648 Abstract Heport of Arp-icultural Discussions. 
Gilbert's plots on the previous day, he was much struck with the 
mauuer in which the experiments were being carried out, and also 
^vith the scale on which they were conducted. The meadow was 
divided into two parts ; one part being left in its natural state, and 
the other staked off with a view to the experiments. Among the 
natural gi'asses he saw almost every si^ecies of gi-ass which was usually 
met with, and that too on land not of extraordinary quality. This 
was a very striking fact. If a man went from one end of England to 
the other, say from Mr. Lawes's farm to the Land's End in Cornwall, 
he would find that almost every ordinary meadow contained the same 
species of gTasses. Occasionally one met with gi-asses of a pecidiar 
character, but real gi'asses were nearly always alike. There was this 
important fact to be observed with regard to the proportion of the 
different species. In one part of England they would find that one 
kind of grass had almost taken possession of the land, other kinds 
being barely represented. That fact was interesting in connection 
with these exj^eriments ; if ho took two species of grass, one being, 
say, the Festuca pratensis, a very rich grass indeed, and if he examined 
a plot and found that gi'ass prevailing, and compared it vriih. land 
which was not manm-ed, he would sec on the immanured land that 
grass largely represented. So, again, with regard to the Festuca durius- 
cula ; in the part which had been so highly manm-ed and which had 
the mixture of phosphate ^ith alkalies, ho found that the Festuca 
duriuscnia was not present in such largo quantities as the Festuca 
ipratcnsis. Where the Festuca jyratensis prevailed, there was a distinct 
kind of manuring from that which was adopted where the Festuca 
duriuscula prevailed. Had he been at all aware that he shotdd be 
called upon to speak, he might have entered into the subject more 
fully. He must say that he entirely agi'eed with Professor Voelcker 
as to the advantage of visiting the plots, and that what he saw on the 
previous day convinced him of the very great advantage of field 
lectm-es on agricidtural subjects in comparison with lectures in a 
room. One thing which struck him in examining the plots was, 
that in the case of impoverished pastui'cs there A\'as a great variety 
of species mixed together, not yielding any very large quantity, and 
probably the quality not being very good ; whereas, as soon as the 
land has been dressed with certain manm-cs a sort of war of ex- 
termination commenced. Not that the poorer grasses could evcr^be 
entirely eradicated ; but when good grasses had begun to spring up 
in any quantity the poorer species declined. How far chemistry 
would accoimt for it he did not know, but it would be easy to make a 
list of grasses and give to each its positive status with regard to 
nutritive power, and from what he saw the previous day he came to 
the conclusion that the use of good mixed manures almost completely 
di'ives out some species of grass and encourages the growth of others 
to a very extraordinary extent. It was an important fact that on 
these experimental plots the grasses had actually been mo^Mi every 
year. In mowing gi-asses every year it woxild be found that almost 
all the good and more important species would be, if not driven out 
altogether, brought into a state of pauperism ; they became so small 
