About 1845, however, he in great measure gave up his veterinary practice, and commenced, in partnership with Mr. Bennett, a manufacture of chemical manures at Eling Hill Farm.
Through his exertions the chemical manure works of Spooner & Bailey, probably the best at that time in the south of England, soon became widely known.
In 1852 a prize offered by the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society for an essay ‘On the most Economical and Profitable Method of growing and consuming Root Crops’ was awarded to him.
In the same year a water drill of his invention was exhibited at Pusey, and received much praise (ib.
Towards the end of his life Spooner concentrated his attention very largely on the manufacture of superphosphate and other artificial manures.
He edited and in part rewrote, in 1842, White's two treatises, ‘A Compendium of Cattle Medicine’ and ‘A Compendium of the Veterinary Art.’ Among his minor contributions, which cover a wide range of agricultural topics, may be mentioned papers on ‘Cross-breeding in Sheep and Horses,’ ‘The Capabilities of the New Forest,’ ‘The Failure of the Turnip Crop,’ &c. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Clarke, Ernest (1898).