26 Influence on the Production of Mutton 



supplied to animals grazing land which itself has been im- 

 proved by slag. Under these circumstances the nitrogen 

 applied to the land through the manurial residues stimulates 

 the grass, but not the clovers ; the consequence being that 

 the latter are rapidly suppressed, and the most valuable factor 

 in a pasture is destroyed. Much light is thrown on this 

 subject in an experiment which is being conducted at Cockle 

 Park on a large area of land adjoining Tree Field, and a 

 tentative report by Professor Gilchrist will be found in the 

 Northumberland Bulletin, No. 14. (1910). 



The Effects of Common Lime. 



This is an old-established ameliorative agent, and many 

 farmers expressed the view that it would give a good account 

 of itself in competition with other forms of manure. Plot 2 

 at Cockle Park, Sevington, and Cransley was treated, for 

 the first year, with ordinary burned lime at the rate of 4 tons 

 per acre, which at Cockle Park was repeated for the seventh 

 season. It became evident, as time went on, that any profit 

 from the use of this substance was hopeless, and the plot 

 at Sevington and Cransley was given over after the sixth 

 year to another object. (See pp. 31-33.) But at Cockle Park 

 the plot is still continued on the original plan, and in the 

 fifteenth season since the first dose of lime was applied the 

 position of this substance is practically as hopeless as ever. 



Table XII. — Effects for Six Years of 4 tons of Lirr,e 

 per acre, applied in first year, costing ,£3. 





Live-wtight 

 Increase per Acre 

 due to Lime. 



Value of Increase 

 at 3</. per lb. 



Loss per Acre 

 in Six Years. 





lb. 



£ s. d. 



£ s. d. 



Cockle Park 



66 



0 16 6 



2 3 6 



Sevington 



25 



0 6 3 



2 13 9 



Cransley 



43 



0 10 9 



2 9 3 



In Table XII. I have set out the figures for the first six years 

 at each of the stations that had a lime plot. The effects are 

 very small, but even on the chalk soil at Sevington they are 

 not altogether absent. The recovery of outlay, however, is 

 so slow that as an agent for improving such pastures as we 

 are now considering, common burned lime, used alone and 

 at anything like the rate of 4 tons per acre, may be left 



