Desirable Agrictdtural Experiments. 
273 
and end of the three years as to show the gain or loss of 
nitrogen in each plot. 
Thetrial of leguminous feeding crops versus roots would be less 
simple than that just described ; but its great importance would 
justify almost any amount of trouble in cariying it out. In 
selecting the leguminous crops for this experiment, suitability 
for winter feeding must be one of the main considerations, as 
they would be grown as substitutes for root crops. Then, as 
clover has already a place in an ordinary rotation, and could 
not well, in the existing state of knowledge, be grown more 
frequently than it is grown, it should not be chosen as one of 
the crops to be tried against roots. It would be desirable to 
try as many of the other leguminous crops as possible if it were 
not for the objection to the complication of the trial ; but, 
bearing in mind the force of that objection, I propose to take 
only two crops to try against mangels and swedes, and common 
winter vetches and lupins are the selections suggested. 
According to Dr. Fream, the white lupin is the variety found 
most advantageous in Germany, although the yellow lupin is 
more commonly grown at present. A few beans might be 
sown with the vetches to hold the crop up. Moderate dress- 
ings of manures, including nitrogen, to be prescribed by the 
Royal Agricultural Society’s Chemist, would be used for the 
root crops, and non-nitrogenous manures for the leguminous 
crops ; all being grown in the same field and on land as 
uniform in fertility as possible. One half of the vetches, lupins, 
and swedes would be fed on the land by sheep when the crops 
were severally mature, either without other food or with the 
same quantity of other food per sheep ; the increase in live- 
weight being recorded and valued. The vetches, and possibly 
the lupins also, should be allowed to advance to the green-pod 
stage before being fed or cut, as vetches at least are not till 
then in the most valuable condition. After the feeding the land 
would be ploughed and left fallow until the autumn. 
The second half of each of the leguminous crops would be made 
into silage, while the remaining half of the swedes and the whole 
of the mangels would be carted off the land. These respective 
products would be separately consumed in yards or sheds by 
different lots of cattle, evenly selected, and each receiving the same 
kinds and quantities per head of dry food ; the increase in live 
weight of each lot being taken and valued when the product ap- 
propriated for it was finished. The same quantity of litter per acre 
of product to be consumed should be supplied to each lot of cattle, 
the manure made by each lot being carted back to the land 
from which the crop partly producing it was taken. However 
