l20 Experiments with Sheep 



the turf alone was relied ou. It is interesting to 

 note 'that these results had been attained under much 

 more unfavourable circumstances, as, from certain 

 requirements on the farm, the rotation system in 

 the case of this field was altered to oats out of 

 grass, turnips, barley, and turnips, part of the field 

 this year being allotted to potatoes, so that they 

 were preceded by a cereal crop, then a turnip crop, and 

 then by another cereal crop. As neither of the two 

 cereal crops had any manure, and the turnips some 

 artificials only (see Appendix III.), the crop of potatoes, 

 may be considered to be the most satisfactory evidence 

 of the great value of turf as manure, and especially of 

 its lasting effects. It will be interesting to observe how, 

 on the potato section of Hayhope Shank field, the grass 

 will compare with that on the section in turnips. As 

 yet, no difference can be perceived in the Big Haugh 

 field between the grass after potatoes and the grass 

 after turnips. But it must be remembered that the 

 Big Haugh potatoes were taken out of grass, while 

 those of Hayhope Shank were the fourth crop of 

 the series, which no doubt accounts partially for the 

 shortness of the crop. A fifth crop, a cereal one, will 

 be taken next year, when the grass seeds will be 

 sown along with it, and this crop will be taken without 

 manure, so that the system will be put to a very 

 severe test. The soil of the field is what is known as 

 very light land. 



I now turn to the sheep experiment at Cockle Park, 

 as regards which the same misleading form of experi- 

 ment has been repeated. The diagram illustrating the 

 effect of the transforming hand of the chemist is really 

 rather amusing. We start, as the advertisements of 

 nourishing foods for the human animal do, at an ex- 

 tremely low standard, and the diagram shows first the 

 figure of a small, melancholy, attenuated sheep, and no 

 wonder, as he has been kept in the no-manure plot — 

 poor worn-out land, growing no less than about 84 per 



