Improvement of Poor Pastures. 



43 



received cotton seed meal, and £g 3 s. 3d. for Lot 2, which 

 received the decorticated cotton cake ; the difference in cost 

 representing the difference between the price of the meal and 

 the cake alone. These figures give an average cost of 

 £2 4s. 3fd. per head for Lot 1, and £2 5s. 9fd. for Lot 2. 



On reference to the figures giving the total increase in live 

 weight, it will be observed that the augmentation in the case 

 of Lot 2 was 1 cwt. 1 qr. 3 lb. in excess of that reported for 

 Lot 1, and this margin in favour of the cake-fed beasts repre- 

 sents (at 3 is. 6d. per cwt.) a gain of £2. But the cotton cake 

 consumed cost 6s. more than the cotton seed meal, so that 

 the net gain in favour of the cattle fed on cotton seed cake 

 amounted to £1 14s., or 8s. 6d. per head. 



Improvement of Poor Pastures. 



The third annual report issued by the Department of Agri- 

 culture of the University of Cambridge contains particulars 

 of certain experiments which are being conducted in Essex, 

 Northamptonshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, under the 

 supervision of the Department, for the improvement of poor 

 pasture as tested by the effects on sheep. These experiments 

 have been planned on the same lines as those which have 

 been carried out during the past four seasons on the Cockle 

 Park farm of the Northumberland County Council, an account 

 of which has already been given in this Journal.* The 

 object is to determine the effects of manurial substances on 

 pasture, not only through their influence on the weight and 

 botanical character of the herbage, but chiefly through the 

 live- weight gain made by sheep with which it is proposed, 

 annually, to stock the land. 



Each experimental field selected is divided into plots of 

 three acres, which are surrounded by stock-proof fences, and 

 provided with a supply of drinking water. The soil has been 

 analysed, and the herbage — obtained from an area of one- 

 twentieth of an acre, fenced off on each plot — has been 



* See Journal of the Board of Agriculture, Vol. V. p. 300; Vol. VI. p. 293 ; Vol. 

 VII. p. 311. 



