Comparative Effects of different Manures on Grass Lands. 649 
and pool" tbut it would require the piercing eye of an cxpeiienced 
botanist to distinguish them ; but let the land have been niamu'ed 
with different maniu'cs, and it would be found that, according to the 
manui'e employed, whether it. was a manure that would produce 
muscle, or a manure that would produce mineral, or whatever might 
bo its nature, they would have the grasses which would produce those 
different ingredients to the fullest possible extent. This had strack 
him in the case of an estate, with respect to which he had recently 
been consulted, called Buscot Park, where there were several 
thoiisand acres which were either being converted from arable into 
gi-ass lands ; or, being grass lands, were being, as far as ])ossible, 
improved. On that estate some of the grasses were excessively poor. 
The question came before liim, whether there would in that case be 
any advantage in taking off the tiu-f, digging the land underncathj and 
x'etuiTiing the turf again. Another question which he had to consider, 
and it was an important practical point, was whether, when the turf 
was bad, showing a preponderance of poor material, it would be the 
quickest method of making good gi-asses to plough up the land alto- 
gether, and resow it ^"ith grasses. To these questions he was obliged 
to give this answer : that digging the soil and retm-ning the tuif woiild 
perhaps cause some little appearance of freshness for the lirst year, 
but that it would do a great deal of injury to the turf. For with all 
the appliances of manure, there was one thing v.hich ought to be 
particularly attended to in relation to the improvement of grasses, and 
that was mechanical action. Without sufficient mechanical pressure, 
grass would grow up very much in the foiiu of jungle. There should, 
therefore, be an endeavour to make the different parts of the soil 
adhere as closely as wool in making a piece of cloth. Then, ^Yith 
regard to the operation of merely digging the laud, he could only 
reassert what he thought had. been clearly proved by Dr. Voelcker, 
that that would add nothing to the staple of the soil. Something was 
of coui'se wanted where the gi-asses were poor, but the process of 
ploughing would add nothing to the quality of the soil, while on the 
other hand the compact natm-e of the turf would be destroyed. 
Moreover, while the land lay fallow a great deal of mechanical 
pressure would be necessary to get it into a state of improvement. 
With regard to the second point, he saw quite sufficient in the expe- 
rimental plots on the previous day to thi-ow great light upon it. The 
application of certain manures appeared to have tumed the gi'asses 
topsy-turvy ; that was to say, taking the same space for a comparison, 
there was 50 per cent, in jiarts of the field which were not manured at 
all ; that in other parts of the same extent there was 70 or 80 per cent., 
with only one or two years' manm-iug. In that v/ay it had been 
proved that inasmuch as in almost all turf, however poor it might be, 
some of the better grasses were represented along with the poorer, 
whenever they began trying to ameliorate those gi-asses they would 
see evidence that an amelioration was taking place, in the circmnstance 
that the poorer grasses were gi-adually dying out, and that in dying 
out they not only afforded spaces for the better gi-asses to grow but 
their substance afforded a manui-e on which the better grasses throve. 
