THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 99 



which are observed in the manured plots are as obviously 

 brought about, partly by the manures and partly by cli- 

 matal changes. The produce of hay at Rothamsted, 

 without manure, has varied from eight hundred and 

 ninety-six pounds, to four thousand three hundred and 

 sixty-eight pounds, the average for twenty-five years 

 having been, as before stated, two thousand five hundred 

 and seventy-six pounds per acre. This hay is made up 

 on the average of forty-nine different species in different 

 proportions, as determined by rigid comparative scrutiny. 

 Of the forty-nine plants, seventeen are grasses, four legu- 

 minous plants, and the remaining twenty-eight are pas- 

 ture weeds of various orders, and roughly classified as 

 miscellaneous plants. By weight, grasses furnished sixty- 

 nine .per cent, Leguminosae eight, and miscellaneous 

 plants twenty-three per cent of the total produce. 



The general appearance of the unmanured plots is one 

 of even growth, with no special luxuriance of any par- 

 ticular plant. The herbage is very mixed, the crop 

 scanty, the color yellowish-green, in fact a sort of trades- 

 union equality is produced, between the different mem- 

 bers of the community, no one kind being specially 

 favored. 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 prevalent than LatJiyrus pra- 

 tensis, as is usually found to be the case when there is 

 soil exhaustion and a deficiency of potash. The miscel- 

 laneous plants are generally very abundant, such as the 

 buttercups. Plantago lanceolata, Centaurea nigra, Agri- 

 monia Eupatoria, Scakiosa arvensis, Leontodon hispidus, 

 Prunella vulgar is, Achillea Millefolium, Conopodium de- 

 nudatum, Rumex Acetosa, Luzulacampestris, 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 



