1921.] The Condition of Permanent Meadows. 211 



with in a subsequent section. Yellow Rattle,* Hard Reads 

 and Sorrel are all weeds that can be decreased, and the two 

 former practically eliminated, by early and prolonged heavy 

 grazing, especially with sheep; under meadow conditions this 

 is not practicable, since the fields have to be put up to hay 

 before the full benefits can be obtained. Yorkshire Fog and 

 Soft Brome are much less abundant under pasture than 

 meadow conditions. 



The Average Poor Yield of Meadows. — During the period 

 1903-1912 the average yield per acre from meadow hay for 

 England and Wales was 23.59 cwt.; for the period 1910-1919 

 the average yield was 21.70 cwt. The unsatisfactory nature of 

 these figures is clearly shown in Table II, in which the yields 

 obtained from the unmanured plots are compared with those 

 recorded from adequately manured plots at 20 centres. 



TABLE II. 





Hay in Cwt. per acre. 



Centre. 









Unmanured. 



Manured. 



Rothamstcd^ 



23-20 



ol-lO'* 



Cirencester^ 



19 -ir, 



3.r.50» 



Cockle Parki 



19-00 



.30-25 » 



Garforth^ 



24-00 



32-25 « 







47-00^ 



Saxmundham"' 



9-50 



29-00« 



8 centres in England and Wales* 



29-30 



38-70^ 



4 „ ., Gloucestershire^ 



18-80 



30-60^ 



Harper Adams"' 



19-50 



32-25 



Scale-Hay ne" 



lo'-bo 



30-75'^ 

 18-50'* 





27-00 



l()-00* 



Herefordshire" 



37-5()'* 







31-00^ 



Average for the 20 centres 



23-00 



34-00 



^Loc. cit. 



■^Farmyard Manure only. 



^Kast Suffolk County Education Committee, Report, March, 1914. 

 ■*Dyer. Dr. Bernard and Shrivell, F. \V. F., Results of Grass ^Manuring Experi- 

 ments. 1910. 



^Harper Adams Agricultural College, Guide to Experiments, llUl, 

 "Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Report No. 2, 1913. 

 •Herefordshire County Council, Farmers RuUetin, No. 5. 1920. 

 ^Complete Artificials with Nitrogen. 



The results indicate that the average produce for the country 

 as a whole comes very close to the average of the unmanured 



* Yellow Rattle, as Gilchrist has shown, can be greatly decreased by 

 early cutting, while it can be almost completely eradicated by a mnnber of 

 years' heavy grazing. Experiments at Bangor and at Aberystwyth have 

 shown that dressings of finely powdered agricultural salt ai)i)liod early in the 

 spring, when the seedlings are just coming up, are able to kill it. 



B 2 



