Botanical Analysis of the Herbage. 219 



few exceptions the same description of manure has been 

 applied year after year to the same plot ; and two plots, the 

 third and twelfth, have been continuously unmanured. For 

 the first nineteen years the first crop only was cut and carried 

 away, and the second crop was usually fed off by sheep who 

 were receiving at the time no other food. Of recent years it 

 has been more and more the practice to make the second 

 crop also into hay, and it is intended to adhere to this plan 

 in future, weather permitting. 



The produce of every plot is weighed as hay, and the 

 result calculated per acre. Taking the average of the first 

 twenty years, the unmanured plots, 3 and 12, gave the 

 lowest yields of all, 21J and 24cwt. respectively. Next above 

 these is plot 5, manured with ammonia-salts at the rate of 

 4001b. per acre per annum, the yield giving an annual 

 average of 26^ cwt. per acre. The highest average recorded, 

 62f cwt. per acre, resulted from a mixed manure, containing 

 5001b. sulphate of potash, lOOlb. sulphate of soda, lOOlb. 

 sulphate of magnesia, 3|cwt. superphosphate of lime, 6001b. 

 ammonia-salts, and 4001b. silicate of soda, a tremendous 

 dressing, by the way. The average yields on the rest of the 

 plots, each one of which received different manurial treatment 

 from that of the others, range themselves between these 

 extremes. 



But the mere quantitative estimation of the yields per 

 acre was a comparatively simple task to that of making a 

 qualitative botanical examination of each crop. The proxi- 

 mate analysis was into the three classes of gramineous 

 herbage, leguminous herbage, and miscellaneous herbage, 

 the last-mentioned containing all plants not referable to the 

 Graminese or the Leguminosae ; and even this task would not 

 be a very difficult one. But when it is stated that in certain 

 seasons a complete botanical analysis was made, whereby 

 each species of plant was separated from all the others, then 

 the irksomenesss of the work will be appreciated. For the 

 details of these analyses I must refer to the memoir itself, 



