sing in early spring.
Where the clover plant is a good one, and it is particularly desired to
cultivate it, he recommends as a dressing 1 cwt. of muriate of potash
per acre, to be applied immediately after the clover is sown. The
practice of dressing growing seeds in their first winter has, so far as
the experiments in Norfolk go, less to recommend it than the earlier
dressing.

MANURING OF PERMANENT PASTURES.

In this case the manure should be applied so as not to impair the
quality of the herbage. Slow-acting manures are consequently best, such
as basic slag or bones, which have been found to be of special value. On
wet or marshy land after draining, lime is perhaps one of the best
manures to apply in the first instance. As we have already said,
farmyard manure will do more to maintain the quality of pasture than any
kind of artificial manure. Mr Cooke is of opinion that no system of
manuring yet discovered will both thicken and improve the herbage at
all equally in success to the careful and regular feeding upon the grass
of cattle or sheep, the animals having a good allowance of decorticated
cotton-cake, or even of linseed-cake.

ROOTS.

Of all crops roots may be said to require the most liberal application
of manure, and to respond most freely to it. They contain large
quantities of the fertilising ingredients--nitrogen, phosphates, and
potash--and may be regarded as exceedingly exhaustive crops. This is
especially the case with regard to mangels, which make particularly
large demands on a soil's fertilising ingredients.

Turnips are characterised by the large amount of sulphur they contain;
and, according to some, this explains the beneficial effect which gypsum
has when applied to them as a manure. This, however, is more probably to
be explained by the indirect action of gypsum in setting free the potash
of the soil. The fact that the successful cultivation of root crops
depends on the application of large quantities of manure, is recognised
in practice, as they receive the most manure of any crop of the
rotation. Roots flourish best on a light soil which is neither too wet
nor too dry; but with liberal manuring and careful tillage, they may be
said to do well on any soil. Mangels are generally more benefited by
the application of nitrogenous manures than are turnips or swedes,
which, it would seem, have a greater power of absorbing nitrogen from
the soil than the first-named crop; but it is a mistake t