262 Management of Grass Land. 



another. The sheet of white clover produced by a heavy dress- 

 ing of lime on moorlands and other inferior pasture, where white 

 clover had scarcely been seen before, is well known to upland 

 farmers, and it would be easy to multiply instances of a similar^ 

 kind ; but none of those I have ever seen can be compared in 

 point of variety and distinctness of result with the set of experi- 

 ments which has now for some years been carried on by Mr. 

 Lawes in his park at Rothamsted, and which I had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining in June, 1857. There might be seen, side 

 by side, strips of the same old meadow, manured -wiih farmyard 

 manure, with alkalies, with phosphates, with ammoniacal salts, and 

 with various combinations of these substances. By comparison 

 with the unmanured grass adjoining it would be observed that the 

 meadow in its natural state was one of only moderate grass- 

 growing capabilities, yet some plots were loaded with a crop of 

 the most bulky of our gramineae, such as cocksfoot, rye-grass, 

 foxtail, &c., all growing with a luxuriance which would excite 

 attention even in a waterside meadow of the first class. Side by 

 side with this might be seen a plot nearly covered with clovers, 

 trefoils, and vetches ; whilst the next plot in the series would 

 perhaps scarcely furnish a single head of any of those tribes of 

 plants. Mr. Lawes will, it is hoped, make public the exact 

 results of this valuable series of experiments, and it is not 

 necessary to say more respecting them here, than that it would 

 be difficult for any one who has not witnessed them to imagine 

 the strangeness of the appearance presented by the trial plots 

 when growing such very different quantities and kinds of herbage, 

 and the difficulty that would be experienced by a stranger, in 

 persuading himself that they were all produced simply by the 

 application of different manures to the same meadow. 



Having now shown that the farmer has, to a great extent, the 

 power of deciding upon the kind of grass tliat he will grow, I 

 must next remind him that great fineness of quality is incon- 

 sistent Avith 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 qualify he must use lime or bones. The 

 following mixture I have found vei'y effective, viz., a mixture 

 of equal weights of best Peruvian guano, nitrate of soda, and 

 common salt, to be used, in early spring, at the rate of 3 or 

 4 cwt. per acre, according to the condition of the land. If this 

 or other stimulating mixtures should make the grass too strong 

 and coarse, then lime or bones must be applied as a corrective j 

 and, as their effects vary much on different soils, 1 should, in all 



