The Bank Field Experiment. 



163 



succeeding crops. Later observation of the suitability 

 of the golden oat grass to this description of soil has 

 suggested the addition of |- lb. or 1 lb. per acre. After 

 the first ploughing of the grass and our usual rotation 

 of cereal and turnip crops, it has been found that the 

 fineness of the tilth then permits the use of a smaller 

 quantity of seeds than used in 1900 for the Bank field ; 

 consequently, the Inner Kaimrig and Harewells fields 

 were laid down in 1903 with only 10 lbs. cocksfoot, 5 lbs. 

 tall fescue, and 5 lbs. tall oat grass, together with the 

 other seeds used in the Bank field mixture, and thus far 

 the results are entirely satisfactory. Farmers, I observe, 

 have a prejudice against grasses which, like cocksfoot 

 and tall fescue, may become coarse, but such grasses are 

 either fine or coarse, as the farmer is intelligent or 

 uninformed. The intelligent farmer sows plenty of the 

 seeds, and grazes the grasses so that they may be kept 

 in a constant succession of young leaves ; the uninformed 

 farmer puts down a small quantity of the seeds, with 

 the result that each plant grows like a bulrush, whereas 

 by crowding the plants each one becomes small and 

 fine. We have a pasture of about four acres at the head 

 of Bowmontside field, which was laid down in 1887 with 

 the intention of its being taken up again with the rest 

 of the field, but it was fenced off and left in permanent 

 pasture, as the land was so steep. The mixture 

 consisted of — 



This pasture has done well, and always remained fine, 

 and even when let up to a considerable extent, so that 

 part of the pasture was a mass of cocksfoot heads, the 

 grass and flowering stems were not coarse. 



Keturning to the Bank field experiment. As our 

 previous hay crops had been very heavy — ^sometimes 



h 2 



