ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 5 



cumulative after some years, owing to matted roots 

 excluding air and crowding out more succulent and 

 profitable elements of vegetation. I can, however, certify 

 to the fact that under natural and unaided conditions 

 on poor high soils, and even on many not naturally 

 poor, the change becomes one of deterioration, and that 

 within a few years sown Grasses and Clovers are replaced 

 by more hardy but agriculturally less valuable Grasses and 

 weeds. Wiry, harsh, unnutritious plants come to predom- 

 inate, and Rushes, Mosses, and a long list of weeds usurp 

 the place of the others. On my farm, lying about 850 feet 

 above sea level, a large area of ground — some 800 acres — 

 was ploughed up from moorland in the seventies, and as it was 

 drained, and had a full allowance of lime and manures, and 

 time given for the old turf being completely rotted, all old 

 vegetation was destroyed. Later, it was sown down with 

 a mixture of Grasses and Clovers — Rye-grass and White 

 Clover mostly predominating. No Meadow, Sweet Vernal, 

 Dog's-tail, or Bent Grasses were sown. From the first 

 to the fourth year the seeded plants held their own 

 though to a yearly decreasing extent. After that time 

 Yorkshire Fog and Moor Bent gradually took their place, 

 and by the sixth year occupied the whole area, along with 

 Vernal and Brome Grasses, some Hard and Sheep's Fescue, 

 and one or two others. The smaller Grasses along with 

 the White Clover were practically smothered out. I have 

 a note of a rough botanical analysis taken in 1886 of 

 an eight-year-old field, namely, Agrostis 37 per cent.; 

 Anthoxantkum odoratam 10 per cent.; Poa pratensis 

 4 per cent. ; Meadow, Hard, and Sheep's Fescue 8 per cent. ; 

 Rye-grass 8 per cent. ; White Clover 4 per cent. ; common 

 Sedges and Rushes 7 per cent. ; Daisies 3 per cent, ; and 

 Aira ccespitosa, Dandelion, various Thistles, etc., making 

 up the rest. It must seem somewhat remarkable that 

 after eight years. Rye-grass and White Clover should be 

 the only two remaining of the seeds sown on a piece 

 of ground in which the old sod had been completely 



