104 PLANT LIFE ON THE FARM. 



four leguminous plants, and the remaining twenty-eight 

 are pasture weeds of various orders, and roughly classified 

 as miscellaneous plants. By weight, grasses furnished 69 

 per cent., Leguminosse 8, and miscellaneous plants 23 per 

 cent, of the total produce. 



The general appearance of the unmanured plots is one of 

 even growth, with no special luxuriance of any particular 

 plant. The herbage is very mixed, the crop scanty, the colour 

 yellowish-green, in fact a sort of trades-union equality is pro- 

 duced, between the different members of the community, no 

 one kind being specially favoured. Festuca ovina usually 

 predominates among the grasses. Briza media is more 

 abundant on these plots than on most others. Among 

 the leguminous plants Lotus corniculatus is more pre- 

 valent than Lathyrus pratensis, as is usually found to be 

 the case when there is soil exhaustion and a deficiency 

 of potash. The miscellaneous plants are generally very 

 abundant, such as the buttercups, Plantago lanceolata, 

 Centaur ea nigra, Agrimonia Eupatoria, Scabiosa arvensis, 

 Leontodon hispidus, Prunella vulgaris,Achillea Millefolium, 

 Conopodium denudatum, Rumex Acetosa, Luzula cainpestris, 

 and Galium verum. The contrast in early summer between 

 the scanty yellowish-green herbage, profusion of flowers of 

 the various weeds, and the almost total absence of flowers 

 and rich, deep blue-green foliage of the plants in the 

 adjacent ammonia plot is very striking. 



The effects of manures upon the struggle When in 

 a long series of years the effects on the vegetation of a 

 particular plot are observed to be uniform in their nature, 

 if not in degree, the effects are obviously attributable to 

 the manure employed, and the fluctuations are as clearly 



