of Manures Applied to Pasture. 



3 



ments about to be described indicate that certain types of 

 land of low value can be made to carry double their present 

 stock, and not only so, but each animal will produce much 

 more meat in a grazing season. The meat-yield of such 

 areas can therefore be more than doubled — in some cases 

 quadrupled — with greatly increased profits to the occupier, 

 and with much advantage to the country. 



In the North of England, where the writer had the advan- 

 tage of working through most of the "nineties," there are 

 wide stretches of poor, high-lying, cold pastures that have 

 gone out of cultivation during the past fifty years. It seemed 

 to be not unreasonable to hope that such land could be 

 profitably improved, and in a paper read before the Newcastle 

 Farmers' Club in 1892,* the following suggestions were 

 submitted for the consideration of the meeting: — 



" What we want most of all in this country are agricultural 

 experiments conducted on the following lines : — Given a 

 certain area of grass-land of inferior feeding properties, and 

 as equal as possible throughout, let it be divided into two- 

 acre plots, and let duplicate plots be dressed with various 

 kinds of manures, alone and in combination. Then accurately 

 weigh a number of sheep and place four or five on each 

 plot, and at the end of the summer let the various lots of 

 sheep be weighed, so that we may ascertain how they have 

 thriven. Let the same experiment be repeated each year on 

 the same land — either with or without the application of 

 additional quantities of manure — and at the end of ten years, 

 if not sooner, information of a definite and most valuable 

 description will be forthcoming." 



Experiments at Cockle Park. 



Partly with the view of providing facilities for the conduct 

 of such an experiment, the County Council of Northumber- 

 land decided to lease a farm, and at Michaelmas, 1896, they 

 entered on the occupation of Cockle Park, a farm on the 

 Duke of Portland's estate near Morpeth. This farm of 400 

 acres is situated in a district whose main feature is second- 

 rate grass-land, and about three-quarters of the farm itself is 

 pasture of this description. A field ("Tree Field," Fig. 1) 



* T/ie Manuring- of Grass Land, p. 8. 



