on Permanent Meadow Land. 559 



in regard to these several characters ; but especially to that of the 

 maximum temperature of the final month June, which in this 

 third season, 1858, was very excessive. Both in amount and dis- 

 tribution of rain, April differed not very materially in the three 

 seasons. May, as already mentioned, gave in 1856 a very lar^e 

 amount of rain, and also a large number of rainy days. In the 

 same month of 1857, with at the same time much higher tem- 

 peratures than in 1856, both the actual fall, and the distribution 

 of rain, were very small. In May of 1858, again, with still 

 higher temperatures than in the same month of 1856, both the 

 actual amount and the distribution of rain were pretty full. In 

 June, 1856, with again lower temperatures than in the other 

 years, there Avas, after the very wet May, now but very little rain. 

 In the warmer June of 1857 there was a fair amount of rain; 

 and in the still hotter June of 1858 there was, after a moderately 

 wet May, but little rain. 



The three seasons were therefore very different from one an- 

 other, both in actual character as to heat and moisture, and in 

 the mutual adaptations of these two qualities. As has been 

 observed, however, the gross amount of the heterogeneous produce 

 — hay — did not differ very widely in the three seasons ; though 

 the acreage amount of dry matter, and consequently of carbon 

 assimilated, Avas nevertheless notably less in the first, and colder 

 and wetter season 1856, than in either of the others. And, as 

 will afterwards be seen, with the prevailing wet and cold of 1856, 

 the percentage of dry matter in the produce was low, and that of 

 the mineral matter, and of the nitrogen in that dry substance, 

 high — characters which indicate comparatively backward condi- 

 tions as to the stage of growth and the maturation of the plants. 

 In a subsequent division of this Report we shall illustrate by 

 pretty full detail on the point, the fact that the proportions of 

 the different descriptions of herbage, as well as the character of 

 the development of each, were very much affected within equal 

 periods of the season, according to the kind of manure em- 

 ployed. Had we equal means of deciding upon the varying 

 character of the produce dependent on the varying character of 

 the seasons, there can be little doubt that the produce of these 

 three very different seasons would show great differences, both 

 as to the relative amounts of the various plants developed, and 

 as to the character of the development of each. 



Directing attention now to the comparative effects of the 

 different manures, little more need be said as to the produce of 

 the individual seasons. The results, as between one condition 

 of manuring and another, will be both better and more easily 



