814 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK IX. 



in Rothamsted Park were, in 1856, set apart for " Experiments on the 

 Mixed Herbage of Permanent Meadow," and were divided at first into 

 nine and ultimately into twenty plots. Two of these have been left 

 without manure from the commencement ; two have received ordinary 

 farmyard manure continuously; whilst the remainder have each 

 received a different description of artificial or chemical manure, the 

 same being, except in special cases, applied year after year on the 

 same plot. The land has probably been laid down with grass for some 

 centuries. No fresh seed has been artificially sown within the last 

 fifty years certainly, nor is there any record of seed having been sown 

 since the grass was first laid down. The land is a somewhat heavy 

 loam, with a red clay subsoil resting upon chalk, and, although not 

 artificially, is very well naturally, drained ; it is a perfectly level area. 

 For many years prior to 1851 the general mode of treatment was to 

 dress occasionally with farmyard manure, road-scrapings, and the 

 like, and sometimes with guano or other purchased manure. One 

 crop of hay was removed annually, weighing from 1^- to 2 tons per acre ; 

 the second crop was alwaj'S eaten off by sheep. 



During the first nineteen years 1856 to 1874 the first crop only 

 each year was mown, made into hay, removed from the land, and 

 weighed. As a rule, the second crop on each plot was fed off by 

 sheep, who received at the time no other food, the object being not 

 to disturb the condition of the manuring. 



Without manure, the produce of hay has varied from about 8 cwt. 

 to nearly 39 cwt. per acre, and the average yield has been about 

 23 cwt. per acre per annum. But the plot most heavily artificially 

 manured, and yielding the best, has given an average of about 64 cwt. 

 of hay per acre per annum, the extremes being 40 cwt. and nearly 

 80 cwt. The results on the other differently manured plots vary greatly 

 within these limits. At the same time, the botanical composition of 

 the herbage has varied most strikingly, so that, starting with some 

 fifty species of plants on the unmanured land, any kind of manure 

 induces a struggle which leads to a diminution of the number of species 

 down to twenty, or even fewer, though it must not be overlooked that 

 such diminution of specific forms may be quite compatible with an 

 increase in the total yield of herbage. 



The subjoined details concerning the botanical composition of the 

 herbage are interesting as showing what plants may be expected to 

 occur in ordinary hay fields. 



Of Gramineas, or grasses, the following twenty species include all 

 that have been identified upon the plots. 



Graminece. 



1. Anthoxanthum odoratum, L. . 



2. Alopecurus pratensis, L. . . 



3. Agrostis vulgaris, With . 



4. Holcus lanatus, L. . 



5. Avena elatior, L., or 



Arrhenatherum avenaceum, Beauv. 



6. Avena pubescens, L. . . . . 



7. Avena flavescens, L. 



Sweet scented vernal grass 

 Meadow foxtail 

 Creeping-rooted bent grass 

 Yorkshire fog 



False oat grass, or tall oat grass 

 Downy oat grass 

 Yellow oat grass 



