32 Influence on the Production of Mutton 



interesting to observe how immediately the sheep bear witness ; 

 ... on Plot 2 the increase of weight per sheep in the fourth 

 month was 9" i lbs. No other plot approached that, not even 

 where they were having cake, and the total increase for the 

 fourth, fifth, and sixth months together was 17 '6 lb., which 

 again is higher than any other plot." In his report 

 for the next season, the eighth, Mr. Ashcroft thus ex- 

 presses himself*: — "Plot 2 (four tons of lime per acre 

 for 1901, and 5 cwt. basic slag, June, 1907) furnished 

 the most striking feature of the year, and I might well add 

 of the whole course of the experiment. The addition of 

 5 cwt. Basic Slag, June, 1907, to a plot always up till then 

 prejudicially affected in growth of herbage by a heavy 

 dressing of lime in 1901, worked a marvellous effect. The 

 change in the appearance of the plot had already begun by 

 August, 1907, as I pointed out in my report for that year, 

 but as soon as ever any chance of growth came this spring 

 the plot became full of clover herbage, which grew so 

 luxuriantly that 10 sheep were increased to 12 at the weighing 

 in May, and to 14 at the weighing, July 2. The contrast 

 between Plot 2 and all the other plots, so deficient, compara- 

 tively speaking, in clovers and bottom herbage, was extra- 

 ordinary, and perhaps all the more so in a season little favour- 

 able to growth. From being at the very bottom of all the 

 manured plots, and very often lower than the untreated one, 

 Plot 2 jumps at once to the top, and gives a total increase 

 of 594 lbs., a result which has never been obtained any season 

 on any of the manured plots, and only exceeded by the sheep 

 receiving 1 lb. of cake per day on Plot 1 in 1907 and 1908. 

 In the third month the sheep on Plot 2 averaged an increase 

 of 20' 1 lbs. per sheep, beating the sheep on Plot 1 getting a 

 pound of cake, which averaged 18 lbs. per sheep. The sub- 

 plots cut and weighed give the same evidence; the average 

 weight of grass cut on this plot for seven years is far and 

 away less than that of any other : very little more than a half 

 of the weight cut on the untreated plot (6)— to be exact, as 

 15 to 24 — and yet, turning to this year's tables, it will be seen 

 that considerably the highest weight is cut from No. 2, and 

 the weight is more than double the amount produced on 

 the untreated one, 511 lbs. against 230 lbs.; this result was 



* Jour. Bath and West Soc, 1909, p. 112. 



