6/6 Improvement of Poor Pasture. [feb., 



that would be anticipated by any farmer who applied manures 

 to his pastures. But probably the important fact would be 

 generally overlooked that, in order to obtain such benefits as the 

 manuring would be capable of producing, some changes might 

 require to be made in the management of the pastures adapted 

 to the change brought about in their character and productive- 

 ness. 



Variation in Gain in Early and Late Summer. — An examina- 

 tion of the variations in the monthly gains of weight brings out 

 the remarkable and suggestive fact that increases made by the 

 sheep were much greater in the first eight weeks of the summer 

 than in the subsequent twelve weeks. Thus on the basic slag 

 plot the gain in the first two months on the average of four years 

 was 275 lb. compared with 170 lb. in the last three months, on 

 the superphosphate plot 276 lb. compared with 148 lb., and on 

 the unmanured plot 223 lb. compared with 127 lb. Moreover, 

 on the unmanured plot the monthly gains were : — First month, 

 142 lb.; second month, 81 lb.; third month, 39 lb.; fourth 

 month, 58 lb. ; and fifth month, 30 lb. 



The fact that sheep put on to summer pastures make such a 

 very large proportion of their increase in the first four weeks is 

 one of very great interest and suggestiveness to all practical 

 graziers, to whatever cause it may be attributed. It can hardly 

 be attributed wholly to a marked superiority of the pastures in 

 the early part of the season, though, doubtless, the grasses 

 deteriorate in feeding value as the season progresses, and this 

 probably accounts wholly for the small accretion of weight made 

 by the sheep in the third month, which falls about the seeding 

 time of the plants on such pastures. The improvement found 

 in the fourth month was due, probably, to the fact that the 

 grasses had then got past the seeding stage, and were once more 

 making a fresh and vigorous growth. But the great superiority 

 of the gains in the first month can hardly be wholly credited to 

 a superiority in the nutritive quality of the grasses, which in the 

 second month should not have been much less nutritious. The 

 chief causes were doubtless physiological, and were to be found 

 in the animals themselves, and not in the pastures on which they 

 fed. But the fact remains one of the most interesting that has 

 been revealed in these experiments, and Professor Wright observes 



