1909.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 785 



again dressed at the rate of 6 cwt. per acre in 1906, and the results were 

 very marked. Although the change was not so great as after the first 

 dressing, yet there was a decided increase of clover plants. The full 

 effect will be more apparent in the second year. 



Effect of Various Qualities of Basic Slag (Essex Education Com., 

 Field Expts., 1906). — It is stated that the experimental plots at two 

 centres, upon which four grades of slag are being compared, continue to 

 show appreciable and persistent differences. The yields up to the time 

 of the report showed that the 35-38 per cent, grade gave the best result, 

 there being very little difference between the 42-45 per cent, and 

 30-32 per cent, grades. The yield from the 22-26 per cent, grade was the 

 lowest in each case. 



Manuring of Meadow Hay (Cumberland and Westmorland Farm 

 School, Annual Report, 1907). — Trial plots have been under experiment 

 here for ten years. The practice has been to manure them every third year, 

 and they were last manured in 1905. The crop of 1906 was exceptionally 

 good, owing to the weather, and there was little difference in the yield 

 from the plot which has had no manure for ten years, and the four 

 plots receiving artificial manures. The plot receiving farmyard manure 

 (10 tons), however, gave 15 cwt. per acre more than the unmanured plot. 



Manuring Grass Land (Univ. Coll., Reading, Expts. at the College 

 Farm, 1907).- — An acre of old grass land has been divided into ten plots, 

 and is treated annually with various manures to test the effect of the 

 fertilisers on the quality and quantity of the herbage. The results are 

 given for 1907. 



Laying Down of Permanent Grass Land (Univ. Coll., Reading, 

 Expts. at the College Farm, 1907). — In order to increase the amount 

 of grass land on the College Farm, 22 acres were laid down with 

 permanent grass in 1904, and the opportunity was taken to sow a 

 series of eight one-acre plots with various mixtures of seeds, together 

 with a duplicate series of half-acre plots. For permanent mixtures it is 

 usually supposed to be best to sow seeds of the durable grasses enough 

 to cover the ground to the extent of 60 per cent., and not to have more 

 than 40 per cent, of the ground occupied by clovers and the shorter-lived 

 grasses. If more of the clovers and short-lived grasses are added these 

 tend to produce a large yield in the first few seasons, but they may 

 endanger the permanence of the pasture by smothering out many of the 

 more durable and finer grasses, and ultimately die out, leaving the ground 

 more or less bare and open to the spread of weeds. To test these points 

 systematic variations, which are given in the report, were made in the 

 composition of the mixtures. A very similar experiment was started 

 in 1906, in connection with another field, which was also put in per- 

 manent grass. 



Formation of Permanent Pasture and the Herbage of Old Pastures 

 (Camb. Univ. Dept. of Agric, Guide to Expts., 1907). — About 46 acres 

 at Burgoyne's Farm were laid down to permanent pasture in 1901; 

 the seed mixture used is given, and the effect of the subsequent manuring 

 is described. 



Another experiment in the formation of permanent pasture has been 

 made at Abbotsley in Huntingdonshire, where eight different seed- 

 mixtures were sown in 1900 on a field of poor clay soil, and subjected to 

 four different manurial treatments. The land has been grazed since 1901, 

 but in 1905 sub-plots of ^th of an acre each were fenced off and cut 



