34 PLANT DISEASE 



blacksmith's shop, and one lamb was too weak 

 to continue with the flock, and was brought up 

 by the children of the blacksmith by whose 

 shop it was passing at the time. 



This lamb grew up by grazing on the grass 

 growing round this shop, and was shorn three 

 times in three years, giving the splendid clip 

 of wool of twenty-eight pounds in three 

 years. I have often wondered why this stray 

 lamb should have developed into a sheep 

 giving such good clips of wool. This now ap- 

 pears easy of explanation. 



In the first place, it is quite certain there 

 would be plenty of iron in the soil for some 

 distance round a country blacksmith's shop, 

 owing to rusty iron being carried about, to say 

 nothing of the scales of iron and iron filings 

 produced by the working of iron, which would 

 be swept out of the shop. 



And, irrespective of the nitrogen that would 

 be obtained, either directly or indirectly, 

 through the chemical action of the iron, there 

 would be plenty of nitrogen from the hoof 

 parings which were swept out in the same way 

 as the iron scales and filings. 



So it is quite certain the grass Jgrowing in 



