EXPERIMENTS ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 355 
It will be remembered that on plot 5, with ammonia-salts alone, the herbage became 
more and more gramineous, contained scarcely any leguminous plants, and, with the 
exception of Rumex acetosa, very little of any miscellaneous species. The grasses 
became patchy, stunted, very dark-green, and almost exclusively leafy ; and in the later 
* years the two species, Festuca ovina and Agrostis vulgaris, contributed more than four- 
fifths of the total produce. In the first year of the substitution of the mixed mineral 
manure, including potass, for the ammonia-salts (on plot 6), the appearance of the plot 
entirely changed. Although Festuca ovina and Agrostis were still very prominent, 
several other grasses began to assert themselves ; and now, compared with plot 5, the 
two grasses mentioned are in much less proportion, and others are becoming charac¬ 
teristic of the plot. The Agrostis especially has gone down very much ; Flolcus has 
very much increased ; and Dactylis glomerata, Avena elatior and pubescens, Folium 
perenne, and Poa pratensis, are more favoured than on plot 5. Not only did the 
gramineous herbage become more mixed under the influence of the substitution of the 
mineral for the nitrogenous manure, but the character of development was totally 
different. In the first season the grasses showed a healthy, rather light-green, instead 
of the dark bluish-green, colour. The patchy character has gradually disappeared, and 
there is not only a free bottom growth, but there is more and more tendency to form 
stem and seed. 
The Leguminosm, wdiich together had never contributed half a per cent, to the 
produce under the influence of the ammonia-salts alone, now began to increase in 
prominence ; and, in 1877, they contributed nearly 7 per cent, to the hay. Neither 
Trifolium pratense, nor Trifolium repens, has, however, recovered any prominence in 
the produce. Nor has the deep-rooting Lotus corniculatus increased ; but the creeping 
and comparatively surface-rooting Lathyrus pratensis, which is by far the most pro¬ 
minent leguminous plant on plot 7, where there has been a liberal top-dressing of 
mineral manure, including potass, from the commencement, appears to be rapidly 
gaining ground. 
Of miscellaneous species, too, there has been, since the application of the mineral 
manure, a greater number fairly represented, and a greater proportion and actual 
amount by weight in the produce than wdiere the ammonia-salts are still applied. 
The total number of species of all orders found on the plot has also considerably 
increased under the influence of the mixed mineral manure. 
Thus, since the application of the mixed mineral manure, the flora of the plot has 
become much more complex/ With this, the roots of the herbage would doubtless 
acquire possession of a more extended range of soil and subsoil, and more varied 
powers of underground food-collection would come into play. Whilst, therefore, some 
part of the nitrogen of the increased produce obtained on the substitution of the 
mineral for the nitrogenous manuring would probably be derived from the residue of 
the previous applications, it is probable that the greater part would be due to increased 
power of underground food-collection, by virtue of which not only the immediately 
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