’ 
396 D. P. Penhallow—Herbage of Permanent Meadow. . 
country at the present time, but which Messrs. Lawes and 
Gilbert, with characteristic caution, have avoided. 
The experiments were commenced in 1856 upon thirteen 
plots of land, a number subsequently increased to a total of 
twenty-two. These plots were studied without manure, and 
under treatment with mineral and organic manures varying . 
both in quantity and composition. ‘In the first years of the 
experiments it was observed that those manures which are the 
most effective with wheat, barley or oats grown on arable land 
—that is with gramineous species grown separately—were also 
the most effective in bringing forward the grasses proper in the 
mixed herbage. Again, those manures which were the most 
beneficial to beans or clover, the most developed the legumin- 
ous species of the mixed herbage, and vice versa. 1t was 
further observed that there was great variation in the predomi 
nance of individual species among the grasses and also among 
the representatives of other orders.” 
“Indeed, in the second year, 1857, the differences.in the flora 
were so marked, that a first attempt was then made to separate 
and determine the proportion of each separate species, in care- 
fully averaged and weighed samples taken from several of the 
plots at the time the crops were cut. . In these early 
trials the samples were separated into: 1. Gramineous herb- 
though undoubtedly many more were present; and under the 
ead of ‘Gramineous herbage, detached leaves and indeter- 
minate stems,’ in one case as little as fifteen per cent, and iD 
another more than fifty-three per cent of the total was recorded. 
This result at once illustrates both the difficulty of the work 
and the great difference in the character of growth on the 
different plots.” 
‘From year to ag the plots became more and more charac- 
es 
of the work, but “on each occasion, whether of more complete 
or of only partial separation, from three to six boys. have also’ 
been occupied in the work.” . 
The samples were taken by a collector who followed directly 
after the mowers until the whole plot had been cut. Hach col- 
