HEPORT ON VABIOUS MANUEES AT CniSWICK. 
23 
several boxes, tlie soil itself being procured from Ealiug, that in 
the Society's grounds being deemed too rich for the purpose. 
" In conformity with these recommendations, seeds of the various 
plants above named were sown broadcast in the several boxes on 
the first day of April, 1869. The seeds in due time germinated ; 
the plants grew, were thinned and weeded ; but no water was artifi- 
cially supplied to them during the whole course of the experiments. 
Observations were taken, from time to time, as to the condition 
and progress of the plants ; and it is the object of this communi- 
cation to furnish a summary of the results thus obtained. The 
observations taken were very numerous, and were made with much 
care and at a great expenditure of time. The observers who 
noted the progress of the plants were Dr. Masters, Mr. Willis 
(assistant in Mr. Lawes's laboratory), and Mr. Barron ; and the 
following remarks are based upon the materials thus accumulated. 
In spite of the pains bestowed on these experiments, there are 
certain circumstances which, to some extent, impair their value, 
and which it is necessary to allude to in this place in order that 
the reader may judge for himself what amount of confidence he can 
put in them. In the first place, the soil was of itself too rich — the 
plants in the boxes without manure, when examined by Dr. Grilbert, 
having been found to have taken up large quantities of certain 
important constituents of manure from the soil itself, whilst others 
had taken up more than was supplied in the manure. The plants 
were sown much too thickly, and the thinning was delayed too 
long. The seed was not in all cases good ; thus, while ' rogues ' 
came up in nearly all the boxes, in one or two cases they predo- 
minated. The boxes that should have contained Poa pratensis 
were full of P. annua, while those which should have been devoted 
to P. trivialis had also a large proportion of P. annua. 
" In spite of these drawbacks it is hoped that the record of these 
experiments will not be without some value, if only as furnishing 
suggestions. Though the conditions were in some respects faulty, 
yet all the plants were treated alike, and the comparative observa- 
tions, as before stated, were carefully and laboriously made by in- 
dependent observers, and their records correlated and digested, so 
far as regards the chemical points, by Dr. Gilbert, and, as to the 
botanical and physiological questions involved, by Dr. Masters. 
It is hoped, therefore, that the results now related may, in spite of 
their occasional discrepancies, serve as points of comparison in 
future trials." 
YOL. III. 0 
