oil Permanent Meadow Land. 571 



Were these estimated amounts of bay in the second crop of 

 the respective plots to be added to those actually removed in the 

 first crop, the comparative action of the different manures as it 

 would be then represented, would not appear to differ in any 

 material point from that indicated by the amounts of hay actually 

 taken off in the first crop. Independently of this, however, by 

 far the larger proportion of both the mineral constituents and the 

 nitrogen of the second crop would, as before stated, be returned 

 to the land by the sheep feeding upon it. It would, therefore, 

 obviously be a further deviation from the true representation of 

 the actual facts, to take into account the estimated second crop as 

 a part of the removed produce of the manures employed, than to 

 omit it from the calculation altogether. These estimated amounts 

 of second crop, varying as they do in the proportion of from 1 to 

 2, according to the manure employed, are, nevertheless, inter- 

 esting of themselves, as showing great differences in vegetative 

 activity after removal of the first crops, depending, of course, oa 

 the varying character and amount of the residual or unused ma- 

 nure. They are, moreover, useful aids in forming a judgment 

 respecting the comparative cumulative effects, from year to year, 

 of the different manures. But when, in a subsequent Part of this 

 Report, we come to consider the debtor and creditor account of 

 certain constituents on the several plots — the relation of the 

 amounts removed in the produce to those supplied in manure — 

 we shall assume the amounts taken off in the increase of the first 

 crop only, as the most nearly representing the gain due to the 

 supply in the manure employed. 



It is proposed, on a future occasion, to show the acreage 

 amounts of certain constituents removed in the produce from the 

 different plots, and the relation of these in the increase, to those 

 supplied in the manures — to consider in some detail the varying 

 description of the herbage according to the mianure employed — 

 and to show the consequent variations in the chemical composi- 

 tion of the complex gross produce, or liay. In the mean time, 

 founded upon the evidence thus far recorded, relating to the 

 amount per acre, and the general character, of the hay obtained 

 by the different manures, the following general results and con- 

 clusions ma}- be enumerated : — 



That the effect of a mixed, but purely mineral manure, upon 

 the complex herbage of permanent meadow land, was chiefly to 

 develop the growth of the Leguminous plants it contained ; and 

 scarcely at all to increase the produce of the Graminaceous plants, 

 or commonly called Natural Grasses. 



That the action of purely nitrogenous mamires, upon the per- 



2 r2 



