PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 865 



that the annual drain of nitrogen and minerals in ihe form of animal increase 

 must be balanced — if fertility is maintained unimpaired — by the nitrogen gained 

 in various ways from the air, and by the weathering of inert mineral matter in 

 the soil. As, however, 300 lb. of live weight ' fattening ' increase per acre 

 per annum — which may be assumed to be about the maximum production of 

 high-class pasture — will contain only about 3 lb. of nitrogen and a similar 

 amount of mineral matter, the natural agents will liave no difficulty in replacing 

 this loss. It would appear in fact that, but for the loss of plant food by 

 •drainage and denitrification, even a fattening pasture should go on improving, 

 and this is the case so far as accumulated fertility is concerned, though not 

 in respect of current or immediate animal production. On a pasture of naturally 

 low quality, where leguminous herbage stimulated by phosphatio manuring is 

 the main factor of value, it has been proved at Cockle Park that the addition 

 of nitrogen either as artificial manure or in the form of cake residues has been 

 positively injurious or has produced a result disappointingly small, and one 

 would like to see this subject followed up experimentally in the case of 

 naturally rich pastures where cake is freely used. One would like to study in 

 detail the effects of phosphate and x>otash on such land, although where pro- 

 duction is naturally so high it is unlikely that it can be materially and 

 economically increased. 



It is often very difficult to determine the factor or factors that go to the 

 making of high-class pastures. Such pastures are to be found on most of the 

 geological formations of this country; they are met with north, south, east, 

 and west ; and even altitude, within the limit of at least seven hundred feet, 

 seems to have little effect. An immense amount of attention has been given 

 to the botanical composition of the herbage of the more famous of the pastures 

 of Britain. Notable in this connection is the work of Fream,' Carruthers,- 

 Hall and Russell,^ and Armstrong." The methods employed varied to some 

 extent with the investigator. Fream had turfs dug up and transferred to 

 Downton, where they were planted in the garden, the herbage being subse- 

 quently clipped over and separated; Carrufhers, Hall and Russell relied partly 

 on enclosing representative areas and sampling the herbage when well grown, 

 and partly on occular estimation ; while Armstrong used a frame a foot square 

 divided by transverse strings into 144 square inches. This was placed on the 

 sward in situ and a note made of the percentage occurrence of the different 

 species of plant. The result that emerges most conspicuously from these 

 researches is that one may ihave a dozen pastures, which are about equal in 

 feeding value, and yet which may vaiy widely in respect of botanical com- 

 position. Thus Fream found that in the case of forty-eight English and eight 

 Irish pastures, each of which was the ' best ' in the district selected, the 

 Graminete might be as low as 11 per cent, and as high as 100 per cent. ; 

 Leguminosae might be entirely absent or as high as 38 per cent. ; whiie of 

 miscellaneous herbage, most of which would be designated as ' weeds,' there 

 might be none or up to 89 per cent. As regards individual genera and species, 

 Fream found for instance, that Agrostis -was almost always present and on five 

 occasions was the most abundant plant ; while Holrus Innatus gave an almost 

 identical result. By a different method Carruthers arrived at a very similar 

 conclusion. The latter also found that Hordeum pratcnse was "the most 

 abundant species on what is perhaps the finest grazing in England, namely, 

 Pawlett Hams, near the mouth of the Parret in Somerset. This investigator 

 even found that on one of the ' Famous Ancient Pastures of England ' the' pre- 

 dominant grasses were Fiorin and Hassock, and in this connection makes the 



1 W. Fream, ' The Herbage of Old Grass Lands,' Jour. Roy. Agric. Sac. 

 Kngl., vol. xxiv., 2nd Series, p. 415; and 'The Herbage of Pastures,' Jour. 

 Roy^. Af/ric. Soc. Engl. vol. i., 3rd Series, p. 359. 



W. Carruthers, ' The Composition of Some of the Famous Ancient Pastures 

 of England,' Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc. Engl., vol. i., 3ra Series, p. 751. 



^ A. D. Hall and E. J. Russell, ' On the Causes of the High Nutritive Value 

 and Fertility of the Fatting Pastures of Romney Marsh and other Marshes 

 in the S.E. of England,' Jour. Agric. Srievce. vol. iv., p. 339. 



* S. F. Armstrong, ' The Botanical and Chemical Composition of the 

 Herbage of Pastures and Meadows.' Jour. Agric. Science, vol. ii., p. 283. 



