Deep-rooting Nature of Chicory. 83 



founded on those principles which I now see should 

 be adherecj to when lajdng down land to grass. Two of 

 the mixtures I have sown in 1895 were used for the two 

 poor land fields to which I alluded in a previous chapter, 

 and I also give the following, which was used for a field 

 of very different character, on the low-lying land on the 

 Clifton Park portion of the estate, some five miles distant 

 from Clifton-on-Bowmont. In the case of the last, then 

 — the Longshot field, a deep, strong soil on a low-lying 

 alluvial flat — the following mixture, on the 25th of 

 April, 1895, was sown with a thin seeding of oats i — 

 5 lbs. each of cocksfoot, meadow foxtail, and tall fescue ; 

 7 lbs. of meadow fescue, 4 lbs. of timothy, and 1 lb. each 

 of wood meadow grass and rough-stalked meadow grass ; 

 2 lbs. each of white clover, alsike, and perennial red 

 clover, kidney vetch, and lucerne ; 3 lbs. of chicory, 8 lbs. 

 of burnet, 1 lb. of sheep's parsley, and i lb. of yarrow. 

 The field — one of 15 acres — ^was, in 1896, cut for hay, 

 which amounted to 36 tons, 14 cwts., or nearly 2| tons 

 per acre ; and the aftermath, grazed with lambs, was an 

 excellent crop. Two trenches were cut in the field to 

 a depth of about 3 feet, and on September 11th, 1896, in 

 company with my friend. Dr. Voelcker, I carefully 

 inspected the land in order to estimate the depth to 

 which some of the plants had penetrated. The results 

 were particularly interesting as regards chicory, which 

 seemed to have a profound contempt for the very hard 

 pan, which we found at about 14 inches below the 

 surface, and which was about 10 inches to a foot in 

 thickness, and was so hard that a powerful man with a 

 sharp spade had to use great force to break it open 

 when we were tracing the descent of the chicory roots, 

 which had passed straight downwards without any 

 deflections. As the seed was only sown in April, 1895, 

 it is interesting to find that the roots can go through 

 this hard pan into the soft subsoil, whichVas a sandy 

 clay, in such a comparatively short time ; and we noticed 

 that, in passing through the pan, the strong roots 



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