330 SYSTEMS OF MANURING CROPS [chap. 



will usually be fed to the stock fattening upon it in the 

 summer that as regards nitrogen the soil is likely to 

 become richer every year. Lime and phosphates may, 

 however, often be deficient on these rich old pastures, 

 and for lack of these constituents the great residues of 

 manure left on the land every year are not adequately 

 realised. For this reason occasional dressings of ground 

 lime (i ton per acre) and of basic slag (5 cwts. per acre) 

 are of great value on these rich lands where cake and 

 corn are fed. The result of the application may not be 

 visible in an increased growth of grass, but the cattle 

 will be found to prefer the manured portions of the field 

 and to thrive there better. The prevalence of weeds, 

 especially buttercups and to a less degree daisies, is 

 an indication of this over-richness produced by heavy 

 cake feeding, unconnected by an adequate supply of 

 minerals. 



Poor pasture cannot repay any large expenditure ; 

 indeed, any liberal application of manures at first will 

 only encourage the strongly growing weeds. The poor 

 grass land in Great Britain may be divided into three 

 classes: (i) poor clay land covered with creeping-rooted 

 bent grass ; (2) thin sandy soils covered with sheep's 

 fescue, fiorin, sweet vernal, and soft brome grasses ; 

 (3) thin soils near the chalk with an extremely 

 variegated herbage. 



As regards the first class of land, the experiments 

 initiated by Somerville at Cockle Park, and extended 

 later to many other clay soils all over the country, 

 show that dung and other nitrogenous manures are 

 worse than useless on such soils. The sound way of 

 improvement is to give them a dressing of 10 cwts. or 

 so per acre of basic slag, whereupon the white clover, 

 which before existed as tiny plants under the bents, is 

 favoured and becomes prominent in the herbage. The 



