The Rothamsted Grass Experiments. 133 



VIII. AGRICULTURAL RESULTS OF EXPERI- 

 MENTS ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PER- 

 MANENT MEADOW. 



MEADOW herbage offers to the agricultural investigator 

 about as complex a subject for study as can well be imagined, 

 and it is one the enormous importance and widespread 

 application of which need no insistance. Some seven acres of 

 the land in E-othamsted 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 1J to 2 tons per acre; the second 

 crop was always eaten off by sheep. In the spring of 1851, 

 and of 1852, four separate acres of the allotted area were 



