212 The Condition of Permanent Meadows. [June, 



plots at the centres under review, thus suggesting that a large 

 proportion of our meadow lands are left unmanured from year 

 to year. It will also be noted that the increases due to full 

 dressings of artificials or of dung are very substantial. If 

 individual centres are examined it will be found that even 

 fields giving yields well above the average of the country are 

 capable of considerable increases under adequate manuring. 

 Thus Irish experiments show increases of 20 cwt. per 

 acre on fields giving 40 and 42 cwt. from the unmanured 

 plots.* Dyer and Shrivell's figures show an increase of 6 cwt. 

 from 37 cwt.; a field yielding 69 cwt. (unmanured), however, 

 showed slight decreases under all systems of manuring.! 



It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the best 

 manurial dressings for meadow hay, but rather to emphasize 

 the need of radically improving our meadow lands, and to 

 indicate some of the methods which are applicable with a view 

 to this end. Nothing is of greater importance than an 

 increased use of manures. + 



Meadow versus Seeds Hay. — It has been suggested that 

 much of our meadow land would benefit by being used as 

 pasture for at least a number of years, but in order to do 

 this it would be necessary to produce more hay by other means. 

 It has been pointed out that seeds hay is only taken from 

 about 28 per cent, of the total area cut for hay, yet seeds hay 

 on the average of the country as a whole yields 6 cwt. per 

 acre more than meadow hay. The relative yields from meadow 

 hay and seeds hay for typical areas are set out in Table III. 



It will be noted that in the main those areas where the 

 leys are not typically left down for long show the greatest 

 increase in favour of seeds hay. This is of course to be 

 expected, since the first year's cut of seeds is usually the 

 heaviest. In Central Wales, Derbyshire and Westmorland, 

 where the leys are left down for several years, the seeds hay 

 yields are 5 cwt. better than the meadow hay, despite the fact 

 that the seeds mixtures employed are usually inadequate. 



It is interesting to note that Lancashire gives the heaviest 



Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, 

 Leaflet No. 37. 



t Dyer and Shrivell, loc. cit. The soil was a somewhat heavy loam and 

 the field was an old pasture. 



X For particulars as to the best means of manuring meadow hay the reader 

 should refer to the publications already cited, to one of the Ministry's 

 Miscellaneous Publications, No. 24, Tlw Improvement of Grassland, and to an 

 article on the Increased Production of Grass by Gervaise Turnbull, Vol. XXVI 

 (p. 607) of this Journal. 



