EXPERIMENTS ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 293 
tions, we can liardly fail to learn not only much that is of interest in reference to the 
growth of the mixed herbage of permanent grass land, but also something of the 
relative positions of the different plants that are grown separately, in alternation with 
one another, in the artificial rotations adopted on arable land. 
The botanical results are, moreover, of much independent interest, both by the facts 
which they already contribute, and by the incentive and direction they may give to 
future research. 
Lastly, the chemistry of the subject will be found to offer many points of interest, 
in regard—to the variation in the percentage composition of the produce according to the 
manure applied, to the description of plants developed, and to the character of their 
development; to the availableness of the constituents artificially supplied, and to the 
amount and limit of the natural resources of the soil, both actually and compared with 
the results obtained when individual species are grown in arable culture. 
It will be readily understood that the record, and the discussion, of the agricultural, 
the botanical, and the chemical history of about 20 plots, in 20 different seasons, must 
involve much detail; and although it is obvious that facts special to anyone of the three 
main divisions of the subject may require for their elucidation reference to those of one 
or both of the others, it is still believed that it will conduce to clearness, and reduce 
unavoidable repetition, to maintain the divisions proposed as far as possible. It may 
further be explained that, in order to simplify the discussion, and as far as is consistent 
with clearness to relieve it of embarrassing details, the whole of the numerical results 
are systematically arranged in tables given in the Appendix, to which reference will 
be made, and only such quotations or summaries will be embodied with the text as are 
necessary for illustration. 
PART I.—THE AGRICULTURAL RESULTS. 
In entering upon the discussion of the so-designated agricultural results, it is 
necessary to premise that almost from the commencement of the experiments it became 
apparent that more would be learnt, even of purely agricultural value, by continuing 
them in such manner as to obtain data bearing upon the important questions of the 
annual assimilation of constituents, the resources and the exhaustion of the soil, and 
the description of plants, and general characters of the herbage developed, under 
different conditions of season and of manuring, than by simply adapting the manures 
to obtain, as a direct result, produce which, considered either in regard to quantity, to 
quality, or to both, would be, in an economical sense, the most valuable. In fact, in 
some of the experiments conditions have been maintained which, though yielding very 
large amounts of produce, have done so not only at a great sacrifice of the quality of 
the hay, but at an entirely unremunerative cost ; whilst, on the other hand, in some 
cases very high quality has been obtained, but again at far too high a pecuniary cost. 
In other words, the design of the arrangements has not been to secure results which 
