PRIMARY RESULTS 89 



first season's growth, and the remainder carried forward. 

 The method of apportioning rent and rates has already been 

 described (see p. 56). The values of the manurial residues 

 of the foods consumed on the pastures are got, with the 

 assistance of Voelcker's and Hall's tables as corrected to 

 give current values, from the Food Record Sheets, which 

 indicate the nature and quantity of foods fed to grazing 

 stock. The cost of these residues is written off completely 

 after two years, that is, in the year following their appli- 

 cation. 



It is not easy in every case to get a reliable basis for the 

 distribution of the cost of forming temporary pastures. 

 In the first place, a farmer does not always know how long 

 he will leave a seed-ley down, for this may depend upon how 

 well it stands, or upon other uncertainties. Where the ley 

 is intended to be left for a definite period, the cost of seed 

 and sowing is written off by equal annual amounts ; where 

 the period is uncertain, the cost may be distributed as 

 to one-half over the first year, and as to the other half over 

 the second year, or over the second and third years if the ley 

 remains so long. After the third year of an indeterminate 

 period, nothing is carried forward. It is admitted that this 

 method is to be justified chiefly on the grounds of conveni- 

 ence ; a better method may be devised for application in 

 particular cases, but the figures involved are low, and, 

 fortunately, any possible error is a slight one. There is no 

 charge under this head on two of the farms given in 

 Table XXIV below, because in both of these cases the only 

 temporary pasture included in the account is that following 

 clover mown for hay, so that the proportion of the cost of 

 seed and sowing chargeable against the grazing appears in 

 the item ' aftermath '. On most farms it is not merely 

 sufficient to ascertain the cost of the pastures in order to 

 arrive at the cost of the grazing. Commonly the aftermath 

 from clover and meadow-hay fields is grazed, and this 

 grazing must be brought into the account. The most 

 satisfactory way of doing this has not, in all probability, 

 been found as yet. An arbitrary assumption has been 



