140 JH.vperiences v,ji to the end of October, 1904. 



let up to n, considerable extent, so that part of the pasture was a 

 mass of cocksfoot heads, the grass and flowering stems were not 

 coarse. 



Returning to the Bank field experiment. As our previous hay 

 crops had been very heavy — sometimes about 3 tons an acre— I 

 adopted the following treatment in order to lessen the hay crop, and 

 so favour the subsequent pasture. After harvest, and rolling the 

 field, it was stocked for five weeks with 4 hoggs an acre and 

 11 calves for the entire field, and from first vveek in April to 

 May 20 with never less than 2 ewes and twin lambs per acre, and 

 often 3 ewes and twins. The field was then shut up for hay, 

 which is estimated at about 2 tons an acre, and would have been 

 certainly much more had it not been for a drought so severe that 

 sheep absolutely refused to go up to the top of one of our hills, 

 while the tails of the peacocks have fallen out far earlier than usual. 

 In the hay there is very little chicory, and hardly any seeding stems, 

 and, as the chicory is composed almost entirely of young leaves, it 

 is thought that it will not cause the hay to be dusty, which is the 

 great evil arising from fully-developed chicory when used for hay. 

 The produce from the coarse grasses is as fine as could possibly be 

 desired. In the judgment of a visitor, whose opinion is to be valued, 

 it would be impossible to produce a finer sample of hay. With the 

 exception of about 3 acres, only once manured with dung about six 

 years ago, the field has never been manured since 1887, in the ordinary 

 sense of the word ; and yet, from the colour and luxuriance of the 

 clover and kidney vetch, the agriculturists who saw the field thought 

 it had been dressed with nitrates, and so it had been most fully from 

 the atmosphere. The fact is that with our system no manure is 

 required over and above that supplied by a deeply-rooted turf, the 

 nitrogen collected from the atmosphere, by our abundant clover and 

 kidney vetch, and the artificials used with the turnip crops ; and this 

 has now been amply proved by stock and crops all along the line. In 

 the case of last year's (1901) drought, when there was such a general 

 failure of grass, and especially of clover, the Bank field had a most 

 luxuriant appearance all the season through, and the results clearly 

 prove that, with the aid of the new farming system, the farmer may 

 regard the worst drought with absolute indifference. From October 1, 

 1900, to October 1, 1901, the value of .grazing and hay attained was 

 estimated by us at £7 3s an acre. Our estimate has been referred to 

 a tenant-farmer, who is employed as a valuator, and his estimate 

 comes to rather more — £7 7s 6d an acre." 



From October 2, 1901, to October 1, 1902, the field has been stocked 

 as appended, and I purposely allowed it to be so much later in the 

 autumn and winter than was judicious in order to see how the new 

 mixture would stand the roughest treatment ; and the effect of this, 

 as might have been anticipated, has been a decline of the clover, 

 though this seems to be recovering, and there is now an abundant 

 feed of grass in the field, which is still stocked with 60 ewes. The 

 list of the stock is as follows : — 



