90 
Field Experiments on Clover-Seeds 
season. Nitrate of soda is especially apt to burn up vegetation 
in dry weather, and for this reason should always be used with 
caution and sparingly. Salt, on the other hand, is evidently 
beneficial to grass-crops on light land in a dry season. 
In accordance with the experiments made at Escrick in the 
preceding year, sulphate of ammonia, and in a still higher degree 
nitrate of soda, encouraged the growth of the Italian and Pacey's 
rye-grass to an extraordinary extent at the expense of clover ; 
whilst the mixture of muriate of potash and superphosphate, as 
in the preceding year, not only produced the heaviest crop of 
any of the eleven experimental plots, but also surpassed them all 
in quality. 
Of the green produce of Plot lO, dressed with such a mixture, 
clovers formed a large proportion of the bulk, and both the 
clover and rye-grass were fine and succulent. Mr. Coleman 
informs me that the hay made on Plot 10 would be worth fully 
11. a ton more than that made on Plot 1, dressed with nitrate 
of soda. 
The Escrick experiments in 1868 thus afford another proof 
that on poor, sandy soils we cannot hope to grow a paying and 
nutritious crop of clover unless we supply the soil, in some shape 
or other, with potash and available phosphoric acid : two con- 
stituents which are greatly needed in such soils, and which, 
therefore, have a better effect than any other fertilising matters 
that may be applied to the land. 
Experiments on Artificial Grasses (Clover- Seeds), made in 1868 
at Tyrioarnhaite Farm, in the Parish of St. Agnes, Redruth^ 
Cornwall, hy Mr. J. Sidney Davey. 
In the next place, I have briefly to report the results of 
another series of experiments which Mr. Sidney Davey readily 
undertook for me and carefully carried out in the past season. 
The same top-dressings which were employed in all the pre- 
ceding experiments having been supplied, they were sown on the 
11th of April on eleven plots, l-20th of an acre each plot. 
The soil of the experimental field was a naturally poor, sandy 
loam, containing but little lime and only a moderate amount of 
clay. 
The grass-crop was cut on the 8th of June, and the green 
produce on the same day. The extraordinary dry summer of 
1868 checked the growth of the grass so much that it was not 
considered worth while to make a second cutting. 
The following Table embodies the results of the weighings of 
the several clover-plots : — 
