on I'crmancnt Meadow Land. 
271 
crops of hay, contained less tiian 2 per cent., and a very few- 
species, of Miscellaneous Weedy herbage. 
So much then for the results of this enquiry into the compara- 
tive development of the different plants of which the complex 
herbage of a INIeadow is made up, according to the manure em- 
ployed. The subject has been treated of with much more of 
system and detail than would otherwise have been necessary, 
inasmuch as, so far as we are aware, tiiis is the first attempt that 
has been made, to trace the influence of special manures upon the 
individual plants of a complex herbage. 
Tt must not be concluded, however, that the degree in which a 
particular description of manure develops any particular plant, 
when it is thus grown side by side with many others, is necessarily 
the same, either actually or relatively to those beside it, that it 
would be, were each plant grown separately, with such manure. 
The natural habit of a plant, its relative stage of progi^ess at the 
different periods of the season, and its range of distribution both 
above and under ground accordingly, must indirectly affect the 
degree of luxuriance of the other plants associated with it. But, 
as it is in this collective way, that the various plants are grown 
in our permanent meadows, it is the action of different manures 
upon their development under these complex conditions, that is 
of the most interest to the farmer. 
Again, the conditions of soil, situation, season, and of the 
original distribution and predominance of the respective plants, 
must, to a great extent, affect their relative development by different 
manures, when they are thus grown side by side. There is, more- 
over, evidence in the general observations made, or notes recorded, 
on the produce of the first two years in the experiments now in 
question, that there has been a jwogression from year to year, in 
the greater development of some plants, and in the reduction, or 
even exclusion, of others, the conditions of manuring remaining 
the same. It would appear, indeed, that great caution should be 
exercised in tlie application of artificial manures to good feeding 
pastures, lest the effect should be, to increase the growth of certain 
grasses of inferior quality, and to diminish or exclude those to 
which the high feeding value is attributable. 
It is obviously very important, not only that the progressive 
action of the different manures should be carefully investigated 
for years to come, in the case of the experiments on the Rotliam- 
sted Meadow-land, but that experiments of a similar kind should 
be conducted by others, in different localities, and on different 
descriptions of soil. So far as our own part in the matter is con- 
cerned, we hope to follow up a subject which seems fraught with 
so much interest both in a practical and scientific point of view. 
