36 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



the gardens and greenhouses in 192 1. A further difficulty- 

 arises in the selection of good herbage plants, for with such 

 a large number of types it is not possible to devote more 

 than a small plot to each in the first instance, and sometimes 

 there is only a single plant to judge. It has, therefore, been 

 necessary to carry out trials to ascertain whether a weekly, 

 or a fortnightly, or a three-weekly cut of the plant best represents 

 average grazing conditions. Testing the grazing capacity of 

 plants is, in fact, most laborious. Each plant must be cut 

 separately several times during the season, and the cuttings 

 weighed; the cuttings must further be divided into stem and 

 leaf, and each part weighed separately, for the object is to 

 produce plants with the greatest amount of leaf and the least 

 amount of stem. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that 

 over 5,000 separate cuttings and weighings were made during 

 the past growing season, and that over 800 separate plots at 

 the trial grounds and over 500 beds in the gardens are at present 

 being devoted to the herbage plant investigation. 



As an illustration of the general method of investigation, 

 the case of rye grasses may be quoted. The work on these 

 plants has now gone on for two seasons. The original collection 

 of plants was obtained from all parts of this and other countries, 

 including Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand. Various 

 commercial samples of seed and plants were secured from English 

 and Welsh seedsmen, and in addition plants from all parts of 

 the country were rooted up, both from old pastures and wild 

 hedgerows and commons, and re-planted at the Station. The 

 ideal aimed at is a leafy plant with a good bulk of " top " and 

 persistent growth. This would be a dual-purpose plant, for 

 both grazing and hay purposes, and if it cannot be obtained, 

 the " next best " is either a leafy and persistent plant, for 

 grazing, or a bulky plant for hay. A further point borne in 

 mind is that of resistance to disease. The plan of investigation 

 wiU best be understood by reference to a specific case. A turf 

 of rye-grass was dug up out of an old pasture in the summer of 

 1919, and planted provisionally in the Station nursery. In 

 the autumn it w^as carefully broken up into as many tillers as 

 possible, care being taken that each tiller was actually a separate 

 plant, and not a mixture of species. The tillers were planted 

 out in lines at about eighteen inches apart. Their growth was 

 studied, and it was found possible to group them into three 

 broad types. During the autumn of 1921 the best plant from 

 each type was selected and split up again into nine tillers, each 

 of which has been planted out separately. This year the nine 

 plants will be treated as follows : — Four plants will be tested 



