PRACTICAL REMARKS 81 



uring. The Scotch experiments furnish an abundant 

 supply of facts as to the profitable manuring of oats grown 

 after lea. If we may assume that the return from i cwt. 

 of sulphate of ammonia would be at the same rate as that found 

 for f cwt. in four years' experiments carried out on 53 farms, we 

 should conclude that a dressing of i cwt. sulphate of ammonia, 

 with 2 cwt. superphosphate, and 2 cwt of kainite, would, on an 

 average, increase the crop by about 15 bushels of corn (reckoned 

 at 42 Ibs. a bushel), and nearly 10 cwt. of straw. When a 

 good dressing of farmyard manure has been applied to the 

 preceding crop, the kainite may generally be omitted. 



If oats follow another corn crop, not manured w 7 ith farm- 

 yard manure, the dressing of sulphate of ammonia may be in- 

 creased to 2 cwts., or to a still larger quantity, and 3 cwts. of 

 superphosphate and 4 cwts. of kainite be used with it. 



The ammonia salt will be best applied to the land before 

 sowing the seed ; this plan has proved successful both in the 

 Rothamsted and Scotch experiments. 



GRASS LAND 



In the case of a hay meadow, a pasture, or of land 

 temporarily laid down with grass seeds and clover, the 

 results produced by the application of manures are extremely 

 complex. We have no longer to do with a single species of 

 plant, as in the case of our other farm crops, but with a 

 mixture of species belonging to very different botanical 

 classes. These various plants are very differently affected 

 by different manures. If any manure is applied to a pre- 

 viously unmanured meadow some marked change in the 

 herbage is sure to occur ; and if different parts of the same 

 grass land are persistently treated with different manures, 

 the differences in the nature of the plants appearing on the 

 various portions become soon so marked that it is difficult 

 to believe that the whole meadow was originally covered with 

 the same herbage. Any one who has visited the grass plots at 

 Rothamsted shortly before the hay is cut, will not have 

 forgotten the marvellous differences which the continuous 



