3'jG 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Here the evidence clearly shows, that in like manner 

 as the inferior species of gramineous herbage were en- 

 couraged by the ammoniacal manures and the good 

 kinds discouraged, the effect on the leguminous tribes 

 was the same. On the other hand, the non-ammoniacal 

 manures were eminently promotive of an improved 

 leguminous vegetation. The purely mineral composi- 

 tion, in particular, had a very marked effect in fostering 

 the growth of a considerable proportion of perennial 

 red clover. In the normal condition of the meadow, 

 this valuable member of good grass land existed in the 

 limited proportion of only l-5th per cent, of the entire 

 produce. In the plot manured with minerals alone it 

 was raised to nearly 18 per cent. On this circum- 

 stance the experimentalists have laid much stress, 

 as being, in their opinion, a strong confirmation 

 of one of their favourite theories, namely, that the 

 mineral manures experimented with at Rothamsted are 

 those specifically beneficial to all legumens as a botanical 

 order in the vegetable kingdom, whether they be the 

 pea, bean, tare, or vetch of tillage husbandry, or the 

 clovers and trefoil of permanent grass land. But as 

 respects the particular experimental instance in hand, 

 the tone of original discovery in which it is commented 

 on by the experimentalists, resolves itself into a thrice- 

 told tale, since it is a fact, as already specially pointed 

 out (see Table IV.), that under the ambiguous term 

 " mixed minerals," which proved so efficacious in en- 

 titling the experimental plot, treated with these sub- 

 stances alone, to claim for its produce the palm of 

 greatest qualitative excellence, there was included 

 upzcards of 3 not. of superp7iosp7iafe of lime ; so 

 that in the course of the three years embraced in the 

 trials, the land received at the rate of nearly half a ton 

 per acre of this well-known promoter of all the best 

 kinds of pasture vegetation. Considering how imme- 

 diately active isthemanurialelementinphospho-calcare- 

 ous substances rendered soluble by acids, whether it be 

 the phosphatie constituent or the lime, the quantity of 

 superphosphate here applied in three years is to be re- 

 garded, looking at immediate results, as equal or per- 

 haps much more than equal to the usual quantity of 

 raw bones (from one to two tons), once in ten or twenty 

 years, so generally used to top-dress the grass fields in 

 the best-managed pastoral districts of England. In 

 Cheshire, says Caird, the almost immediate effect is " to 

 cover the ground thickly with clover, trefoil,and succulent 

 grasses, in lieu of the thinly planted and very innutri- 

 tious pink pointed grass whi«h previously occupied the 

 soil." " Bones," said the late Duke of Portland, in 

 describing his improvements in pasture land, " appeared 

 so much to encourage the growth of white clover, that 

 I had almost formed the opinion that it was superfluous 

 to sow seed." 



" Having now shown," says Mr, H. S. Thompson, 

 in his admirable Essay *' On the Laying down of Land 

 to Grass, and its Subsequent Management," " that the 

 farmer has to a great extent the power of deciding upon 

 the kind of grass that he will grow, I must next re- 

 mind him that great fineness of quality is inconsistent 

 with large bulk ; and that if he requires hay for sheep 

 or horses for fast work, he must be content with a 

 moderate amount of produce. Bearing this in mind, I 

 would furnish him with this general rule : that when he 

 wants quantity, he must use guano, nitrate of soda, 

 soot, or other ammoniacal manure ; and that when he 

 wants quality he must use lime or bones " {Journal 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. xix. p. 262). 

 And again ; " The last point to which I shall call atten- 

 tion is the improvement of pastures, and there is 

 scarcely a farm in the United Kingdom on which this 

 kind of improvement is not wanted. An outlay in 

 bones or lime of M or £5 per acre would convert a 



large portion of our second-rate pastures into good feed- 

 ing land," (p. 263.) And again : " Should the land 

 bear coarse strong herbage, which cattle reject, a dress- 

 ing of compost containing a few bushels of bones per 

 acre, especially if well soaked with liquid manure from 

 a cattle-yard, will bring clover and tine herbage, and 

 make the cattle graze it to the very roots of the grass," 

 (p. 2G4). 



Yet in the face of these, and many other equally author 

 ritative dicta of practical agriculturists, the Rothamsted 

 experimentalists are pleased to say that the application 

 of bones is not recommended for general " adoption." 

 Upon no grounds are they warranted in oiTering opinions 

 in husbandry to the world, except such as flow out of 

 their own experimental processes, and in as far as these 

 bear on the use of that form of bone manure termed su- 

 perphosphate of lime, they are eminently confirmatory 

 of the general verdict in favcur of bone manuring in 

 meadows or pastures. Again, say ihe experimentalists, 

 " the best artificial manures for grass-land are Peruvian 

 guano" (which we neither admit nor deny, because it is 

 not in the category of manures experimented on) ; "and 

 nitrate of soda and sulphate (or muriate) of ammonia," 

 which on the basis of the experimental results them- 

 selves we deny. 1st, because as respects nitrate of soda 

 the trial was only for one year ; and secondly because as 

 respects the ammoniacal salts, the plain testimony is to 

 consign them to the limbo of those manurials whose pro- 

 pensities are, when used in successive years, to encour- 

 age bad, and discourage good species of vegetation. 



With regard to the voluminous chemical disquisition 

 embodied in the published report, we believe we shall 

 best convey an idea of its import by quoting the head- 

 ings given in this part of the experimentalists' paper. 



EXPEKIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT MANURES ON PERMA- 

 NENT Meadow Land. 

 " Table XI. — Per centage of dry substance in the hay. 



Xll. — Per centage of mineral matter (aah) in the hay. 

 XIII. — Per centage composition of the ash, and quan- 

 tities of the mineral constituents in the total 

 produce, and in the increase by manure per 

 acre. 

 XIV. — Composition of the ashes of meadow hay, 

 grown experimentally in different seasons. 

 XV. — Per centagea of nitrogen in the hay. 

 XVI. — Per ceutages of woody fibre in the hay. 

 XVII. — Collective view of the composition and descrip- 

 tion of the mixed herbage." 



That the result of investigations such as are indicated 

 by these tabular titles, almost always evolve an enor- 

 mous amount of uncertain conclusion, is known to evsry 

 one. We will give an instance of this, deduced from 



No. XVII. vol. XX., p. 429, of the above enumeration. 

 From the second section of that table, headed " Com- 

 position per cent, in the dry substance of the Hay," it 

 appears, that if the innutritions woody fibre of the pro- 

 duce of the plot No. 10, manured with mixed minerals 

 and ammoniacal salts, be deducted from the other 

 chemical results of the analysis, there remains a resi- 

 dual per centage of nutrimental elements amounting 



to 70.63 



Calculated in like manner, the chemical results 

 of the analytic examination of the produce of 

 plot 8, vaAViMxeAyiith. mixed minerals alone, 



gives of nutritive matters 70.83 



so that, according to this, it is to be understood, that 

 the several products of hay from these two diflerently- 

 manured plots, were, ton for ton, of almost exactly equal 

 nutritions, or feeding value. That this conclusion is 

 preposterous is manifest from this simple fact, that, ton 

 for ton, the yield of the non-ammoniacal experiment 



