and Permanent Pasture. 
83 
quality of any of the experimental plots, the land was left in a 
better agricultural condition after the first cutting than where no 
manure at all was applied, and a much smaller weight of green 
clover-seeds was reaped at first ; for on Plot 10, the second cut- 
ting yielded nearly 5 tons of green produce, in addition to the first, 
whereas the two unmanured plots No. 5 and No. 11 yielded only 
2 tons 15 cwts. of additional produce in the second cutting. The 
liberal supply of available potash and soluble phosphates thus 
had the effect of greatly increasing the weight of the crop, im- 
proving its quality, and leaving the soil in a better agricultural 
condition for the next crop. 
8. Again, it will be noticed that on Plot 6, on which muriate 
of potash alone was employed, the second cutting weighed more 
than the second cuttings of the other plots, except that of Plot 10, 
where superphosphate was added to the potash-salt. It therefore 
appears that the beneficial effects of potash on soils so poor in 
this element as the land on which these experiments were tried, 
lias a more permanently beneficial effect than some of the ferti- 
lising matters which were used on other plots. 
9. On the other hand, nitrate of soda unmistakably had a 
tendency to exhaust the land ; for it will be noticed that on both 
the Plots 1 and 9, on which nitrate of soda was used, the second 
cuttings weighed less than those of the unmanured plots. 
As already mentioned, the nitrate of soda on Plots 1 and 9 
•encouraged the growth of very coarse and inferior rye-grass which 
completely smothered the clover-plant. 
When I saw the experimental field late in the autumn of 1867, 
after harvest, the contrast in the appearance of the various ex- 
perimental plots was most striking. Whilst the land on Plots 
1 and 10 appeared quite burned up and exhausted, and scarcely 
any clover was visible, the potash-plots could be readily distin- 
guished by a dark-green colour and healthy look of the remaining 
herbage in which clover predominated. 
We may thus learn from these experiments that nitrate of soda 
alone, or even in conjunction with superphosphate, should not be 
nsed as a top-dressing for artificial grasses on very poor sandy 
soils, like the soil of the experimental field, inasmuch as nitrates 
hasten the exhaustion of the potash naturally present in such 
soils in very small proportions. Indeed nitrate of soda and, in a 
minor degree, ammoniacal salts, are the worst artificial manures 
that can be used under such circumstances. It may further be 
observed that no just estimate can be formed of the real value of 
a special manure, if no account be taken of the condition in which 
the land is left after the crop has been removed from it. This 
is not the first time that I have noticed this tendency of nitrate 
of soda to produce rapid exhaustion of naturally poor soils, and I 
would therefore strongly recommend farmers to abstain from the 
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