on Permanent Meadow Land. 553 



aspects — and in some involving its most intricate relations — the 

 subject has received the attention of investigators at once com- 

 petent and laborious. The pages of the ' Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England ' sufficiently bear out this state- 

 ment. Among them are to be found valuable records of practical 

 observation, and experience, as to the distribution, the adaptation, 

 and the comparative utility, of the most important plants composing 

 this heterogeneous crop, according to character of soil, climate, 

 and other circumstances,* We have elaborate examinations by 

 Professor Way, into the composition of the several plants, each 

 grown under circumstances favourable to its development, and all 

 taken as far as possible at an equal stage of growth. •]• And in 

 the last Number of the Journal will be found three Papers, each 

 of great but distinctive value, bearing upon the practical manage- 

 ment and manuring of the Grass crop. 



As the title of the present Paper will indicate, its scope and 

 objects are sufficiently distinct from those of the inquiries above 

 alluded to. And, whilst the plan of the investigation which has 

 been undertaken, and the character of the data which it has 

 afforded, will necessarily lead to a somewhat special treatment of 

 the subject, we shall endeavour, as far as circumstances will 

 permit, to pay due regard to what appears to have been esta- 

 blished hitherto. 



An inquiry into the comparative effects of different manuring 

 substances upon permanent grass, has, however, other grounds of 

 interest than such as relate merely to determining the best means 

 of increasing the gross amount of its produce. There is perhaps 

 no crop more influenced in its character, as well as its quantity^ 

 by the attention bestowed upon it. Our Grass-crop comprises, 

 as is well known, not only a great number of genera and species 

 belonging to the Graminaceous family — the Natural Grasses- 

 commonly so called — but also various members of other families 

 of plants, among which, by far the most important is the Legu- 

 minous. It so happens, then, that in our Meadows and Pastures 

 there are associated members of those two families of plants that 

 afford us the crops which are not only the most important among 

 those which enter into our rotations, but which, as there grown 

 separately, and in alternation, exhibit very characteristically 

 different degrees of dependence upon the direct artificial supply 

 of some of their constituents ; and coincidently with this, show 

 very distinctive relationships to one another in the course of 

 cropping. 



* See ' Prize Peport,' by Mr. John Bravender, Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. v. : 

 also Papers by Professor Buckman, Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. xv, p. 462 ; vol. 

 xvii. p. 162; and vol. xvii. p. 513. 



t Jour. Roy. A^. Soc, vol. xi. p. 530, and vol. xir. p. 171, 

 VOL. XIX. 2 



