ON THE GROWTH OF PLANTS. 29 



increased to a charge of somewhere about £42 per ton. Now if the system 

 of flavouring cattle food be found to answer and the principles just enun- 

 ciated are found to be correct, there need only be an addition of a few 

 shillings per ton as the cost of rendering cattle food more palatable and so 

 easier of digestion, and consequently of a higher nutritive value. 



I am informed that the seeds have recently doubled in price in consequence 

 of their extended use ; but the experiment has shown that we can, if required, 

 grow it in this country. 



Plots T, U, and V are occupied with vetches derived from the Vicia angus- 

 tifolia. 



T. V. anguslifolia, var. sativa. Spring crop. 

 U. V. „ var. sativa. Winter crop. 



V. V. „ formerly var. sativa, but being left wild as a perma- 



nent crop, is again reverting to its wild form. 



The facility with which wild vetches can be cultivated into new forms and 

 of exceeding rank growth is a matter fully settled by these experiments, and 

 they take so short a time to bring about, that they can be easily repeated by 

 any one. 



Plot W. Scorzonera. 

 Plot X. Salsafy. 



These were both drilled from old seed, and their paucity of plants offers 

 good instruction in relation to this subject. In an agricultural point of 

 view, nothing can be considered more objectionable than want of care in 

 this respect. Though these are plants of the same family, there has been a 

 great difference in the germination of their five-year old seed. 

 Of Scorzonera came up about 2 per cent. 

 Of Salsafy came up about 10 per cent. 

 The plants, however, look well and healthy. 



These are amongst the good vegetables which the comparatively flavour- 

 less and innutritious potato has displaced. 



Plot Y. Dioscorea Batatas, Potato Yam. — These plants have this year 

 been elevated on high ridges, but do not grow vigorously in the exposed 

 experimental garden. However, in my own private garden in the town, 

 which is surrounded by high walls and well-sheltered, my crop promises to 

 be better than usual, and I shall look forward to the produce with some 

 interest. 



Plot Z. Tamus communis, Black Bryony, as being an allied plant, is now 

 the subject of experiment. This year's crop is from seed sown last summer; 

 they are a little larger in the tuber than peas. These will soon be taken up 

 and stored for plantation in the same manner as the preceding ; whether 

 the feculent black bryony root can be made edible remains to be proved 



Plot A 1 . Parsnips in seed. — This is a plot of my ennobled wild parsnips, 

 experiments connected with which were reported upon in 1856. The last 

 year's experimental plot was so fine that the whole of it was left for seed; 

 while 



Plot A 2 is a large piece of parsnips in the kitchen garden from my seed 

 of 1856: here the new parsnips promise to be very large and clean in the 

 skin, the College gardener now preferring it to any other kind, as this new 

 offspring of the insignificant wild root is much richer in flavour than the 

 older varieties, which are wearing out in this respect. My roots now offer 

 examples both of " long horn " and " short horn " varieties, so that another 

 year I shall be enabled to save seed of two distinct and newly induced 

 varieties. 



Grasses. — The experimental plots of grasses which have been already 



