70 
ROYAL nORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
manures do not afford much increase ; but, with the exception of 
Iv 0. 5, with ammonia-salts and mineral manure together, there is 
comparatively high percentage of mineral matter in the substance 
produced, showing immaturity, and consequently capability of 
further accumulation had the season permitted. 
We now come to plants of the Natural Order Leguminosce ; 
and, by way of introduction to the results, it may be well to state 
that a given weight of the dry substance of such of the species, 
at any rate, as are cultivated in agriculture, contains, as a rule, 
two or more times as much nitrogen as an equal weight of any 
of the grasses experimented upon, supposing the specimens com- 
pared to be in somewhat equal condition of maturation. Not- 
withstanding this, whilst nitrogenous manures, whether in the 
form of ammonia-salts or nitrates, as a rule produce very marked 
effects on the luxuriance of growth of the grasses, on the 
clovers and allied plants ammonia-salts, if not injurious, have 
not, as a rule, any beneficial effect ; and the nitrate has much less 
than on the grasses. On the other hand, the common expe- 
rience is, that mineral manures, and especially those rich in 
potass, much more characteristically benefit Leguminous than 
they do G-raminaceous plants. 
Diagram 13. Trifolium pratense. The plants in all six boxes 
were luxuriant and more or less crowded. Still the mineral 
manures gave notable increase ; and, excepting in the case of 
No. 5 (minerals and ammonia, from which it would seem the 
• » plants suffered), the nitrogenous manures gave a further incre- 
. ment of increase, and the nitrate somewhat more than the am- 
^ monia-salts. In fact, the effects of nitrogenous manures were, 
upon the whole, greater than common experience has shown with 
plants of the family to which this belongs, when they are grown 
on soilsless rich in the mineral constituents required. The varia- 
tion in the proportion of mineral matter is not great ; but the per- 
centage is higher under all the manured conditions than under 
the unmanured; and from the greatly increased development 
of underground feeders under the manured conditions, we have 
additional reason for supposing that the late-sown, crowded, and 
luxuriant plants had not attained to the maximum growth at the 
time of the final cutting of the season. 
Diagram 14. Lotus corniculatiis, — This plant gave much more 
produce under corresponding manuring-conditions than either 
of the other leguminous species — much more than any of the 
