10 



ANNIVERSAEY ADDRESS 



the produce of grass land, which is a mixed herbage 

 consisting of many different species of Grasses, Leguminous 

 plants, and those of other Orders, it is not sufficient to 

 consider only the gross weight of produce. There are 

 such differences in the way in which plants respond to 

 treatment of any kind owing to differences of habit and 

 their relations to their environment, that the original 

 equilibrium between the different contending species is 

 disturbed. Some are favoured and increase at the expense 

 of others, until a new equilibrium is attained, and the 

 general character of the herbage from a botanical point 

 of view is completely altered." A plot which had been 

 unmanured in any way, but cut for hay every year 

 since 1856, and which may be taken as typical of the 

 whole area experimented upon, showed when the first 

 botanical analysis was taken in 1862 the subjoined result, 

 with which is compared a later analysis, taken in 1903, 

 indicating the effect of over 40 years' constant cutting:— 



Gramine^ — 



Anthoxanthum odoratum 

 Alopecurus pratensis 

 Agrostis vulgaris 

 ffolcus lanatus . . , 

 Arrhenatheribm avenacoim 

 Avena pubescens 



Jlavescens 



Poa pratensis 



— trivialis 

 Briza media 

 Dactylis glomerata 

 Festuca ovina 

 Lolium perenne ... 

 Other Species (Bromus mollis ; Phleum 



pratense; Aira ccBspitosa; Cynosurus 

 cristatus ; Festuca pratensis ; Festuca 

 elatior, etc.) ... 



Per cent. Per cent, 

 in 1862. in 1903. 



4 



1-5 



4-5 



0-5 



... 11-5 



0-2 



5 



5 



0-07 



01 



9-5 



4-5 



2-5 



1 



0-3 



0-3 



1-5 



001 



2 



20-25 



1-75 



1 



.. 13 



17-5 



6-5 







0-25 



0-25 



